Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich sent a remorseful message to now-Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders over his son’s prank call during the NFL Draft.
The coach’s son, 21-year-old Jax Ulbrich, prank called Sanders on Friday while he was waiting to be selected in the draft after a long wait for the former top prospect, who fell to the fifth round after being considered one of the top players in the class by some experts.
The Atlanta Falcons were fined $250,000 for the incident, while Jeff Ulbrich was personally fined $100,000, which is about three weeks of his yearly salary.
Now the longtime coach has spoken out on the incident, saying he will not appeal the NFL’s decision.
‘I’d like to publicly apologize to Shedeur and the Sanders family for what occurred,’ Ulbrich began. ‘Second of all, I want to publicly apologize to Mr. [Arthur] Blank, [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. And for that, we are both deeply sorry. The NFL has taken action and I fully respect the punishment. We take full responsibility, my son and myself, and 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 sent a message to now-Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders
Sanders received the phone call, which was broadcast on a live stream in real time on Friday
Atlanta #Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich speaks for the first time about his son prank-calling Shedeur Sanders during the draft pic.twitter.com/HOBHllqMVw
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) April 30, 2025 Read More Shedeur Sanders busts out LV chest with jaw-dropping spoils as he parties after NFL Draft freefall 
Ulbrich said he became aware of his son’s prank call after the draft had ended, with him in the team’s war room helping make picks until the three-day event had concluded.
‘Obviously not happy and shocked, so I made the Falcons aware of the situation and then our next course of action was to try and get a hold of the Sanders family so we could apologize, which we were able to do,’ Ulbrich continued.
‘The sanders family, Shedeur, and coach [Deion] Sanders, were amazingly gracious, more gracious than they needed to be.’
Ulbrich declined to state exactly how he did not protect Sanders’ confidentiality, not addressing whether or not there was truth to the rumor of him leaving an iPad opened.
Neither Shedeur or Deion Sanders has spoken about the prank call publicly. The coach did say he and Jax are ‘taking this on the chin’ and action will take place to make sure they both learn from this incident.
‘They’ve been challenging, but we brought this upon ourselves,’ Ulbrich added. ‘And the fact that I didn’t protect the data well enough and my son did something obviously he has great amount of regret [for].’
Ulbrich may best be remembered outside of the prank-call fiasco for being the interim head coach of the New York Jets last season after Robert Saleh’s firing.
He was tasked for the final three months of the season to steer the ship with Aaron Rodgers in the middle, attempting to bring New York back to relevancy. He was not retained by new head coach Aaron Glenn.
