Shedeur Sanders prank call: Son of NFL defensive coordinator at center of stunt pulled during draft weekend

Shedeur Sanders’ slide in the 2025 NFL Draft included a prank call from someone pretending to be an NFL general manager. That led to the league launching an investigation into the matter, and the source has been found. On Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons released a statement acknowledging Jax Ulbrich, the son of defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, and his involvement in the prank calls. 

“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 off an open iPad while visiting his parent’s home and wrote the number down to later conduct a prank call,” the team said in a statement. “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, who 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 if necessary, to help prevent an incident like this from happening again.”

The Falcons will not take any actions against their defensive coordinator as they review team protocols and make sure this won’t ever  happen again, according to ESPN.

As for Jax Ulbrich, he took to social media to apologize for what he called a “tremendous mistake.”

“On Friday night, I made a tremendous mistake,” Ulbrich’s post reads. “Shedeur, what I did was completely inexcusable, embarrassing, and shameful. 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.”

On Friday night, during a live-stream event hosted by Sanders, he got a call to a private phone number he set up and gave to only NFL personnel. The person on the other line claimed to be New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis and informed Sanders that the Saints would be taking him with their next pick. 

After Sanders said that he’d been waiting for this, the person on the other end of the line instead reversed course and told Sanders that he would “have to wait a little longer,” leaving Sanders and the rest of the people at the event confused. That’s when Sanders began to think that something was up. 

“I don’t know what that was,” Sanders said. “Nobody got this number, though. Nobody. This is a private number.”

Not long after that call, the Saints actually did draft a quarterback, but it was Louisville’s Tyler Shough. Sanders’ father, Hall of Fame defensive back and Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, could be seen on the stream reacting to the pick and noting that the Saints “switched it up.” At the very end of the video, the younger Sanders questioned, “Who got that number?” seeming to indicate that he and the other attendees of the event believed the call to be legitimate at the time.

Shedeur Sanders later reacted to the apparent prank while speaking with another guest at the event. “Why get mad?” he said. “They want you to have a certain type of reaction to it.”

Whatever you think about Sanders (Sanders was ultimately selected by the Browns in the fifth round) as a player, prospect or even person (and it stands to reason that most people reading this do not know all that much about him as a person beyond what they have read online or heard on TV), this was a cruel prank with no real justification. It’s obviously a matter that the NFL felt worthy of investigating.