Draft night is supposed to be the payoff for most amateur athletes. Years of blood, sweat, and sacrifice finally lead to the moment your name gets called. But in the 2025 NFL Draft, something ugly crept in: prank calls. Everyone saw Shedeur’s fake call blow up online. The mental agony of having your dream moment ripped away and turning it into a circus for laughs is unforgivable. Now, Will Howard has come forward detailing his own experience regarding mischievous prank calls.

In a recent interview, Howard was asked about his NFL draft day experience, and the QB described how the three prank calls affected him. “I got three, I think. Friday night, I got two. The first one was the one that actually got me because it was like some, I think it was actually a Columbus number. It was like a 612 number, and I was like, ‘Huh, that’s kind of weird, ‘” said Will Howard. The former OSU quarterback also described how the incidents happened with more players than reported, and Howard condemned the acts harshly.

“I got that call, and that really sucked, you know…Obviously, Shedeur and I think Tyler Warren and a couple of others got publicized. But it was happening to everyone that a lot of the guys I talked to at the rookie premiere, like they were getting fake phone calls, and it’s all just these loser college kids that are just trying to get a laugh out of it,” said Will Howard. While Howard’s calls might have come from “notorious college kids,” Shedeur’s was connected to an NFL franchise, raising privacy concerns.

Unlike Shedeur or Warren, Will Howard, despite winning the national title with the Buckeyes, didn’t have a first-round projection. PFF projected him as a fifth-rounder, while other major grading agencies touted him to go in 6th and 7th rounds. So, when the NFL draft began on Thursday, April 24th, this year, Howard himself wasn’t expecting to be drafted. But when Friday’s rounds started, Howard gathered his family and started a watch. Except the special moment that should have been deeply personal for Howard became marred by a notorious prank call.

The prank call on Shedeur’s phone came from Falcons’ DC Jeff Ulbrich’s son, Jax Ulbrich. Shedeur even called out the NFL teams for leaking his number, highlighting that only coaches had his number. Despite the act, though, Jax apologized to Shedeur in an X post, calling the call “selfish and childish.” Whereas, Jeff Ulbrich accepted the fines and vowed to “work hard to prove we are better than that.” In contrast to Shedeur, other players like Howard and Kyle McCord did not receive an apology or restitution for their prank calls.

The “prank call” problem was more widespread than Will Howard’s or Shedeur’s

Tyler Warren was widely touted to be drafted in the first round, and the Indianapolis Colts eventually did that at the 14th overall pick. However, before that, Tyler got a fake voicemail impersonating the Jets’ front office staff, claiming the team will draft the tight end at 7th overall. Interestingly, the caller was traced to have the same area code as Shedeur’s call. Chae Lundt, a former UConn OT, also claimed to have received several prank calls and was frustrated with them throughout the day of the draft.

“It’s been quite crazy of a day. I mean, I fielded a couple like prank calls before it, so I was kind of up and down a little bit – like if anything was real or not,” Lundt said,” said Lundt. Former Penn State DB, Abdul Carter, also received the same prank calls for someone calling pretending to be the Jacksonville Jaguars. Carter was eventually drafted as the third overall pick by the New York Giants, as he claimed to have ignored the prank calls. All of it points to such incidents as a widespread issue in college football.

Will Howard was eventually picked by the Steelers in the 6th round. But the mental fatigue he must have suffered from those prank phone calls would be unimaginable. He had his family with him as he said, “You know, I had a bunch of different cameras, a bunch of family there,” making the moment even more gruesome for him. Surely, then, college football and the NFL need to devise a serious policy to prevent phone number leaks and prevent incidents like Will Howard’s sooner rather than later.