By now, everyone has heard about the Shedeur Sanders prank call that was made by the son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. Jax Ulbrich, 21, thought it would be utterly hysterical on day two of the 2025 NFL Draft to call Shedeur pretending to be the New Orleans Saints. He said that they’d be taking him with their next pick, which we know now isn’t remotely true.
While the NFL has already meted out its punishment to the Falcons and Ulbrich, the next question becomes whether and to what extend Jax could broken any actual laws.
Did Jax violate Georgia law?
Sundi Rose of the Ledger-Enquirer looks into this exact point. Could Jax be looking at bigger problems?
“The NFL’s recruiting and hiring practices are governed by a mix of federal law, internal league rules, and collective bargaining agreements,” Rose writes. “Because it is a private employer, the NFL is subject to anti-discrimination laws, which the younger Ulbrich didn’t break, and won’t face criminal charges. Obtaining Sanders’ private information is not a violation of public law, however it is a violation of NFL internal security and privacy protocols, which was why the Falcons organization and the coach were fined.”
So, it would seem that Jax will escape punishment from the state of Georgia, but probably not from his father. The fallout from the prank call and the subsequent NFL fine cost the coach roughly 6% of his annual earnings from the team.
Is it against the law to prank call in Georgia?
“Prank calling can sometimes be illegal, depending on the nature and intent of the call,” Rose continues. “Under Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 16-11-39.1),it can be a misdemeanor offense to making harassing phone calls. “Harassing” can mean: Calling someone repeatedly for the purpose of annoying, harassing or molesting them or their family Using language threatening bodily harm over the phone Calling and intentionally failing to hang up or disengage the connection Knowingly permitting any phone under your control to be used for any of these purposes Ulbrich’s prank call didn’t really fit any of this criteria, so he’s unlikely to be prosecuted.”
The NFL, of course, dropped the hammer on the Falcons and Jeff Ulbrich, fining the former $250,000 and the latter $100,000. When Jax got Shedeur’s number off of his father’s open iPad, the NFL decided that they needed to be punished “for failing to prevent the disclosure of confidential information distributed to the club in advance of the NFL Draft .” Whether the NFL distributed that information to Ulbrich or the Falcons did really isn’t the point. It wouldn’t be surprising if they reverse-engineered the explanation for the punishment when the real reason was ‘this can’t happen again. We’re making an example of you.’
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