Throughout the NFL Draft, Shedeur Sanders acquired a prank name from somebody pretending to be the New Orleans Saints Common Supervisor—a joke {that a} group of faculty college students discovered hilarious for some purpose. The second rapidly went viral, and the thrill on social media inevitably sparked an investigation by the NFL, which recognized the individual accountable. The prank caller was Jax Ulbrich, the 21-year-old son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. He had accessed his father’s pc and located Sanders’s private quantity.
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The Atlanta Falcons launched a press release on Saturday addressing the state of affairs following the conclusion of the NFL’s investigation.
“Earlier within the week, Jax Ulbrich, the 21-year-old son of defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, unintentionally got here throughout the draft contact cellphone quantity for Shedeur Sanders on an open iPad whereas visiting his mother and father’ residence and wrote the quantity all the way down to later conduct a prank name,” the Falcons’ assertion learn. “Jeff Ulbrich was unaware of the information publicity or any sides of the prank and was made conscious of the above solely after the very fact.
“The Atlanta Falcons don’t condone this habits and ship our honest apologies to Shedeur Sanders and his household, whom now we have been in touch with to apologize to, in addition to facilitate an apology instantly from Jax to the Sanders household.
“We now have additionally been in touch with the NFL and can proceed to cooperate totally with any inquiries we could obtain from the NFL league workplace.
“We’re completely reviewing all protocols, and updating them if crucial, to assist forestall an incident like this from taking place once more.”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Clinton Yates have been adamant that this warranted a strict reprimand after the careless determination by an grownup that might have put his father’s job in danger.
“The place is the image of the child?” Smith requested on First Take. “I want to see the child’s face as a result of generally you might want to be embarrassed. For my part, I sincerely hope Jeff Ulbrich whipped his child’s a**. That’s an a**-whooping, that’s a required a**-whooping. So your dad is a defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, you go to his laptop computer pc and discover a quantity for Shedeur Sanders and also you prank name him? To start with, it was merciless and classless to Shedeur. It additionally jeopardized your dad. What if the Atlanta Falcons believed it was him?”
It’s unfair that Jeff is now in a state of affairs that was created and dealt with irresponsibly by his son. ESPN’s Clinton Yates additionally questioned why no disciplinary motion has been taken towards Jeff Ulbrich on account of his son’s actions.
“So far as ‘shield the defend’ goes, stuff like that is what issues,” Yates mentioned on ESPN’s Across the Horn yesterday. “I’m really fairly upset that there has not been some kind of disciplinary state of affairs for the person that let the knowledge out. It doesn’t must be firing—I don’t assume it’s that severe. However there must be a consequence for doing one thing this fallacious, even when it was your son who did it. That’s what I understood ‘shield the defend’ to imply.”
Yates makes a powerful level when noting how significantly the NFL guards its model. Sanders wasn’t the one goal—his new teammate, Michigan’s Mason Graham, additionally acquired a prank name whereas awaiting his title to be referred to as. A merciless factor to do to younger males who’ve labored their complete lives for this second.
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