The NFL has been accused of doing shady work by pinning the leak of Shedeur Sanders’ phone number on the Atlanta Falcons and their defensive coordinator, Jeff Ulbrich.
The league fined the team $250,000, hitting Ulbrich with an additional $100,000 sanction following the prank call that led to Shedeur thinking, albeit only for a few seconds, that he was being drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the second round.
The NFL has also suggested that the number was sent to a limited number of people per team in a confidential email, and then the Falcons sent it to Ulbrich. However, a report from ProFootballTalk claims that close to 2,000 people had access to the quarterback’s draft-day digits.
The outlet notes:
“First, think of how ridiculous that sounds. Why would the Falcons, who were never going to draft Sanders (then again . . .), give that information to the team’s defensive coordinator? “Hey, Jeff, we’re not going to draft another quarterback (then again . . .), but in case we think you should personally have this phone number.”
At LEast 60 People Per Team Reportedly Received Shedeur Sanders’ Number
According to a high-level source from an NFL team (not Atlanta), each franchise has at least 60 people who receive such communication.
The league consists of 32 teams, which works out to at least 1,920 per team. So it appears that Ulbrich wasn’t part of a small group or had the number passed down to him, but both he and the organization were unlucky, as his son was recorded during the prank call.
The publication has also cast some doubt on the official explanation.
“It’s a chain of events that would seem to be too convenient or contrived if it happened in a movie or a TV show. And now that the matter has been resolved by the league, there’s no way of knowing whether it’s true and correct that an innocent glance at an open iPad morphed in the literal blink of an eye into a devious plan to prank call Shedeur Sanders.”
Is there more to this than is being let on? We may never know. But it does appear that the NFL was keen on distancing itself from leak, even if they had a perp put himself on camera.
