In a significant disciplinary action, the NFL has fined the Atlanta Falcons $250,000 and their defensive coordinator, Jeff Ulbrich, $100,000. The penalties stem from a prank call made to quarterback prospect Shedeur Sanders during the 2025 NFL Draft. The call was orchestrated by Ulbrich\u2019s 21-year-old son, Jax Ulbrich, who impersonated New Orleans Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis. The prank misled Sanders into believing he was about to be drafted by the Saints. <\/p>\n
The incident occurred when Jax accessed Sanders\u2019 contact information from his father\u2019s iPad at home. He and a friend then placed the call while Sanders was on a live stream. The caller told Sanders, \u201cYou\u2019re going to have to wait a little longer, man, sorry about that,\u201d before hanging up. This moment was captured on video and quickly went viral. <\/p>\n
Shedeur Sanders\u2019 Draft Experience<\/p>\n
Sanders, initially projected as a first-round pick, ultimately fell to the fifth round, being selected by the Cleveland Browns at pick No. 144. Despite the prank, Sanders downplayed the incident, stating it was \u201cchildish\u201d but not impactful. <\/p>\n
The NFL\u2019s investigation concluded that, although Jeff Ulbrich was unaware of his son\u2019s actions at the time, he failed to secure confidential draft information adequately. The league emphasized the importance of safeguarding sensitive data, especially during high-profile events like the draft. <\/p>\n
In response to the incident, the Falcons issued a statement: \u201cWe appreciate the NFL\u2019s swift and thorough review of last week\u2019s data exposure and the event that transpired due to it. We were proactive in addressing the situation internally and cooperated fully with the league throughout the process, and accept the discipline levied to Coach Jeff Ulbrich and the organization.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jax Ulbrich publicly apologized, saying, \u201cOn Friday night I made a tremendous mistake. Shedeur, what I did was completely inexcusable, embarrassing, and shameful. I\u2019m so sorry I took away from your moment; it was selfish and childish.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Falcons have announced plans to implement stricter data security measures and will engage in community service initiatives involving the Ulbrich family. The NFL continues to investigate similar incidents involving other draft prospects to prevent future occurrences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a significant disciplinary action, the NFL has fined the Atlanta Falcons $250,000 and their defensive coordinator, Jeff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,4865,224,7,6,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-17041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-celebrity","12":"tag-falcons","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-shedeur-sanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114436422127573704","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}