Arizona Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort has revealed the team took longer than planned to draft Jeremiyah Love because they initially had the wrong phone number for him.
Love was taken by the Cardinals with the No 3 pick In first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night, making him the highest selected running back since Saquon Barkley went No 2 in 2018.
Despite being heavily expected to do so, Arizona was slightly delayed in confirming their decision to draft the Notre Dame star – and a red-faced Ossenfort later came clean about what took so long.
‘If you want me to tell you the honest God truth, we had the wrong phone number,’ he admitted in a press conference later in the evening. ‘The phone number that we were given was the wrong one, so that was a little bit of the delay.
‘So we got that straightened out and we called Jeremiyah, we got hold of him. That’s what the delay was.’
Head coach Mike LaFleur then joked: ‘There was no delay!’
The Cardinals were delayed in drafting Jeremiyah Love as they had the wrong phone number
Fans took aim at Ossenfort for speaking so openly about the embarrassing gaffe, including one who wrote on X: ‘Oh ffs, don’t say that in public’.
‘Of course these idiots can’t even get a phone number right when they have 715 holes on their roster and go [to] the easiest position to find really good players at at 3 overall. Makes all the sense in the world,’ said another.
While a third simply put: ‘Clown show’.
On a more serious note, Ossenfort stressed that the Cardinals never entertained the possibility of trading their No 3 pick in the Draft and the chance to land Love.
‘There was very minimal conversations,’ he explained. ‘There was some surface level [conversations], but nothing that came anywhere close to getting us to move up a pick.’
Love said he isn’t surprised to be heading to Arizona, particularly after a talk with Ossenfort last week that made him feel like the desert was a real possibility.
‘I’m not going to get into the specifics of it, but we had a great conversation,’ the 20-year-old said. ‘I love him. He loves me. And we´re going to make this relationship work.’
Love said he isn’t surprised to be heading to Arizona after holding positive talks with the team
The Cardinals and first-year coach LaFleur picked up arguably the best offensive playmaker on the board when they selected the Fighting Irish star.
The 6-foot, 212-pound unanimous All-America selection ran for 1,372 yards and 18 touchdowns in his final college season while also catching three TDs.
‘I’ve said this about running backs – they come in all shapes and sizes,’ LaFleur said. ‘What’s unique about him in my opinion, is that in all three phases, run game, pass game and protection. He doesn’t have a weakness.’
Love followed that electric junior year with a standout performance at the combine, running a 4.36 in the 40-yard dash. Now he joins a short list of running backs selected in the top 10 over the past decade that includes Barkley, Leonard Fournette, Bijan Robinson and Ashton Jeanty.
