Frank Caliendo prank called Cardinals as Jon Gruden to try and make a trade for No. 1 pick
Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim may want to reconsider his friendship with comedian Frank Caliendo. Hours before Keim was set to make the No. 1 overall draft pick, he received prank trade offers from someone who sounded a lot like Jon Gruden.
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Turns out, it was Caliendo. The 45-year-old Caliendo is famous for doing impressions, and his Gruden impression is one of the most well known, especially among sports fans.
But Caliendo didn’t just stop at Gruden for Keim. Caliendo pulled out all the stops to get Keim to believe the trade discussions were serious.
Caliendo shared the story on “The Dan Patrick Show.”
That’s right, Caliendo impersonated reporters Jay Glazer, Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter in separate calls to Keim. Eventually Keim reached out to Schefter, who caught on and asked Caliendo what he was doing.
All of this would sound too good to be true normally, but Keim actually confirmed it happened. Keim called in to Patrick’s show to give his side of the story.
Keim says he actually contacted Oakland Raiders general manager Mike Mayock because he thought he did “three or four trades with the Raiders” before finding out it wasn’t really Gruden calling him.
Caliendo and Keim also talked about their friendship. The two have known each other for six to seven years. It’s gotten to the point where Caliendo is going to root for Kyler Murray even though Caliendo is a Green Bay Packers fan.
It’s unclear whether Caliendo can pull off something like this again. After Caliendo’s antics on draft day, Keim will forever be skeptical any time he hears from Gruden moving forward.
If Caliendo can perfect a Mayock impression, though, all bets are off.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
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