Wide receiver Isaiah Bond spent just one season with the Longhorns after transferring to Texas from the Alabama Crimson Tide. Just over a year ago, before transferring, he was projected to be a first-round draft pick.
Even after declaring for the 2025 NFL Draft, the Horns' former wideout was expected to be taken on the first or second day of the draft. However, as day one passed, and then day, and then day three, Bond never heard his name called.
Then, he never even got a call to sign a contract on the first few days of his free agency, except for one call that certainly wasn't what he was expecting.
Who called Isaiah Bond during the NFL Draft?
It wasn't an NFL general manager, owner, exec, head coach, or even assistant coach who called Bond. It wasn't even Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian or the Longhorns' receivers coach Chris Jackson.
The person who called Bond during the 2025 NFL Draft was an Alabama fan making a ridiculous mistake. The Crimson Tide supporter "pranked" the former Alabama wide receiver by calling him during the draft, pretending to be part of the Atlanta Falcons' organization.
Awful: An Alabama fan called Texas WR Isaiah Bond during the draft, pretending to be the Falcons and claimed they were drafting him.
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) April 28, 2025
These aren't ‘pranks’; they are cruel.
Athletes shouldn't have to go through this. pic.twitter.com/8fdClkNDj8
Dov Kleiman is 100 percent correct, these "prank" calls aren't pranks, they are a cruel and unusual form of punishment for young athletes who have done nothing wrong. Bond was waiting for his dreams to become reality, and instead of that call making it happen, it hurt him as a person.
Sure, Alabama fans have a right to be upset that one of their top receivers left the program and joined a rival SEC team. However, they don't have the right to lash out at said player in this manner.
Were other players prank called during the NFL Draft?
Bond wasn't the only player who received a prank call during the draft; in fact, he wasn't even the first NFL hopeful who received a prank call.
Colorado's Shedeur Sanders, who was also supposed to go in the first round but was eventually drafted, received a prank call during the first night of the draft. Former Penn State tight end Tyler Warren and former Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord were also called by people trying to pull off a funny prank.
None of these players deserved this. Whether they were a projected first-rounder or not, whether they were eventually drafted or not. Nobody deserves for their dreams to be used against them, just for a laugh or two from the people doing it.
Now, people are calling for the NFL to do something about it. Whether it be protecting players' personal information better or having a more set system for the franchises to contact the players, something needs to change so that these pranks don't happen anymore.