The first person to tackle Tyler Kroft as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals was his older brother Ryan.
Moments earlier, the Kroft family and some close friends were glued to the television Friday watching the third round of the NFL Draft. Then Tyler’s mother’s cell phone – which is connected to the house landline – rang with the call that turned her son from a Rutgers football star into a professional football player.
“She is walking over not thinking anything of the call, and it says, ‘Cincinnati Bengals’ on her cell phone,” Kroft said. “So she starts jumping up and down and hands the phone over to me.