Falcons DC Jeff Ulbrich publicly apologizes for his, son's role in Shedeur Sanders NFL Draft prank call

Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich has issued an apology for his and his son’s actions in the prank call to Shedeur Sanders during the NFL Draft. Ulbrich also said he respected the fine issued by the NFL.

“I’d like to publicly apologize to Shedeur and the Sanders family for what occurred,” Jeff Ulbrich said during a press conference. “Second of all, I want to publicly apologize to Mr. [Arthur] Blank, Terry Fontenot, Raheem Morris and the entire Falcons organization.

#Falcons DC Jeff Ulbrich apologizes publicly for his and his son’s role in the Shedeur Sanders prank phone call.

“The Sanders family was amazingly gracious… more than they needed to be.” pic.twitter.com/4f3lMGukz9

— Joe Patrick (@japatrick200) April 30, 2025

“My actions — my actions — of not protecting confidential data were inexcusable, and for that we are 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’m deeply sorry for our actions.”

Jeff Ulbrich talks about the phone call with Shedeur Sanders

The NFL fined Ulbrich $100,000 and the Falcons $250,000 for the role they played in the data breach that resulted in a prank call to Shedeur Sanders last week. Ulbrich’s son, Jax Ulbrich came across the draft contact phone number for Sanders “off an open iPad while visiting his parent’s home and wrote the number down to later conduct a prank call.” Jeff Ulbrich was not made aware of his son’s actions until after the fact.

“The Sanders family, Shedeur and Coach (Deion) Sanders were amazingly gracious. More gracious than they needed to be in a moment like this,” Ulbrich said of the phone call between him, his son and the Sanders family. “It was an opportunity for myself and my son to apologize.”

Ulbrich added, “There are so many amazing people in this building that did an amazing job in this draft process, and then to pull it off on draft weekend and to do as well as they did, it’s hard, “because those people should be celebrating these moments and they probably weren’t as much as they should have been.” Ulbrich was hired to be the Falcons’ defensive coordinator in January. He spent the last four seasons as the defensive coordinator with the New York Jets and was the team’s interim head coach for 12 games last year. This is Ulbrich’s second stint in Atlanta as he held multiple positions as an assistant coach from 2015 to 2020.