The next time you and your friends begin to scheme about an elaborate phone-prank scenario involving NFL front-office personnel, keep the potential consequences in mind.
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Two Massachusetts men are facing federal wiretapping charges for allegedly engineering and secretly recording a phone conversation between Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik and then-Buffalo Bills general manager Buddy Nix on March 8. Joshua Barber and Nicholas Kaiser, both 20, apparently managed to get the two GMs on the phone together through a series of phone calls to Bucs and Bills offices.
Barber and Kaiser later sold a recording of the chat to Deadspin, which posted a story on the ruse.
According to The Associated Press, prosecutors say Barber called Nix posing as Dominik, then called Dominik. Barber reportedly then used the conference-call function on his phone to link the lines together. Kaiser recorded the nearly six-minute conversation.
That's a rather impressive bit of telephonic mischief, but it's come at a high cost. The two men face up to five years in prison if convicted. They are due in a Buffalo, N.Y., court June 4.
Follow Dan Hanzus on Twitter @DanHanzus.