It’s been a rough start to the 2025 NFL season for new Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. His son, Jax, decided to prank call Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders on draft night.
Jax, 21, imitated New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, as the former Colorado quarterback started to fall in the 2025 NFL Draft.
The NFL fined the Falcons $250,000 and DC Jeff Ulbrich $100,000 over the leak of Sanders’ phone number on Wednesday. Ulbrich’s son took the number from the coach's iPad and used it to prank Sanders during the draft.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Falcons held a press conference, where Ulbrich got to address the media.
“First of all, I would like to publicly apologize to Shedeur and the Sanders family for what occurred,” Ulbrich said. “Second of all, I want to publicly apologize to Mr. Blank, Terry Fontenot, Raheem Morris and the entire Falcons organization. My actions – 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, both 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 that we are better than this. Again, I am deeply sorry for our actions.”
Jax put out an apology on his Instagram story on Sunday and it read:
“On Friday night I made a tremendous mistake,” Jax said. “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.”
Ulbrich and his son got a chance to apologize to Shedeur, Deion Sanders and the Sanders family on Sunday. He said they were "amazingly gracious" despite the slip-up by the Ulbrich family.
It’s a bad look for a new coach getting into -- especially when this is a second chance just months after he was thrown into the fire in New York with the Jets. Ulbrich served as the Jets’ interim head coach after Gang Green fired Robert Saleh after their 2-3 start but was let go to allow for a new regime to take over.
This team is set up to make a playoff run and compete with the cream of the crop in the NFC. Hopefully this will be the end of this saga, so Atlanta and co. can move on, focus on football and win some games with their new defense led by Ulbrich.