Cole Strange thought he was being pranked when getting draft day phone call from Patriots
BOSTON -- When the Patriots drafted Cole Strange, it created a rather confusing scene among Patriots fans and NFL fans. Not many believed that the Patriots were spending the 29th overall pick on a guard out of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Apparently, that group of surprised individuals included Cole Strange himself.
According to Strange's father, Cole was afraid that he was getting pranked when the phone call from Foxboro came in on draft night.
Upon receiving the call from the Patriots, Strange had to ask if the phone call was authentic.
"[Cole] said, 'Sir, I don't mean to be disrespectful at all, but I've gotta know because I've got some crazy friends. Is this a prank?'" Greg Strange -- Cole's father -- shared with MassLive's Chris Mason in a feature story on the lineman.
Fortunately for the Stranges, Bill Belichick soon joined the call, at which point the family knew that the call was indeed real.
"As soon as I heard Bill Belichick's voice, Cole and I both started screaming and hugging and acting crazy, probably saying a bunch of inappropriate stuff," Greg Strange told MassLive. "We were so excited. To his credit, you've gotta love the guy, Belichick is sitting there and when we got through, the first break he had, he said, 'Hey Cole, you've gotta act like you've been there, man.' It was classic to us. We absolutely loved it."
It certainly adds an unseen layer to the video shared by the Patriots after the pick was made.
A day after the first round of the draft, Strange met with the New England media while standing on the field at Gillette Stadium and shared his version of events.
"I was ecstatic," Strange said of getting the call. "I was with my dad, we were fired up. We both started hooting and hollering. Like I said, it's a dream come true. We were freaking out."
