Quarterback E.J. Manuel from Florida State stands with the team jersey after being selected sixteenth overall by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the NFL football draft, Thursday, April 25, 2013 at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo: AP/Jason DeCrow)
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"...then the voice asked if they could talk to Dion Jordan."
Quarterback E.J. Manuel from Florida State stands with the team jersey after being selected sixteenth overall by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the NFL football draft, Thursday, April 25, 2013 at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo: AP/Jason DeCrow)
E.J. Manuel from Florida State got the call he was waiting for well before his 16th round pick in last night's NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills. But it turned out to be the wrong number.
When Manuel's greenroom hotline phone rang at or after the third pick, pulse jumping, he answered only to find out the voice on the other line wished to speak with Dion Jordan, who was drafted by Miami Dolphins. This is what the producer of The Dan Patrick Show tweeted:
E.J. Manuel said his green room hotline phone rang at pick 3. He got excited, then the voice asked if they could talk to Dion Jordan.— Paul Pabst (@PaulPabst) April 26, 2013
As Manuel told it, though, he said the voice on the other end said "congratulations," but when that person realized Manuel wasn't Jordan, the person said "oh" and "hung up."
Listen to Manuel describe it on the show:
Perhaps this mix up is why Manuel broke down in tears of relief when he got the call as the 16th pick and was the first and only quarterback to be drafted in the first round.
Or perhaps it was just the emotional moment coupled with reflecting on all his family has gone through recently. His mother, Jackie, is in remission from breast cancer, he said. She's still undergoing radiation therapy but is back at work.
"Her hair is growing back; she's starting to look like herself," Manuel said. "I'm just ecstatic right now."
Buffalo Bills quarterback EJ Manuel, left, poses for a photo with former Bills quarterback Jim Kelly after an NFL football news conference at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., Friday, April 26, 2013. (Photo: AP/David Duprey)
One of the first people to hug Manuel was West Virginia's Geno Smith, a popular prediction to be the first QB drafted. Instead, Smith wasn't taken in the first round at all.
The two have known each other since 10th grade.
"That says a lot about Geno's character," Manuel said.
Now, Manuel will be the standard-bearer for what was considered a weak class for quarterbacks. No matter, he said.
"I love having a chip on my shoulder."
(H/T: Yahoo! Sports)
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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