The Arizona Cardinals were prepared to select Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. However, a critical error prevented them from doing so immediately.
The Cardinals could not reach Love on the phone because they had been given the wrong phone number. General Manager Monti Ossenfort confirmed the mistake in a post-draft interview with The Athletic.
"If you want me to tell you the honest-to-God truth, we had the wrong phone number. The phone number that we were given was the wrong one. That was the little bit of the delay."
Once the Cardinals obtained the correct contact information, they successfully reached Love and finalized the selection. Ossenfort described the delay as "technical difficulties" and noted that trade discussions were minimal.
"There [were] very minimal [trade] conversations. There was some surface-level, but nothing that came anywhere close to getting us to move off the pick," Ossenfort said.
NFL Implements Stricter Phone Number Protocols
The league restricted access to prospects' phone numbers after several players received prank calls in previous drafts. This year, the NFL provided phone numbers to a single designated contact within each team's football operations department. This individual was responsible for safeguarding the information.
It remains unclear how the NFL corrected the error in time for the Cardinals to contact Love before submitting their draft card.
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