03-12-2013, 12:45 PM
Pranksters Record Two NFL GMs Discussing Free Agency Over The Phone
Quote:It's a brilliant prank, and it never should've worked. How did a couple of 20-year-olds listen in on two NFL executives talking shop the day before free agency began? A little luck, great timing, and a 73-year old general manager who doesn't really understand how telephones work.
On Friday afternoon, Buffalo GM Buddy Nix and Tampa Bay GM Mark Dominik shot the shit for about six minutes. They talked about their impending free agents, their frustration with a new three-day negotiating window, and the major handicap of not having a franchise quarterback. They had no idea that a pair of pranksters had set the whole chat up, or that those pranksters were still on the line, listening in.
Remember the Domino's prank? Call two pizza places, merge them together on a conference call, and let confusion reign. That's basically what happened here, only with more Buddy Nix complaining about how much the Bills are paying Ryan Fitzpatrick.
On Thursday afternoon, the pranksters called Buffalo's publicly listed front office phone number. They claimed to be Bucs GM Mark Dominik and asked to be transferred to Buddy Nix. To their surprise, they were. Panicking, they hung up as soon as he answered.
Then Buddy Nix called them back.
And he kept calling back. Into Thursday evening, resuming again on Friday morning, Nix's personal number kept lighting up their cell phone. They ignored it, until they came up with a plan. They would call Mark Dominik, claim to be Buddy Nix, and send the two on a phantom game of phone tag.
So they rang up the Buccaneers, but while on with Dominik's secretary, Buddy Nix called again. It was perfect. They answered Nix's call, then fell silent while they were patched through to Dominik. They put the call on speaker, recorded with a second cell phone, and sat back and listened to the fun.
(The full phone call can be found at the link above.)
The conversation starts off with some confusion. "Dadgum, son," the septuagenarian Nix laughs, "I've called you back a hundred times!" Dominik assures him that it must have been a wrong number, he would have called him back "in a heartbeat. I wouldn't mess around with that."