Mohamed Sanu laughs off prank call

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print

CINCINNATI -- The phone call came from a number that Mohamed Sanu recognized, the tip-off that this one was real -- and, in a sense, the most fitting call of draft day.

The Bengals took the receiver from Rutgers in the third round on Friday night, a little salve for a player was the target of a cruel prank a night earlier. When Cincinnati was getting ready to make the 27th overall pick in the opening round on Thursday, someone called Sanu pretending to be from the Bengals with good news.

“

Thank God! I'm hysterically laughing about that right now.

” -- Bengals WR Mohamed Sanu
on being drafted after prank call

The celebration started. The agent tweeted. Then, the Bengals took someone else.

It wasn't them who had called.

"My agent said it was some kid playing a prank," Sanu said. "The kid said he was very sorry, he didn't mean anything by it."

Even though they had nothing to do with it, the Bengals called Sanu to console him before the draft resumed on Friday. He was on their list of receivers they would consider as a complement to A.J. Green later in the day.

When the third round started and Sanu was still available, the Bengals decided to pick him. Receivers coach James Urban had given him the number of his cell phone, and used it to make the congratulatory call.

"I said, 'Hey Mo, it's James Urban. You want to be a Bengal -- this time, for real?' " Urban said.

None of the Bengals' three draft picks on Friday was happier.

"Thank God!" Sanu said, in a conference call. "I'm hysterically laughing about that right now.

"Once I saw that (incoming) number, I was like, 'I'm going to be a Bengal!' I'm excited. It's a great feeling. I've never felt like this ever in my life."

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print
• Subscribe