FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The Atlanta Falcons have been fined $250,000 for the role the organization played in the data breach that resulted in a prank call to Shedeur Sanders last week during the 2025 NFL Draft.
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport confirmed with the league that the fine is "for failing to prevent the disclosure of confidential information distributed to the club in advance of the NFL Draft."
The Falcons released a statement Sunday describing how Jax Ulbrich — the 21-year-old son of defensive coordinator Jeff 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."
Ulbrich was not aware of his son's actions until after the fact. The defensive coordinator has also been fined $100,000, according to the report from the league.
"We appreciate the NFL's swift and thorough review of last week's data exposure and the event that transpired due to it," the Falcons organization said in a statement Wednesday. "We were proactive in addressing the situation internally and cooperated fully with the league throughout the process, and accept the discipline levied to Coach Jeff Ulbrich and the organization. We are confident in our security policies and practices and will continue to emphasize adherence to them with our staff whether on or off premises. Additionally, the Ulbrich family is working with the organization to participate in community service initiatives in relation to last week's matter."
Wednesday afternoon, an emotional Ulbrich addressed the media regarding the entire situation.
"First of all, I would like to publicly apologize to Shedeur and the Sanders family for what occurred," Ulbrich said in his opening statements. "Second of all, I want to publicly apologize to Mr. (Arthur) Blank, Terry Fontenot, Raheem Morris and the entire Falcons organization. My actions — my actions — of not protecting confidential data were inexcusable. My son's actions were absolutely inexcusable, and for that, we are both deeply sorry. The NFL has taken action and I fully respect the punishment. We take full responsibility, both 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 that we are better than this. Again, I am deeply sorry for our actions."
Ulbrich confirmed he found out about his son's actions after the draft was completed. He said he made the Falcons organization aware of the situation, and then worked to get in touch with the Sanders family to apologize personally, which the family was able to do.
"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 Ulbrich, his son and the Sanders family. "It was an opportunity for myself and my son to apologize."
The defensive coordinator said a main source of his own regret is that this situation ultimately took away from a productive and optimistic weekend in which the Falcons selected four defensive players (two edge rushers in the first round) that could help this defensive unit immediately.
"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," Ulbrich said, "because those people should be celebrating these moments and they probably weren't as much as they should have been."
Moving forward, Ulbrich said this is a situation that — while difficult — is one he brought upon himself, his son brought upon himself, and that they will work to "be better" in their actions.
"We have to take this on the chin," Ulbrich concluded. "And we absolutely are doing that, taking full responsibility and I am hopeful we will grow and be better because of it."
Editor's note: The story was originally published at 11 a.m. ET Wednesday, April 30, with the initial report of the league's decision. Ulbrich's quotes were added after his media availability at 2 p.m. ET that same day.
