Caleb Rogers tells story of how he hung up on Pete Carroll during Raiders draft call
Caleb Rogers tells story of how he hung up on Pete Carroll during Raiders draft call
The best part of the draft is the reaction of the prospects to being selected. NFL GMs and head coaches love it too. Many have said there's nothing better than making that phone call and hearing the excited voice on the other end of the phone. In one particular case for the Raiders, the excitement was so much, the guy accidentally hung up on Pete Carroll.
GM John Spytek mentioned the disconnection at his and Carrol's press conference at the end of day two. So, I asked Rogers about it. He laughed and told the story about how it happened.
"I had some teams that were in on me late third round, I had some teams that were calling about UDFA. And so, we're all sitting around, we're playing Uno. I'm trying not to stress. Something we kept saying is, 'You're either going to pray or you going to stress.' and we had already prayed, so we were just hanging out waiting on a phone call.
"I've got my phone laying in front of me, and I just saw it pop up. Someone pointed at it. My agent had texted me, 'Be ready,' because the Raiders, we knew they had 98 and 99. And it popped up, my girlfriend pointed at it, and it was funny because it didn't say 'Las Vegas,' it said 'Raiders football.' So, I grab my phone, picked it up and I mean my friends just couldn't help but just start yelling, so I had to run away from everybody, and I couldn't really hear everybody. All I'm asking is, 'Are you are you guys about to make me a Raider?' So I kind of ducked off, they followed me of course - I mean, as I expect them to, I guess - and I mean, I'm talking on the phone, I'm trying to hear. I'm telling them how excited I am. I told them to send me the playbook tomorrow for me on the plane tomorrow. I'm ready. I'm ready to be a Raider. I'm ready to be a part of this organization. I thought the phone call was over.
"I felt horrible. The O-line coach called me, and [Pete] Carroll was with him. He said, 'You hung up on me,' and the idea of hanging up on Pete Carroll, someone who I've watched coach my whole life is insane. So, I mean it's hopefully a funny story that we can tell sometime here in the future when I've been a Raider for 12 years and I'm leaving a legacy, and it all started with me hanging up on the head coach before I even got there. So, I'm blessed. I'm extremely excited, and I mean hopefully this is just something we can all laugh about here in the future."
It sounds like they're all already laughing about it. But knowing Pete Carroll, he'll probably give him good-natured grief about it a few more times.
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