One year after a prank call to Shedeur Sanders during the quarterback鈥檚 slide down the draft board became one of the loudest stories of the NFL Draft, the league is tightening things up to prevent a similar situation from happening again.
This year, the NFL will limit access to prospects鈥� contact information to one person with each franchise.
鈥淭he relevant contact information will be provided by the league to a single point of contact at the club in football operations,鈥� a league spokesman told The Athletic. 鈥淭his individual will be responsible for safeguarding the numbers.鈥�
Last year, Sanders was not selected in the first round, where many draft prognosticators had forecasted he would go. Instead, the Tennessee Titans selected Cam Ward with the No. 1 pick and the New York Giants took Jaxson Dart at No. 25. Those were the only quarterbacks to go off the board on Day 1. Early on Day 2, Sanders, who was live-streaming his draft party with family and friends, received a phone call from somebody impersonating New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis ahead of the No. 40 overall pick. The Saints did end up drafting a quarterback with that selection, but it was Tyler Shough out of Louisville.
After the draft was over, the Atlanta Falcons released a statement saying that the prank call was made by Jax Ulbrich, the then-21-year-old son of Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.
鈥淓arlier 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 parents鈥� home and wrote the number down to later conduct a prank call,鈥� the statement read. 鈥淛eff Ulbrich was unaware of the data exposure or any facets of the prank and was made aware of the above only after the fact. The Atlanta Falcons do not condone this behavior and send our sincere apologies to Shedeur Sanders and his family, who we have been in contact with to apologize to, as well as facilitate an apology directly from Jax to the Sanders family.鈥�
Sanders was eventually taken by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round at No. 144. Sanders downplayed the prank call, saying 鈥渋t didn鈥檛 really have an impact on me鈥� and said that he felt that 鈥渋t was a childish act, but everybody does childish things here and there.鈥� The NFL fined the Atlanta Falcons $250,000 and Jeff Ulbrich $100,000 over the leak of Shedeur Sanders鈥� phone number.
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