Jax Ulbrich, the 21-year-old son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator and former New York Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich, issued a public apology yesterday to Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders after Ulbrich admitted that he was the person who prank-called Sanders on the second day of the 2025 NFL Draft.
“On Friday night, I made a tremendous mistake. Sheduer, what I did was completely inexcusable, embarrassing, and shameful,” Jax Ulbrich wrote. “I’m so sorry I took away from your moment, it was selfish and childish. 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 Atlanta Falcons later released a statement explaining that Jax Ulbrich “unintentionally came across the contact phone number” for Shedeur Sanders that was found on an unlocked iPad while Ulbrich was visiting his parents’ house, which he wrote down to “later conduct a prank call.” The Falcons added that 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.”
In a video posted by Well Off Media, Sanders received a phone call from somebody impersonating New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis. The caller said to 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.”
Ole Miss frat guys prank call Shedeur Sanders smh pic.twitter.com/kDXOiquV6j
— SAY CHEESE! 👄🧀 (@SaycheeseDGTL) April 26, 2025
Sanders then ended the call and asked the people around him, “What does that mean?” before the Saints selected Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough with the 40th overall pick in the draft.
“It didn’t really have an impact on me, because it was just like, I mean, ‘Okay.’ I don’t feed into negativity, or I don’t feed into that stuff,” said Shedeur Sanders. “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 was childish. Of course, I feel like it was a childish act, but everybody does childish things here and there.”
In the aforementioned statement, the Falcons said that they are working with the NFL to get to the bottom of this issue, which affected more than just Shedeur Sanders. According to sources who spoke to Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz, first-round pick Tyler Warren was also the victim of a prank call from an individual pretending to be a member of the Jets. Schultz’s sources said that Warren’s camp “believes it was the same number and/or area code involved in the Shedeur Sanders prank on Friday night.”
“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 team said in a statement. “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 if necessary, to help prevent an incident like this from happening again.”
Many sports media analysts have come out of the woodwork to discuss the unprofessionalism from Ulbrich and the Falcons for allowing something like this to happen.
Falcons’ statement on the involvement of defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich’s son, Jax, in the draft weekend prank call to Shedeur Sanders: pic.twitter.com/PgSxURroaY
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 27, 2025
“These types of pranks are just a reflection of our society and media moving further and further away from standards and morals towards no-holds-barred sensationalism,” wrote former number-two overall pick Robert Griffin III in a social media post. “Let’s be real, sensationalism has been a click and views machine for media forever. Our kids see what is celebrated in the media through content, what is acceptable and what is not… No one is perfect, and we all make mistakes. But we can all be better for the next generation, and it’s okay to admit that.”
ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith was not nearly as forgiving as RG3.
“To Jeff Ulbrich, I sincerely hope he whipped his kid’s ass,” Smith said on a recent episode of First Take. “That’s an ass whipping. That is a required ass whipping. Your dad could have lost his job! And because you want to prank somebody and be cruel and insensitive knowing what Shedeur must have been going through, you would be some privileged little brat that would do something like that. You should be ashamed of yourself. And you should have your ass whipped.”
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Falcons will not be taking any further action against Jeff Ulbrich.
