Have you ever texted the wrong number? It usually doesn’t end well, but for some high school students in Pontiac the errant text message proved to be legendary.
Members of the boys’ freshmen basketball team at Notre Dame Prep found themselves on a FaceTime call with Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after one teammate inadvertently entered the wrong number in their group text.
“That was fun,” Brady, the former Michigan football standout, told ESPN on Wednesday. “That was really fun. It was really good to see all those young kids hyped up.”
It all began when Vinny Tartaglia started a group text for the freshmen boys’ basketball team for upcoming practices, according to a local news outlet. But he messed up “one digit for one of their teammates,” school counselor P. Jason Whalen, whose son is on the basketball team, explained on Twitter.
“Did you mean to add me to this group?” the random recipient responded, according to Whalen.
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It turns out the number wasn’t their teammates. The boys mistakenly added Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting, a Michigan native. (That explains the same area code.)
“The guy replies … ‘this is Sean. Do you know who I am?’ Of course they think it’s their teammate messing with them,” Whalen wrote. “After some back and forth the guy says ‘this is @seanbunting_’ and he sends a selfie in the Bucs locker room.”
The boys’ basketball team, however, was still convinced they were being pranked by their teammate: “Some of the boys still think it’s their buddy joking around others are like WTH is going on..”
That’s when Murphy-Bunting FaceTimed the skeptical group from the Buccaneers’ locker room and showed his new pals some undisputable proof – his own teammates: Leonard Fournette, Mike Evans, Rob Gronkowski and Richard Sherman.
“At that point (Murphy-Bunting) hands his phone to @_fournette, who proceeds to walk around the locker room and introduce the boys to @MikeEvans13_, @RobGronkowski, @RSherman_25, etc.”
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The basketball team’s players naturally asked where Brady was, or as Whalen puts it, “getting greedy now.” He added, “Besides asking the guys to have big weeks for their fantasy football team, they want to see the GOAT!”
“Fournette stays on FaceTime for a good 10 minutes while @TomBrady finishes up a meeting,” Whalen added. “After some time passes he pops up on the screen and says ‘What’s up fellas?!?!’ The boys lose their minds.”
Fournette told ESPN that the boys were “shocked” when he handed the phone to Brady.
“To guys in high school, Tom is the figure for them,” Fournette said. “You know what I mean? Who wouldn’t want to look up to a guy like that?”
Brady called the interaction “sweet,” telling ESPN it was “even better” that the boys were from Michigan.
“I didn’t know who it was. (Leonard) said, ‘Here’s my boy’ or whatever he said. It was nice,” Brady said. “It would have been nice for me when I had been in high school too.”
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Whalen said the FaceTime call ended shortly after Brady’s appearance, with some final words from Murphy-Bunting: “Ball out this season!” But the basketball team’s day, if not season, were already made.
“What an awesome experience for our boys and what an amazing group of guys on the Buccaneers,” Whalen tweeted. “I can’t believe they took the time to entertain Colin and his teammates. I’m sure they had a good time laughing at the fact that the Super Bowl champs got randomly added to a freshman basketball team group chat.”
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And for those wondering about the teammate who was originally supposed to be in the group chat? Don’t fret. “They added him in once they figured it out,” Whalen confirmed.