The NFL is investigating the prank call made to Shedeur Sanders during the quarterback’s slide down the draft board Friday night.
The league is probing how the quarterback’s private phone number was leaked, ESPN reported, resulting in Sanders thinking he was speaking with Saints general manager Mickey Loomis.
Sanders was considered among the top prospects available in the draft, but he tumbled into the fifth round before he was taken by the Browns with the No. 144 overall selection.
As the slide continued on Day 2, videos on social media showed Sanders taking a call early in the second round from someone claiming to be Loomis.
“It’s been a long wait, man,” the person said. “We’re going to take you with our next pick, man, but you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer, man. Sorry about that.”
When the call concluded, the 23-year-old son of Hall of Famer and current Colorado coach Deion Sanders was shown telling people at his draft party, “What does that mean?”
Sanders also said that he didn’t “know what that was” because he was given a private phone for the draft and that only select NFL personnel had that number.
The Saints ended up picking Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough with the 40th pick, and Sanders later insisted in a conference call that he was over the fake call.
“It didn’t really have an impact on me,” Sanders told reporters, “because it was just like, I mean, OK, like I don’t feed into negativity or I don’t feed into that stuff.
“You’ve seen on Deion [Sanders] Jr.’s YouTube video. My reaction to it, I don’t — it is what it is. I think of course it is childish. Of course, I feel like it was a childish act, but everybody does childish things here and there.”
Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski called the situation “sad” and labeled whoever pulled the trick “morons.”
The Browns also selected Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel in the third round (94th) overall Friday night.
An unverified video surfaced Saturday on social media depicting what appeared to be people instigating the prank and impersonating Loomis.
When their end of the call concludes, the group breaks out in laughter, with one person in the room yelling that Sanders “bought it.”
