Henry Roldán
One of the big surprises of the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft was the selection of Cole Strange, the Chattanooga guard, who also did not believe the call he was receiving.
As revealed by his father, Craig Strange, to Chris Mason of MassLive.com, the 23-year-old thought the call by the New England Patriots, as the 29th overall pick, was a joke by one of his friends.
‘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?’
Cole Strange at the time of receiving the call from the Patriots
However, it was Bill Belichick himself who made Cole Strange realize that the moment was not a joke.
“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. 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.”
Greg Strange on his son’s reaction to Bill Belichick
Cole Strange Expected to be Drafted in the Second Round
Despite being one of the top guards available for the 2022 NFL Draft, Cole Strange didn’t expect to be snapped up so quickly by any organization, which is why he was surprised by the call.
In fact, both the offensive player and his family expected the big call to come late in the second round, since in previous analysis few teams were interested in taking guards before plugging holes at other positions.
Strange played six seasons in Chattanooga, mostly at left guard, and won the 2020 and 2021 award for best blocker in the Southern Conference. Also, last year he was called up to the Senior Bowl, becoming just the eighth player from that university to participate.
