NFL Draft prank calls became a popular thing for some odd reason this year. We all know about the prank call that Shedeur Sanders received, which allegedly came from Jax Ulbrich, the 21-year-old son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator, Jeff Ulbrich. But Sanders wasn’t the only one getting faux calls during the biggest night of their careers.
In an interview on FanSided's "Stacking the Box Podcast," Ashton Jeanty revealed he received a prank call as well about getting drafted. Apparently, Jeanty received the faux call that the Dallas Cowboys were trading up and swapping picks with the Las Vegas Raiders to take the Heisman Trophy finalist. The only problem is, Jeanty got the call after he was drafted.
Jeanty didn’t even acknowledge the failed attempt to pull one over on him and he just hung up. He didn’t even bother entertaining it. Jeanty wasn’t going to let some immature phone call throw off the biggest night of his career.
Ashton Jeanty didn't let NFL Draft night prank call away from his moment
Jeanty was one of the most prolific running backs in the history of college football. He was a Heisman finalist and had one of the best rushing seasons ever, falling just short of Barry Sanders’ record for rushing yards in a season.
He knew he was going to get drafted on Thursday and there was a lot of speculation around who would be taking the feature back. The Jacksonville Jaguars traded up to get Travis Hunter and the Cleveland Browns went defense with their first pick.
Jeanty wasn’t going to fall past the Raiders most likely. But there was speculation, the Dallas Cowboys were interested in getting a running back after having a miserable running game last season. So it wasn’t farfetched for the jokester to try to fool Jeanty. But the timing was off.
Kudos to Jeanty for not making a big deal about it and having some fun with it. He didn’t make a big deal about it at all and just laughed it off, ignored it and moved on. That said, the NFL has to have a better grip on the phone numbers getting leaked.
Maybe it’s always been a thing and became more prevalent this year. Either way, the NFL has to do a better job of keeping these things in tact. The last thing you want to do is take away from a player's draft experience.
For a player like Sanders, it’s a gut-punch. Jeanty was able to make light of the situation, though. I guess nothing will phase him as he prepares for his NFL debut. If there’s anything we learned about Jeanty from NFL Draft night is he can smell nonsense from a mile away and it won’t take away from his moment.
Ashton Jeanty spoke to FanSided on behalf of USAA.