FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich apologized publicly Wednesday for the leak of Shedeur Sanders’ private phone number and his son using it to prank call the quarterback during the NFL draft.
“My actions of not protecting confidential data were inexcusable,” Ulbrich said at a news conference at the Falcons’ facility. “My son’s actions were absolutely inexcusable, and for that we are both deeply sorry.”
Earlier in the day, the NFL fined the Falcons $250,000 and Ulbrich himself $100,000 in response to the situation.
Ulbrich’s 21-year-old son admitted to the prank call and apologized in an Instagram post Sunday. The Falcons said in a statement Sunday that Jax Ulbrich wrote down the number from his father’s open iPad while visiting his parents’ home “to later conduct a prank call.”
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The NFL said the fines were for “failing to prevent the disclosure of confidential information distributed to the club in advance of the NFL draft.” Ulbrich said neither he nor the Falcons would be appealing the fine.
“I promise my son and I will work hard to demonstrate we are better than this,” Ulbrich said.
Ulbrich said he was not aware of what happened until after the draft and he was “not happy and shocked” when he was informed. Ulbrich said he then made the Falcons aware of the situation and then worked to contact Sanders and his family. Shedeur and his father Deion, who is a legendary former Falcons player, were “amazingly gracious — more gracious than they needed to be in a moment like this,” Ulbrich said.
The Falcons wrote in a statement that, “the Ulbrich family is working with the organization to participate in community service initiatives in relation to last week’s matter.”
The NFL still is looking into the other prank calls made to players during the draft, but it says they are unrelated to the call made to Sanders.
As Sanders continued to wait for his name to be called on Day 2 of the draft Friday, a video surfaced on social media of the former Colorado quarterback receiving a call from someone impersonating New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis.
The caller told Sanders: “We’re going to take you with our next pick, man, but you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer, man. Sorry about that.”
A confused Sanders asked the crowd gathered for his draft party, “What does that mean?”
Jax Ulbrich wrote in his post that what he did was “completely inexcusable, embarrassing, and shameful.” He said Sanders accepted his call earlier.
“I’m so sorry I took away from your moment, it was selfish and childish,” Jax Ulbrich said in his Instagram post. “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.”
Sanders, who had been widely expected to be selected in the first round before the NFL draft started, had to wait until Day 3 of the draft for his slide to end when the Cleveland Browns traded up to pick him in the fifth round.
In a conference call with Cleveland-area reporters after he was drafted by the Browns, Sanders said he wasn’t bothered by the prank.
“It didn’t really have an impact on me,” Sanders said, “because it was just like, I mean, OK, like I don’t feed into negativity, or I don’t feed into that stuff. You’ve seen on Deion [Sanders] Jr.’s YouTube video my reaction to it, I don’t — it is what it is. I think, of course, it is childish. Of course, I feel like it was a childish act, but everybody does childish things here and there.”
Ulbrich said the last few days have been “difficult” for him, but he took full responsibility for the phone-number leak and his son’s actions.
“It’s something that I brought upon myself and my son brought upon himself, so it’s one of those things where we got to take this on the chin and we absolutely are doing that and taking full responsibility and I’m hopeful we’ll grow and be better because of it,” Ulbrich said.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter contributed to this report.
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