With Bengals on clock, WR receives prank call

CINCINNATI, Ohio - It's a dream every kid playing football has -- to one day hear your name called in the NFL Draft.

For most it is a dream, but for a select few it becomes a reality. The game they've played since they were a child will now change their life forever.

Rutgers wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, like many of college football's finest, were anxious Thursday night during the first round of the NFL Draft.

When the Cincinnati Bengals were on the clock at number 27 in the first round, Sanu received a phone call. The person on the other end of the phone said they were with the Bengals and that Sanu, 22, was going to be their pick.

Sanu and everyone he was with began celebrating. Mike McCartney, Sanu's agent, even tweeted that his client was the newest member of the Bengals. However, the voice on the other end of the phone was not a member of the Bengals organization, it was a prank call. Moments later NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the Bengals selected Wisconsin guard Kevin Zeitler.

“Very cruel prank call to a Sanu tonight – very sad that someone would do that,” McCartney said via Twitter. “My apologies to the Twitter world for my tweet.” He later tweeted, “Tough night. We all get knocked down in life and we gotta get back up. I believe in Mohamed Sanu as a player and person!”

"This is a great kid, I guarantee you, and someone played a cruel joke on him,'' McCartney told Peter King of Sports Illustrated , who covered the Bengals years ago. "It is unreal that someone would do that, but it happened.''

The second and third rounds of the draft will be held Friday night so it's very likely Sanu, who caught 115 passes for 1,206 yards and seven touchdowns last season, will hear his name called. Ironically, the Bengals are in need of another receiver and who knows, maybe someone from the team actually calls Sanu to tell him "welcome to the NFL."