Shedeur Sanders prank call saga: NFL fines Jeff Ulbrich and the Falcons for leaking the quarterback’s number during the draft

The NFL has fined the Atlanta Falcons $250,000 and coordinator Jeff Ulbrich $100,000 for their role in facilitating Shedeur Sanders' prank call during the Draft.

Shedeur Sanders prank call saga: NFL fines Jeff Ulbrich and the Falcons for leaking the quarterback’s number during the draft

Jeff Ulbrich and Shedeur Sanders (Image Credits: L-via Open Source, R-via IMAGO)

The NFL Draft is a time for the best of the best to enjoy and reap the rewards of their hard work. However, for the Sanders family, their long-awaited moment turned out to be nothing more than a joke. As Shedeur Sanders geared himself up to be picked in the first round of the draft, the league thought otherwise and made the quarterback wait until the last day of the draft to present him with an opportunity. The 144th overall pick by the Cleveland Browns fell victim to a prank call, an anomaly that not many athletes before him have had to face.

Shedeur Sanders received a prank call from Jax Ulbrich, the son of the Falcons’ coordinator, Jeff Ulbrich, claiming to have picked him with their draft choice on the board. Unfortunately, it turned out to be nothing more than a prank call, and the last thing that Shedeur had anticipated to be put through on draft day.

The mental toll of such an incident is immeasurable, but Shedeur Sanders handled it like a professional and let it slide. The NFL, however, was not willing to let this incident slide without a detailed probe. As per their findings, Jax Ulbrich, the son of coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, was found to be the responsible authority behind orchestrating this call.

Jax found the draft day dial-numbers via a table that his father had left open, and he chose to target Shedeur Sanders’ number from that list. After getting the confidential number from his father’s iPad, he chose to have a field day with it by trolling the Colorado Buffaloes’ quarterback. To make matters worse, Jax’s friends recorded him prank-calling Shedeur. It did not take long for the league to get to the bottom of this fiasco.

The NFL held the Atlanta Falcons in contempt and fined them quarter-of-a-million-dollars to compensate for the violation of the preservation of confidential information. The Falcons organization received a $250,000 fine for “failing to prevent the disclosure of confidential information distributed to the club in advance of the NFL Draft,” and Jeff Ulbrich received a $100,000 fine for his role in the fiasco.

Jax Ulbrich pretended to be the GM of the New Orleans Saints when he called Shedeur Sanders

The Colorado quarterback, who was drafted 144th overall by the Cleveland Browns, received a call from a person pretending to be the general manager of the New Orleans Saints and expressed the team’s intent to pick him early on. However, that could not have been farther from the truth as the Saints never wanted Shedeur onboard. This led to Jax Ulbrich caving and admitting that he was the one who took down Sanders’ number from his father’s open iPad and trolled him.

Shedeur Sanders (5)
Shedeur Sanders (Image via IMAGO)

It was unfortunate what Jax did, and the fines levied by the NFL are appropriate. The Falcons released a statement expressing full cooperation with the league’s investigation and went on to add that the franchise is “confident in (it’s) security policies and practices and will continue to emphasize adherence to them.”

At this point, Jeff Ulbrich certainly had no clue about his son taking the numbers off his iPad, but the mere fact that he opted to prank call a draft prospect is nothing short of disappointing and violative of the NFL’s rules.

Jax Ulbrich issued an apology on his official Instagram handle. He went on to call the Colorado quarterback and convey his regrets. Fortunately for him, Shedeur was understanding and let it slide. The Atlanta Falcons also apologized to the quarterback while maintaining that Jeff Ulbrich “was unaware of the data exposure or any facets of the prank” and came to know about it once it was too late.

The quarterback did not sweat a lot and acknowledged that the act, albeit childish, was fine. The NFL took prompt action to do right by Shedeur, and for now, that is what matters.

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