Falcons Make Announcement on Shedeur Sanders Prank Call

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Owen Crisafulli | Last updated Apr 27, 2025 4:23 PM ET

Shedeur Sanders ended up landing with the Cleveland Browns on the third day of the 2025 NFL draft, but he initially thought he was going to get drafted on the second day after he received a prank call during the action. On Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons issued a statement regarding the situation.

On Friday night, as Sanders fell down the board, a clip of him went viral showing his reaction to what he believed was the call indicating he was about to get drafted. It instead turned out to be a prank call, which only made things worse for Sanders as he continued to slide down the board.

Heartbreaking: Both angles of Shedeur Sanders getting pranked by Ole Miss students pretending to be the GM of the New Orleans Saints.

There's no place for this ever ‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/j3ujcTfsGb
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) April 27, 2025

With the prank callers releasing their side of their conversation with Sanders, fans quickly identified one of the folks in the video as Jax Ulbrich, son of Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. Speculation swirled on Sunday, before Atlanta ultimately made an announcement regarding the situation on social media.

"Earlier in the week, Jax Ulbrich, the 21-year-old son of defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, unintentionally came across the draft contact phone number for Shedeur Sanders off an open iPad while visiting his parent's home and wrote the number down to later conduct a prank call," the Falcons said as part of their statement.

"Jeff Ulbrich was unaware of the data exposure or any facets of the prank and was made aware of the above only after the fact."

#Falcons statement on the prank call made to Shedeur Sanders over the weekend. pic.twitter.com/WmOXsU5z4f
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) April 27, 2025

Ulbrich latched on with the Falcons this offseason after spending the 2024 campaign working as the New York Jets interim head coach in the wake of the team's decision to fire Robert Saleh after just five games.

Sanders, meanwhile, took the prank call in stride, and was eventually able to celebrate his entry to the NFL on Saturday when he was selected by the Browns with the No. 144 overall pick.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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