Wisconsin football legend explains his own NFL draft misleading phone call story
- Gordon thought the call was from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or Jacksonville Jaguars, who had the first and third overall picks, respectively.
- The call was actually from the father of his Wisconsin teammate, George Rushing.
- Gordon was selected 15th overall by the then-San Diego Chargers.
- No story has dominated the post-NFL draft headlines quite like the prank call from the son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich to former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders on the first night of the three-day event.
-
The call became a sub-story as Sanders fell all the way to the fifth round, where the Cleveland Brownsselected him at No. 144 overall.
The saga, which resulted in the NFL disciplining both Ulbrich and the Falcons, has prompted many current and former NFL players to discuss their draft call stories — misleading calls, prank calls, or otherwise. One such story came from Wisconsin legend Melvin Gordon.
Gordon was selected by the Los Angeles Chargerswith the No. 15 pick of the first round of the 2015 draft. However, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneerswere on the clock to start the draft, he received a mysterious call from a Florida area code.
“So I’m sitting at the [NFL draft] table,” Gordon began. “As soon as the draft opened, I get a Florida number that called my phone. I said, ‘Ain’t no way I’m going No. 1…’ I’m sitting there talking to my agent, saying, ‘I don’t want to pick it up. Because if it isn’t Tampa Bay, I’m going to be pissed, or Jacksonville.’ [My agent] said, ‘No, just pick it up.’ So I [do so], it’s [Wisconsin wide receiver] George Rushing’s dad. He says, ‘Hey Mel, I see you on the camera, man. You look good in your suit.'”
You know the call, that adrenaline. He stole that from me,” Gordon continued. “And what made me the maddest, is how he’d even get my number?”
Here is the full story, from his appearance with former Badgers James White, Montee Ball and Jonathan Taylor on the Green Light Podcast.