The best way to endear yourself to your new coworkers is to not have your 21 year-old son be involved in a mean-spirited prank on a prospect waiting to be selected in the NFL Draft, so if new Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich can just avoid that, he's off to a good start... Oh God, say it isn't so.
On Friday, footage of a prank call from college-aged kids to quarterback Shedeur Sanders went viral on social media, with the callers pretending to be Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, telling Sanders they were planning on drafting him, then telling him he'll need to "wait a little longer" before being picked.
Turns out the call was made by Jax Ulbrich — the 21 year-old son of Jeff Ulbrich — who acquired Sanders' number when Jeff Ulbrich left out an iPad with the phone numbers of draft prospects on it. This is the fakest sounding real story of this entire draft cycle.
from the Falcons: pic.twitter.com/BtEMZ33Fsi
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) April 27, 2025
It took about five minutes for Jax Ulbrich to post an apology on his Instagram, saying what he did was "inexcusable, embarrassing, and shameful."
Statement on IG from Jax Ulbrich, son of the Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, about the draft weekend prank call to Shedeur Sanders: pic.twitter.com/qPITk6gItD
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 27, 2025
Prank call went viral on draft night
I'm pro-prank calls, for the record. But playing with someone's emotions like this on a night when they are genuinely waiting for a phone call that will change their life... it's pretty cruel, in my eyes. Call me soft! I don't care!
I also don't think this will have any actual bearing on Jeff Ulbrich's tenure as defensive coordinator — a position he was hired for just a few months ago. Sanders' fall did, of course, end eventually when the Cleveland Browns selected him in the fifth round.
Add Jax Ulbrich to the list of Sanders' enemies from draft night. Just kidding, that's a little intense. His frontal lobe hasn't fully developed yet. This was still a pretty unkind move, though. We all did stupid things when we were 21, but... most of those things didn't include trying to embarrass someone hoping to have a life-changing night. I guess most of us didn't have access to the phone numbers of very famous people, either. But you get the idea.