Sucks to be Sanu

[mastershake]

http://www.nj.com/sports/nfldraft/index.ssf/2012/04/nfl_draft_mohamed_sanu_victim.html

 

NFL Draft: Mohamed Sanu victim of prank phone call saying he was drafted by Bengals

 

When Mike McCartney got the call from Mohamed Sanu and heard the unexpected news Sanu had been drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals with the 27th pick in the first round of the NFL Draft, it all seemed “normal,” as he put it.

The agent for the former Rutgers wide receiver knew it was ahead of the projections for his client, who had been pegged as a second- or third-round pick. But the sound of Sanu’s family and friends shouting in the background of his South Brunswick home, the surprises already unfolding in the draft and the fact the Bengals had two first-round picks and could use another target for quarterback Andy Dalton all made sense to McCartney, a former director of personnel for the Eagles and an agent for nearly a decade.

So he took to Twitter and wrote, “SANU to Bengals!!!!!!” along with another tweet about how happy he was for his client.

“Everybody’s going nuts in his home. He’s like, ‘I can’t hear you, Mike, I’ll call you soon,’” McCartney recalled by phone today. “His brother calls me and he’s euphoric and going nuts. We’re all kind of high-fiving over the phone. And I said, ‘They’re about to show it on ESPN. I’ll call you later.’

“And then they show (Kevin) Zeitler.”

Cincinnati had taken the Wisconsin guard, not Sanu, leading McCartney to believe -- or, more accurately, hope -- he’d misheard which team Sanu told him had called. When he called Sanu’s brother back and heard nothing but silence on the other end of the phone, he knew something was wrong.

Sanu had been pranked and, in the excitement to answer the call and the chaos that ensued, didn’t notice the northern Jersey 908 area code.

“My mind doesn’t work like that. It just doesn’t think, ‘Oh, this could be a prank call,’” McCartney said, adding: “I certainly knew he’d be numb (Thursday) night for a while. Nobody could expect anything different.”

But Sanu rebounded very quickly, according to McCartney.

“I’ll be all right. It’s meant to be that I’ll be with another team,” McCartney recalls Sanu telling him. “If it happens tonight great, if not it’ll happen (Friday).”

This morning, the two spoke again and McCartney said Sanu told him, “I feel great. Today’s a new day. It’s going to be a great day.”

This morning, Sanu tweeted, “Thank God for giving me another day and another opportunity to chase my dream. #thankfulandblessed”

McCartney said neither Sanu nor his family members have expressed anger toward the young man who played the prank. In fact, Sanu didn’t call the number back; McCartney did.

“It was some kid from Rutgers who said his friend got his phone and played a practical joke. He was apologetic,” McCartney said. “He said he doesn’t work for the athletic department and wouldn’t tell me how he got Mohamed’s number, wouldn’t tell me his name.”

McCartney is a spiritual person (his father is former Colorado head coach Bill McCartney, who founded the “Promise Keepers” men’s ministry group as well as an organization called “The Road to Jerusalem”) and a mild-mannered guy, so he kept his emotions in check during the conversation.

“I just said to the kid, ‘Do you understand how much pain you just caused? And it’s not just him, it’s his family. Do you understand what you did?’” McCartney said. “At that point, there was nothing more I could do.”

Except to make sure his client and the family were okay. And they were.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all the way he bounced back because that’s the way he is,” McCartney said. “Anytime I’ve shared with him a negative comment or something from a team that hasn’t been positive from a team perspective, he’s been great. He really has. This is an extremely mature kid and he is definitely resilient. That’s a perfect word for him.”

He added, “He is a special kid. Sometimes you say that and it doesn’t sound right, you know what I’m saying? But I just, I love the kid. I really do.”

[mastershake]

And he ends up with the Bengals anyway.

[Steitzenhaus]

[NeMesiS]

That's fucked up... 3 things I've learned not to do in life. Never mess with another man's family... Never mess with another man's money... and never prank call someone, pretending to be a head coach of a professional football team, and telling that person he was going to selected in the 1st round. Especially if that person played college football.

[BronxRik]

I would track that number down, load up 3 linemen with as many Big Mac's as they wanted, and send them after the caller.

[Mr. P]

It doesn't suck that bad.

[Storm]

It doesn't suck that bad.

 

yah, he still got drafted and to the same team and all, but still, it's several million dollars worth of suck....had he actually been drafted that early, you know the rest, haha....

 

poor kid, he seems like a real nice dude, too. makes you wonder why someone wanted to fuck with him like that, though. his whole family was there and they were celebrating a prank phone call, pretty shitty

[Treehugger]

I bet Derek Wolfe's agent thought he was being pranked when the Broncos picked his client @ 36.

[BleedinBlue]

I bet Derek Wolfe's agent thought he was being pranked when the Broncos picked his client @ 36.

 

 

I think a whole lot of people thought that was a prank. If I was a Denver fan, I would have thrown up when the pick was announced.

[Nas]

yah, he still got drafted and to the same team and all, but still, it's several million dollars worth of suck....had he actually been drafted that early, you know the rest, haha....

 

poor kid, he seems like a real nice dude, too. makes you wonder why someone wanted to fuck with him like that, though. his whole family was there and they were celebrating a prank phone call, pretty shitty

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-NWoavLbDw