During the NFL Draft, Shedeur Sanders received a prank call from someone pretending to be the New Orleans Saints General Manager—a joke that a group of college students found hilarious for some reason. The moment quickly went viral, and the buzz on social media inevitably sparked an investigation by the NFL, which identified the person responsible. The prank caller was Jax Ulbrich, the 21-year-old son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. He had accessed his father’s computer and found Sanders’s personal number.
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The Atlanta Falcons released a statement on Saturday addressing the situation following the conclusion of the NFL’s investigation.
“Earlier in the week, Jax Ulbrich, the 21-year-old son of defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, unintentionally came across the draft contact phone number for Shedeur Sanders on an open iPad while visiting his parents’ home and wrote the number down to later conduct a prank call,” the Falcons’ statement read. “Jeff Ulbrich was unaware of the data exposure or any facets of the prank and was made aware of the above only after the fact.
“The Atlanta Falcons do not condone this behavior and send our sincere apologies to Shedeur Sanders and his family, whom we have been in contact with to apologize to, as well as facilitate an apology directly from Jax to the Sanders family.
“We have also been in contact with the NFL and will continue to cooperate fully with any inquiries we may receive from the NFL league office.
“We are thoroughly reviewing all protocols, and updating them if necessary, to help prevent an incident like this from happening again.”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Clinton Yates were adamant that this warranted a strict reprimand after the careless decision by an adult that could have put his father’s job at risk.
“Where is the picture of the kid?” Smith asked on First Take. “I would like to see the kid’s face because sometimes you need to be embarrassed. In my opinion, I sincerely hope Jeff Ulbrich whipped his kid’s a**. That’s an a**-whooping, that’s a required a**-whooping. So your dad is a defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, you go to his laptop computer and find a number for Shedeur Sanders and you prank call him? First of all, it was cruel and classless to Shedeur. It also jeopardized your dad. What if the Atlanta Falcons believed it was him?”
It is unfair that Jeff is now in a situation that was created and handled irresponsibly by his son. ESPN’s Clinton Yates also questioned why no disciplinary action has been taken against Jeff Ulbrich due to his son’s actions.
“As far as ‘protect the shield’ goes, stuff like this is what matters,” Yates said on ESPN’s Around the Horn yesterday. “I am actually quite disappointed that there has not been some type of disciplinary situation for the individual that let the information out. It doesn’t have to be firing—I don’t think it’s that serious. But there has to be a consequence for doing something this wrong, even if it was your son who did it. That’s what I understood ‘protect the shield’ to mean.”
Yates makes a strong point when noting how seriously the NFL guards its brand. Sanders wasn’t the only target—his new teammate, Michigan’s Mason Graham, also received a prank call while awaiting his name to be called. A cruel thing to do to young men who have worked their whole lives for this moment.
