The NFL began delivering selected drafts of prospects with one-purpose phones, but it has become a problem for the players, the teams and, yes, the league itself, because the number is leaking with unacceptable frequency now.

You know about the leak of Sheeteur Sanders’ phone number. One was quite public and ultimately easy to solve.

Sanders -The phone provided by NFL

It was everywhere on social media, and Atlanta Falcon’s defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich had Sanders’ number, delivered to him via e-mail from the NFL, and somehow it came into his hands on his 21-year-old son Jax, who then facilitated a viral prank call to Sanders.

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What you may not know is that the phone Sanders got the call for wasn’t his own. It was delivered by the NFL only days before the draft.

Even Sanders said in one of his released videos of the incident that the phone “is not in my name.”

Added Sanders: “I just got this phone yesterday.”

That’s true because NFL delivered the phone so that teams could be sure to immediately reach Sanders and other views and not have communication lines, while the prospects may otherwise have been on their personal phones – maybe communication with friends and family or simply in a dead cell zone.

NFL provides phones to help TV

And here’s the kicker: NFL started delivering these single-purpose phones to make sure its draft Telecasts were not awkwardly interrupted or turned uncomfortable with phone calls that did not reach the players, a former league official told Outkick on Thursday.

So basically delivered the league phones to selected prospects to make sure the calls came through at the exact moment, Hold needed them, and the exact moment TV partners would have them to get the calls to keep their broadcasts humming.

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October 19, 2024; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Colorado Buffalos Quarterback Shedeur Sanders before the game against Arizona Wildcats at Arizona Stadium. (Mark J. Revilas-prescribed images)

NFL delivered the phones and then delivered an estimated 2,000 NFL and club staff with the numbers via E -Mail, confirmed several sources.

If this does not appear to be an ineffective way of ensuring that an NFL draft of broadcasts delivers the iconic prospective-by-call-off-team moment, consider these facts:

Sanders was one of a double-digit number of prospects that have not been publicly identified-as received prank calls on their league-issued phones, estimated a league source on Thursday.

NFL has to examine its own role

NFL has been a mother on this topic other than saying it is investigating.

It is ironic because one assumes that the NFL’s study should begin with none other than the NFL itself.

Did the league send the numbers out to an unnecessarily wide group of people? It is possible because not only general managers, their staff and coaches got the figures, but secondary employees and some media did too, said a source.

So public relationship people, non-football leaders, even some equipment managers and training staff may have received the provided list of numbers.

The league may have to pare the list of people who get the numbers for their single-purpose phones in the future because it has a problem it doesn’t like.

And one of the reasons NFL does not like this problem is because it has become public.

In this draft alone, we know the list of players who received prank phone calls before being selected include: Sanders, Giants Edge Rusher Abdul Carter, Brown’s Defensive Tackle Mason Graham, Colts Tight End Tyler Warren, Commander’s Offensive Lineman Josh Conerly, Bills Offensive Lineman Chase Lundt and Eagles Kyle McCord.

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The NFL Commissioner points out the New York Giants fans to Edge Rusher Abdul Carter, after Giants Select Carter with the third election in the first round of 2025 NFL draft on Thursday, April 24, 2025 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The draft runs through April 26. (Tork Mason/USA Today Network-Wisconsin)

Source: Double -digit views affected

There are others according to a source.

“I got a few prank calls earlier in the day from 609 numbers and 215 numbers, so I’m like, okay when I got the 215 phone call, I thought it was another prank call,” McCord told the Philadelphia Area reporters. “But to pick up the phone and have [general manager] Howie [Roseman] On the other hand it was pretty cool. “

McCord actually got several prank calls before the draft even began. There were so many that when the legitimate call came from Eagles, he expected it to be another prank.

“I didn’t really think it would be legitimate to be honest because I got a bunch of 215 calls that obviously led to the draft,” McCord said. “And you know, of course, to sit there eagerly to see which area code is emerging, and it was 215.

“So I think you know I don’t know who it should be. And then I picked up the phone. I said ‘Hi,’ and then to hear Howies’s voice on the other side, okay, not what I expected, but I was super pumped that it happened.”

Prank phone calls are as old as, yes, phone call itself.

And they are also not new to the NFL.

Pranks not new but more problematic

In 2013, two 20-year-olds somehow got the then Bill’s general manager Buddy Nix and then Buccaneer’s GM Mark Dominik on a conference interview. And incredibly, during the call, the two GMs continued to discuss free agency plans for six full minutes.

October 9, 2016; Pittsburgh, Pa, USA; New York Jets Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (14) warms up before a game against Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field. (Mark Kindenzny-usa Today Sports)

Yes, fun, but not for the player who was primarily discussed: Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

But the 2025 NFL draft seems to be the boiling point for the league on prank calls.

Expect some changes in how it handles the distribution of the figures, the former league employee speculated, although its own investigation finds nothing wrong with its actions.