CLEVELAND, Ohio – Shedeur Sanders wasn’t the only big-name Browns draft pick to receive a prank call on NFL Draft weekend.
No. 5 overall pick Mason Graham, the defensive tackle out of Michigan, also suffered the same fate, including at least one caller impersonating Kevin Stefanski, and then dropping an expletive-laden string of insults.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told cleveland.com in an email response that the NFL is looking into all of the prank calls that took place over the weekend, but that the others aren’t related to the Sanders call, which was initiated by Jax Ulbrich, the 21-year-old son of Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.
The difference between the Sanders and Graham calls is that Graham wasn’t in the midst of the worst freefall by a player at his position in draft history when he got pranked. Widely regarded as the best defensive tackle in the class, Graham was picked by the Browns at the spot most draft experts expected the Jaguars to take him before they traded up to No. 2 with the Browns to draft receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter.
Graham’s cell phone number was leaked on TikTok, and he received calls nonstop on Friday, his agent, Ryan Matha, told cleveland.com.
The NFL, which released the cell phone numbers of draft prospects to teams so their head coaches and general managers could reach prospects when selecting them, is investigating the multiple prank calls that took place over the weekend.
In the case of Jax Ulbrich, his antics cost his dad $100,000 and the Falcons $250,000 in fines from the NFL. His father apologized publicly in a Falcons press conference on Wednesday.
“First of all, I’d like to publicly apologize to Shedeur and the Sanders family for what occurred,” he said. “Second of all, I want to publicly apologize to (Falcons owner) Mr. (Arthur) Blank, (general manager) Terry Fontenot, (coach) Raheem Morris and the entire Falcons organization. My actions — my actions — of not protecting confidential data were inexcusable. My son’s actions were absolutely inexcusable. And for that, we are both deeply sorry.
“The NFL has taken action and I fully respect the punishment. We take full responsibility, my son and myself, and we will not be appealing the fine in any way. Going forward, I promise my son and I will work hard to demonstrate we are better than this. Again, I am deeply sorry for our actions.”
He said he tried to contact the Sanders family as soon as he discovered Jax was involved. He said they “were amazingly gracious … more gracious than they needed to be in a moment like this.”
Browns rookies will be in town May 9-11 for rookie minicamp.
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