THE NFL is under fire after multiple prospects were hit with prank calls during the NFL Draft.
Shedeur Sanders was notably pranked during his slide down the draft board, resulting in some major fines.
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While Sanders’ prank call got the most attention, players like Abdul Carter, Mason Graham, Tyler Warren, Kyle McCord, Chase Lundt, Josh Conerly, and Isaiah Bond all reported calls.
The NFL quickly determined the culprit of Sanders’ prank call to be Jax Ulbrich, son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.
Ulbrich was handed a $100,000 fine for allowing Sanders’ number to be leaked while the Falcons were fined $250,000 for a security breach.
While that investigation is complete, the other calls are still being looked into by the NFL.
The NFL punished those who were complicit in the prank call, but NBC’s Mike Florio doesn’t think the league did enough.
During an appearance on the Rahimi & Harris Show on 670 The Score in Chicago, Florio discussed ways the league can avoid these calls in the future.
According to Florio, the NFL sent out two rounds of e-mails with prospects’ contact information.
“The NFL has responsibility here,” he said.
“And I already see at least one reporter on the NFL’s payroll pushing the idea that these numbers are sent out confidentially. And the team has to treat it confidentially.
“And there is no reason for the team to give this to the defensive coordinator. Not in this case. Because I have seen the two communications that went out.
“The first one was the confidential e-mail. And it wasn’t an e-mail, it was a memo, with the numbers of the 16 players who were at the draft, the 24 players who were participating virtually, and five other players who were apart of the international program who were present in Green Bay. It had their numbers.”
Florio claimed that the second e-mail the NFL sent out only had Sanders’ number, but it wasn’t sent to the correct mailing list.
Instead, it went to a public mailing list and Florio was able to see Sanders’ number.
“There was another e-mail that went out later that same day. It had one person’s number: Shedeur Sanders,” he said.
“It had his new number, which apparently was the right number to get through to him when the prank call went.
“That was an e-mail, and I have this e-mail, it was sent to the same list of recipients that get the daily transaction report that the NFL sends out to everyone.
“Pay no attention to whatever propaganda the NFL is going to put out there now through their in-house reporters. That e-mail went directly to Jeff Ulbrich. That’s how he got it. That’s on the NFL.
“And at the end of the day, when the NFL is trying to figure out how they prevent this in the future, there is one important way that you do it.
“You restrict it to a need-to-know range of people. Owner, GM, coach. No one else needs to have it. You can argue that only one person per team needs to have the phone numbers of the prospect.
“That’s what the NFL needs to do. They have culpability here.”
This isn’t the first year that NFL prospects have been prank called during the draft.
Last year, Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean received a similar call.
The NFL might need to take some advice from Florio to get this problem under control for the 2026 NFL Draft.