Numerous high-profile prospects unfortunately had to deal with prank calls during the 2025 NFL Draft. But when it comes to the most prominent example regarding new Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Mike Florio believes that the NFL was partly to blame.
The likes of Abdul Carter, Mason Graham, Tyler Warren, Kyle McCord, Chase Lundt, and Josh Conerly Jr., and Isaiah Bond all reported receiving their own respective prank calls. But given just how far Shedeur Sanders fell in the draft compared to where most expected him to be selected ahead of time, his call was perhaps the most cruel of them all.
The NFL quickly determined that Jax Ulbrich, the son of Falcons’ defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, was the one behind the Shedeur Sanders call, while the other calls are still being investigated by the NFL.
During an appearance on the Rahimi & Harris Show on 670 The Score in Chicago on Wednesday, Mike Florio discussed how the NFL can avoid this kind of situation in the future.
In particular, he went into detail about how the NFL sent out two rounds of e-mails with the contact information of a number of NFL draft prospects. One of the e-mails featured just Sanders’ number, which he claims was, perhaps mistakenly, sent to everyone who gets the league-wide daily transaction report.
“The NFL has responsibility here,” said Florio. “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.
“There was another e-mail that went out later that same day. It had one person’s number: Shedeur Sanders. 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.”
Shedeur Sanders’ phone number leak originated from the NFL sending out an email to far more people than it needed to, @ProFootballTalk told @Rahimi_Harris.
“They have culpability here,” Mike Florio says. pic.twitter.com/o57rIVFJdS
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) April 30, 2025
Florio does have a point. Having one representative from each team get prospects phone numbers seems more rational than sending it to multiple different people within an organization.
Prank calls have happened before, with current Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean similarly being subjected to a prank call during the 2024 NFL Draft. So with that in mind, perhaps it should have been discussed by the NFL to send out emails to far fewer people last season before something of this magnitude came to be.
Either way, hopefully the NFL can find a solution to prevent this in the future.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.