The son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich admitted to a prank call made to Shedeur Sanders during the NFL draft and apologized in an Instagram post Sunday.
The NFL is looking into the situation, specifically how Sanders’ private number leaked, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The Falcons said in a statement Sunday that 21-year-old Jax Ulbrich copied it down off his father’s open iPad while visiting his parents’ home “to later conduct a prank call.”
As Sanders continued to wait for his name to be called on Day 2 of the draft Friday, a video surfaced on social media of the former Colorado quarterback receiving a call from someone impersonating New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis.
The caller told Sanders: “We’re going to take you with our next pick, man, but you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer, man. Sorry about that.”
A confused Sanders told the crowd gathered for his draft party, “What does that mean?”
Jax Ulbrich wrote in his post that what he did was “completely inexcusable, embarrassing, and shameful.” He wrote that Sanders accepted his call earlier.
“I’m so sorry I took away from your moment, it was selfish and childish,” Jax Ulbrich said in his Instagram post. “I could never imagine getting ready to celebrate one of the greatest moments of your life and I made a terrible mistake and messed with that moment. Thank you for accepting my call earlier today, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”
The Falcons will not take any action against Jeff Ulbrich, according to Schefter.
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In a conference call with Cleveland-area reporters after he was drafted by the Browns in the fifth round Saturday, Sanders said he wasn’t bothered by the prank call.
“It didn’t really have an impact on me,” Sanders said, “because it was just like, I mean, OK, like I don’t feed into negativity or I don’t feed into that stuff. You’ve seen on Deion [Sanders] Jr.’s YouTube video. My reaction to it, I don’t — it is what it is. I think of course it is childish. Of course, I feel like it was a childish act, but everybody does childish things here and there.”
New Indianapolis Colts tight end Tyler Warren also received a prank call before he was selected in the first round by Indianapolis, a league source told ESPN’s Stephen Holder. Buffalo Bills sixth-round pick Chase Lundt, an offensive tackle, said in his introductory news conference that he received “four or five” prank calls during the draft.
“There were a lot of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ throughout the course of the morning, but I was able to kind of push them aside after a while and just kind of stay levelheaded through it all,” Lundt said.
It’s unclear if Jax Ulbrich was behind those prank calls as well.
The Falcons said in their statement that Jeff Ulbrich was not aware of the data breach, nor the prank call, until after the fact. The team said it would review its protocols to ensure something like this won’t happen again.
“The Atlanta Falcons do not condone this behavior and send our sincere apologies to Shedeur Sanders and his family, who we have been in contact with to apologize to, as well as facilitate an apology directly from Jax to the Sanders family,” the Falcons’ statement read.
ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg contributed to this report.
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