On Wednesday, the NFL took action against Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich and the franchise for the Shedeur Sanders prank call during the 2025 NFL Draft.

Later Wednesday, the Falcons held a press conference for their first-year defensive coordinator to make his first public comments since his 21-year-old son made a prank call during the second day of the NFL draft, acting as the New Orleans Saints‘ general manager.

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Ulbrich’s son got ahold of Sanders’ phone number from his father’s unsecured iPad.

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“I want to publicly apologize to Shedeur and the Sanders family for what occurred,” Ulbrich said Wednesday. “Second of all, I want to publicly apologize to Mr. (Arthur) Blank (Falcons owner), (general manager) Terry Fontenot, (head coach) Raheem Morris and the entire Falcons’ organization.

“My actions of not protecting confidential data were inexcusable. My son’s actions were absolutely inexcusable. For that, we are both deeply sorry.”

The NFL fined Atlanta $250,000 and Ulbrich $100,000 for “failing to prevent the disclosure of confidential information distributed to the club in advance of the 2025 NFL Draft.” The NFL announced the fine on Wednesday.

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Ulbrich said he takes full responsibility for his and his son’s actions, so they won’t appeal the fine.

“At the end of the day, I did not protect confidential NFL data well enough with the device I had with the Falcons,” Ulbrich said.

“I fully respect the punishment,” he added. “We take full responsibility, my son and myself. We will not be appealing the fine in any way. Going forward, I promise my son and I will work hard to demonstrate we are better than this. Again, I am deeply sorry for our actions.”

Jeff Ulbrich, son reached out to Shedeur Sanders, Deion Sanders after draft

When asked when he became aware of the prank call made by his son, Ulbrich said it was right after the draft. He took immediate action.

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“I made the Falcons aware of the situation and our next course of action was to try and get ahold of the Sanders family so we could apologize,” Ulbrich said. “Which we were able to do. The Sanders family ― Shedeur and Coach Sanders ― were amazingly gracious. More gracious than they needed to be in a moment like this.”

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Jeff Ulbrich apologizes to Shedeur Sanders for prank call by son