NFL Draft fallout: Sanders’ prankgate might be the league’s own doing

The NFL began supplying select draft prospects with single-purpose phones, but that has become a problem for the players, teams, and, yes, the league itself, because the numbers are being leaked with unacceptable frequency now.

You know about the leak of Shedeur Sanders’ phone number. That one was quite public and ultimately easy to solve.

Sanders Phone Provided By NFL

It was all over social media and Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich had Sanders’ number, supplied to him via email from the NFL, and that somehow got into the hands of his 21-year-old son Jax, who then facilitated a viral prank call to Sanders.

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What you may not know is that the phone Sanders got the call on was not his own. It was provided by the NFL only days prior to the draft.

Even Sanders said in one of his released videos of the incident that the phone “ain’t in my name.”

Added Sanders: “I just got this phone yesterday.”

That’s true because the NFL provided the phone so that teams could be certain of immediately reaching Sanders and other prospects and not have lines of communication crossed while prospects might have otherwise been on their personal phones – perhaps communicating with friends and family or simply in a dead cell zone.

NFL Provides Phones To Help TV

And here’s the kicker: The NFL began supplying these single-purpose phones to make sure its draft telecasts were not awkwardly interrupted or turned uncomfortable with phone calls that didn’t reach the players, a former league official told OutKick on Thursday.

So, basically, the league provided phones for select prospects to make sure the calls got through at the exact moment teams needed them and the exact moment television partners wanted them to get the calls on air to keep their broadcasts humming.

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The NFL provided the phones and then provided an estimated 2,000 NFL and club employees with the numbers via email, multiple sources confirmed.

If this doesn’t seem like an inefficient way of making sure an NFL draft broadcast delivers the iconic prospect-answering-the-call-from-the-team moment, then consider these facts:

Sanders was one of a double-digit number of prospects – some who have not been publicly identified – who got prank calls on their league-issued phones, one league source estimated Thursday.

NFL Needs To Investigate Its Own Role

The NFL has been mum about this subject other than to say it is investigating.

That’s ironic because one supposes the investigation by the NFL would have to begin with none other than the NFL itself.

Did the league send out the numbers to an unnecessarily wide group of people? That’s possible because not only did general managers, their staff and coaches get the numbers, but secondary staffers and some media did as well, a source said.

So public relations people, non-football executives, even some equipment managers and training staff may have gotten the delivered list of numbers.

The league may have to pare the list of people who get the numbers to its single-purpose phones in the future because, well, it’s got a problem that it doesn’t like.

And one reason the NFL doesn’t like this problem is because it’s gone public.

In this draft alone, we know the list of players who received prank phone calls prior to being selected includes: Sanders, Giants edge rusher Abdul Carter, Browns defensive tackle Mason Graham, Colts tight end Tyler Warren, Commanders offensive lineman Josh Conerly, Bills offensive lineman Chase Lundt and Eagles quarterback Kyle McCord.

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Source: Double-Digit Prospects Affected

There are others, according to a source.

“I got a few prank calls earlier in the day from 609 numbers and 215 numbers, so I’m like, alright, when I got that 215 phone call, I was thinking it was another prank call,” McCord told Philadelphia area reporters. “But picking up the phone and having [general manager] Howie [Roseman] on the other side, it was pretty cool.”

McCord actually got multiple prank calls before the draft even began. There were so many that when the legitimate call came from the Eagles, he expected it to be another prank.

“I didn’t really think it was going to be legit, to be honest, because I got a bunch of 215 calls obviously leading up to the draft,” McCord said. “And, you know, obviously, sitting there anxious to see what area code pops up and it was 215. 

“So, I’m thinking, you know, I don’t know who it was going to be. And then I picked up the phone. I said, ‘Hello,’ and then to hear Howie’s voice on the other side, alright, not what I expected, but I was super pumped that it happened.”  

Prank phone calls are as old as, well, phone calls themselves. 

And they’re not new to the NFL, either.

Pranks Not New But More Problematic

In 2013, two 20-year-olds somehow got then-Bills general manager Buddy Nix and then-Buccaneers GM Mark Dominik on a conference call. And, amazingly, during the call, the two GMs proceeded to discuss free agency plans for six full minutes.

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Yes, funny, but not for the player that was primarily discussed: Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

But the 2025 NFL draft seems to be the boiling point for the league on prank calls.

Expect some changes in how it handles the distribution of the numbers, the former league employee speculated, even if its own investigation finds nothing wrong with its actions.

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