The culprit of a prank call to college football star Shedeur Sanders on NFL Draft night has been revealed as the son of an assistant coach at the Atlanta Falcons.
Sanders, the son of NFL hall of famer Deion, was one of the stars of the college scene, playing quarterback under his father at the University of Colorado.
Sanders was overlooked until finally being taken by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round, but he thought he had been taken a day earlier after a prank call by someone pretending to be New Orleans general manager Mickey Loomis.
Sanders was filmed on the phone to someone who told him, "We're going to take you with our next pick," before adding, "But you're going to have to wait a little bit longer man, sorry about that."
A live stream showed a visibly confused Sanders after the call asking his entourage, "What does that mean?" before it dawned on all of them that they had been pranked.
The Atlanta Falcons released a statement on Monday saying the son of defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich got Sanders's number, which was only known to NFL personnel, "off an open iPad while visiting his parent's home and wrote the number down to later conduct a prank call".
Though 21-year-old Jax Ulbrich provided the number, he was sitting beside an unidentified friend who actually made the call to Sanders.
The Falcons said Jeff Ulbrich was unaware of the data exposure or the prank until after the fact.
The team offered "sincere apologies to Shedeur Sanders and his family" in their statement, and Jax Ulbrich also posted a public apology on social media.
"What I did was completely inexcusable, embarrassing and shameful," he wrote.
"I'm so sorry I took away from your moment, it was selfish and childish."
In the apology, Ulbrich said he had spoken to Sanders since the prank to offer his apology directly.
Sanders was perhaps the draft's biggest story as he had to wait until the fifth round before being drafted by the Browns with the 144th pick on the third day of the draft.
"It didn't really have no impact on me because it was just like, OK. I don't feed into negativity or I don't feed into that stuff," Sanders said on Saturday after being drafted.
"… This is what it is. I think, of course, it's childish. Of course I feel like it was a childish act, but everybody do[es] childish things here and there."
When Sanders did get his call from the Browns before his selection, it was on FaceTime.
ABC/AP
