Trent Richardson, perhaps the baddest player in this week’s NFL draft, whips out his iPhone 4S at the EA Sports “NCAA Football 13” party Tuesday night and plays a Curious George cartoon. Then he opens another app and uses his finger to color in a black and white picture of a fish.

Richardson, 20, is the father of two girls -- ages 3 and 5 -- and most of the games on his phone are for them.

But he admits he’ll play them sometimes, even when the girls aren’t around.

“Sometimes they’ll be watching TV and I’ll get into it,” said Richardson, the Alabama running back who most project to be a top-five pick in Thursday’s NFL draft. “These phones are something else. They do so much. And yeah, I’ll color.”

With his professional future hanging in the balance, it’s hard to blame him for finding mental release in children’s iPhone games.

It’s been an intense few weeks for Richardson as he’s juggled calls from numerous NFL teams, scouts, agents, friends and family. He has two phones, the 4S and a Blackberry ("I wanted the iPhone but I didn't want to lose my old number," Richardson says), and he misses almost every call to both phones unless it’s family.

“People are starting to get mad at me because I don’t answer my phone as much, just because I haven’t had time,” Richardson said. “I have to deal with them when I call them back. I’m busy right now, man, you know?”


Things will settle down for Richardson after this week once he knows for sure where he’ll be playing next season. Most mock drafts have him going to the Cleveland Browns at No. 4 overall.

He's been all over the country since the beginning of March attending workouts, going to meetings and visiting with prospective teams. His daughters live in Birmingham, Ala., with Richardson's mother, so he's been using Skype to keep in contact.

And if he starts to miss them too much, well, he can always whip out his virtual coloring book.