The Shedeur Sanders NFL draft saga took on another layer of amazement Sunday afternoon when the Atlanta Falcons released a statement admitting defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich's son, Jax, was wrong to prank call Sanders.
"Earlier 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 parent's home and wrote the number down to later conduct a prank call," the statement read.
The Falcons are urging that they do what they can to make the situation right, including directly apologizing to Sanders.
"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. We have also been in contact with the NFL and will continue to cooperate fully with any inquiries we may receive from the NFL league office. We are thoroughly reviewing all protocols, and updating if necessary, to help prevent an incident like this from happening again."
The incident stemmed from a prank call where the recipients pretended to be New Orleans Saints personnel, including passing off as General Manager Mickey Loomis.
Eventually, Sanders was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round on Saturday, ending one of the most interesting waiting cycles in draft history.
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Whether the incident goes away completely remains to be seen, but Browns coach Kevin Stefanski has already spoken out against the inconceivable act.
“People are morons,' Stefanski told My Sports Update's Ari Meirov. "It’s sad.”
With five months to go until the NFL regular-season begins, all bets are off whether this incident impacts either way.