Sanu to Bengals no prank second time around

It was in the latter quarter of Round One, and agent Mike McCartney, watching the draft from his home in Chicago, was getting the itch. He had talked to enough NFL people to know that his client, Rutgers WR Mohamed Sanu, was in play.

That’s a dangerous realm to be in the sometimes brutally unkind NFL draft, where yesterday’s blue-chippers can be today’s surprising sliders. But even with a deep crop of receivers in the 2012 draft class, McCartney knew his phone — or his client’s — could be ringing at any point, with an NFL team on the other end.

When you catch 115 passes in a college season, as Sanu did in 2011, you’re not going to last too long.

So, when Sanu’s phone rang and the WR-needy Bengals were calling, it appeared a perfect match. Sanu passed on the good news to McCartney, who tweeted out in joy that his client had landed in Cincy with the 27th pick in the draft. Even though the Bengals hadn’t shown much outward interest in Sanu during the pre-draft process, McCartney didn’t think twice.

“There was certainly no reason to think anything was amiss,” McCartney told PFW late Friday night. “ESPN was about two picks behind, and I knew (from Twitter) that the Bengals were on the clock. He calls me when they are on the clock, and I said, ‘Of course.’ Everything about it was typical protocol. They call the player, not the agent.”

Only one problem, as many of you have heard and read in the past day: Someone had pulled a prank on Sanu.

“Obviously, I regret tweeting about it,” McCartney said. “But I was excited; I was overjoyed and just thrilled for him. It’s just the emotion of it all. And then you say, ‘What just happened?’ ”

The call was not from Marvin Lewis or Mike Brown. It was from a Rutgers student who had Sanu’s number and got bored.

“The kids, they are in the moment of the draft, and it drags on,” McCartney said. “So, when their phone rings, they just answer it. (Sanu) didn’t know who the people were that called. Usually it’s not the head coach; it’s a scout or whoever. Why would he ever wonder if it’s true or not?”