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The Atlanta Falcons made headlines for all of the wrong reasons during the 2025 NFL Draft weekend. Atlanta made a bold move in the first round, trading up to draft James Pearce Jr. However, that has been overshadowed by the Shedeur Sanders prank call incident surrounding Falcons DC Jeff Ulbrich.
Jeff Ulbrich’s son, Jax, managed to get Sanders’ phone number off his father’s iPad. He then used that phone number to prank call Sanders on Friday while the Saints were on the clock.
The NFL investigated the matter and decided to levy punishments on Ulbrich and the Falcons on Wednesday. The league fined the Falcons $250,000 and Ulbrich $100,000 for “failing to prevent the disclosure of confidential information distributed to the club in advance of the NFL Draft.”
Sanders was not the only prospect to receive a prank call during the draft. Tyler Warren also received a prank call, which his camp believe also came from Jax Ulbrich.
It seems clear that the NFL is trying to send a message that this type of leak cannot happen again.
But how exactly did Jeff Ulbrich gain access to Sanders’ phone number?
Mike Florio from ProFootballTalk set the record straight on how exactly Jeff Ulbrich was in possession of Sanders’ phone number.
Florio explained that the NFL issued a memo on Wednesday, April 23rd, to some league personnel with a list of 45 player phone numbers. Those numbers included players who were personally attending the draft, as well as a number (including Sanders) who were participating virtually. The memo was sent to all NFL general managers, head coaches, player personnel directors, and club IT directors. It is important to note that this list does not include position coaches like Ulbrich.
The NFL also sent an additional email about Shedeur Sanders changing his phone number. Instead of sending it to the same list of above recipients, it was sent to everyone with access to the NFL’s daily transaction report.
Florio reported that PFT obtained a copy of that email and it did not use the word “confidential.”
This email contains the new phone number for Sanders that was used for the prank call.
Jeff Ulbrich was on the list of recipients for this second email.
Florio made it clear in his reporting that the Falcons themselves should not be viewed as responsible for this leak.
Instead Florio argues that the NFL is responsible because Sanders’ email was sent to an unintentionally large audience.
The post The truth behind how Falcons DC Jeff Ulbrich got Shedeur Sanders’ phone number appeared first on ClutchPoints.
