Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich’s son Jax prank calling quarterback Shedeur Sanders on draft day ended up becoming a whirlwind of a story, with analysts all around sports media chiming in to give their takes.
And while other players, including No. 3 overall pick Abdul Carter, also received prank calls, none slid down the draft board as far as Sanders, adding an extra layer of cruelty to the situation.
Chris Simms Rips NFL and Jaxson Dart Over Shedeur Sanders Prank Call
On Thursday’s episode of the “Dan Patrick Show,” NBC Sports NFL analyst Chris Simms expressed just how badly Ulbrich messed up, as he mentioned just how mad his father, two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Phil Simms, would be in such a situation.
Simms spared few words in his response.
“He would have gone crazy,” Simms said. “I mean, I don’t know he probably wouldn’t have talked to me for a month. I’d have been grounded, right. Anything I wanted, right. ‘I want a new pair of sneakers, dad, I want to go here, dad,’ he’d been like ‘no, no sorry, you know you can sit in your room and think about what you’re doing right or what you did.’ So it would be.”
Simms empathized with Jax’s situation — being young and influenced by friends — but also with Sanders, appealing to Ulbrich’s humanity on the most highly publicized story of draft weekend.
“Hey it was a big-time mistake there’s no doubt about that, right. The Jax Ulbrich kid, yeah, he got caught up in being young and friends thinking it might be funny and lost like his, you know, humanity and like what I just heard you say, ‘hey, I know other guys got pranked but Shedeur Sanders is Shedeur Sanders.’ Yes, and he was sliding, and it was the biggest story in American sports, so it did seem like piling on, and I agreed with everything you said there off of that.”
But it’s not just the Ulbrich’s fault, Simms said, instead calling out the NFL for sharing phone numbers with far too many people.
“The NFL’s at fault here too, Dan, that’s the other part of this right now. You’re totally right, the GM, the head coach, the owner, that’s all that needs information, right. We don’t ever see a defensive coordinator get on the phone when it’s a quarterback being picked or any of that, but also within this and maybe why they didn’t come down as hard as people might have liked.”
KEEP READING: Paul Finebaum Rips Quinn Ewers for Entering NFL Draft
“All that is the NFL sent a mass email that is on the waiver wire to people, to everybody, the IT guys, the equipment guys, all of it. So there was way too many people that had that number to begin with, and they got to fix some of the things on their end as well.”
College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in college football, men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball, and college baseball!
