Jax Ulbrich, the son of Falcons defensive coordinator and ex-Jets coach, Jeff Ulbrich, has apologized for prank calling Shedeur Sanders during the 2025 NFL Draft, revealing himself to be the person behind the mysterious situation.
Sanders, along with several other prospects, received prank calls while they waited to be selected by an NFL team, with the call being captured on a live stream and then going viral.
The Falcons have also confirmed that Jax, 21, had been responsible for the phone call and said that he had been able to get Sanders’ number “off an open iPad while visiting his parents’ home and wrote the number down to later conduct a prank call.”
The team denied that Jeff had any knowledge of what had happened and had only found out after it had occurred.
The NFL had said it was investigating how Sanders’ phone had received the prank call and it was later reported that several other prospects had received crank calls during this year’s draft, including Colts first-round pick Tyler Warren.
Jax Ulbrich released a statement on social media on Sunday, apologizing for his actions.
“On Friday night I made a tremendous mistake,” the statement read. “Sheduer, what | did was completely inexcusable, embarrᴀssing, and shameful. I’m so sorry | 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 Falcons denounced his actions as well and issued their own apology to Sanders and his family.
“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. “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.”
All of it came to light largely because Sanders had been live-streaming during the second night of the draft and it was captured as it happened, and went viral on social media.
The person pretended to be Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, seemingly setting up that Sanders was about to be drafted by New Orleans.
“It’s been a long wait, man,” the person said. “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.”
For his part, Sanders told reporters that the prank call didn’t impact him.
“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 is childish. Of course, I feel like it was a childish act, but everybody does childish things here and there,” he said.
