With the fallout from the Shedeur Sanders prank call still ongoing, the NFL has fined the Atlanta Falcons $250,000 and Falcons’ defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich $100,000 for “failing to prevent the disclosure of confidential information distributed to the club in advance of the NFL Draft.”
The fines stem from Ulbrich’s son, Jax Ulbrich, being seen on video with a friend prank calling Sanders with a draft call that wasn’t actually real. Sanders ended up not getting drafted that night, and got drafted in the 5th round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Jax Ulbrich admitted to the prank call video and issued a public apology to Sanders and privately apologized as well.
Jax Ulbrich, son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, was the one who prank called Shedeur Sanders during the NFL Draft.
Jax’s apology and the Falcons’ statement: pic.twitter.com/jMkQe1OCoa
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) April 27, 2025
As a part of the punishment for the younger Ulbrich, the Falcons said that there would be implementation of “community service initiatives in relation to last week’s incident”, which makes me believe Jax Ulbrich is going to be doing some sort of community service as a punishment.
Sanders wasn’t the only prospect who got prank called, although he was the most prominent player to have his phone dialed. Indianapolis Colts’ TE Tyler Warren was also prank called, according to his agency. According to Jordan Schultz, Warren’s camp believes that the caller had the same area code or exact number of the Sanders prank call. There’s no confirmation to that, but other players were prank called this year as well, per Sporting News:
Several prospects received prank phone calls during the draft from people claiming they were associated with NFL teams.
– Shedeur Sanders
– Tyler Warren
– Kyle McCord
– Chase Lundt
– Anonymous UDFA
– Anonymous player who was told they were being traded after being drafted pic.twitter.com/ZFoaotPZVa— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) April 27, 2025
Prank calls have been happening for the longest time with the NFL Draft, but a coach’s son getting caught on video doing it feels like the push the NFL needed to try and crack down on these moments. Prank calling people during the biggest moment of their lives is sucker shit, and has gotta stop.
The fallout from this could lead to some new rule implementations from the NFL regarding draft prospects.
