The 2025 draft will be remembered for how things unfolded around Shedeur Sanders. Once projected much higher, his unexpected slide became one of the biggest talking points back then, but the drama didn’t stop there. On the second night, an entirely different storyline took over when news broke that Sanders had received a prank call during the draft. The NFL, however, didn’t let that slide.

They investigated the incident and traced it back to the son of Jeff Ulbrich, the defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons. It goes without saying that the league doesn’t want such shenanigans this draft, and hence, has come up with a way to prevent prank calls to the prospects. Teams won’t have complete access to a player’s contact information.

“The relevant contact information will be provided by the league to a single point of contact at the club in football operations,” an NFL spokesman told The Athletic. “This individual will be responsible for safeguarding the numbers.”

The introduction of this rule is barely surprising. Apart from Sanders, Abdul Carter, Ty Warren, Josh Conerly Jr., Isaiah Bond, and Kyle McCord were also pranked last year, and so, after the 2025 NFL Draft was done, the NFL already knew it needed to make changes for 2026. However, the prank on Sanders was the biggest one. When he picked up the phone, the caller claimed he was Mickey Loomis, General Manager of the New Orleans Saints, but it was actually Ulbrich’s son.

“[I have] been waiting on you,” Sanders said on the call, which was documented in a livestream. “You’re gonna have to wait a little bit longer,” the caller replied and hung up the call. Sanders was visibly confused. “What does that mean?” he asked on the livestream.

It was a huge moment for the quarterback, who was surrounded by friends and family gathered at Sanders’ family home in Texas. After the call, however, he claimed on the livestream that he hadn’t given this number to teams. To make matters worse, the QB slipped further on the draft, but was fortunately drafted by the Browns on Day 3.

Here is what had happened: Ulbrich’s son found Sanders’ contact information on an open iPad and decided to pull a prank. Soon, the league fined the team $250,000 and a hefty $100,000 for Ulbrich. The NFL maintained that Sanders’s phone number had only been distributed to a small group within each team through a confidential email, adding that the Atlanta Falcons assumed responsibility when it was passed along to Jeff Ulbrich. However, subsequent reports pushed back on that explanation.

In truth, his number was included in an email sent to roughly 2,000 recipients, using the same distribution list as the league’s daily transaction report. The message, which came directly from the league, reached Jeff Ulbrich and many others, and notably, it carried no confidential label.

No wonder the NFL is playing it safe this year. That said, this new plan may not stop every prank, but it should reduce the risk. Despite these new measures, the nature of the draft process means it will remain difficult for the league to prevent such incidents entirely.

Jeff Ulbrich apologized for the Shedeur Sanders incident

Every team has a huge database of contact information for their desired prospects, all for draft day. And a lot of people in each of the 32 teams’ front offices have access to it. However, because Ulbrich’s son took part in a major prank, Ulbrich apologized for it.

“My actions of not protecting confidential data were inexcusable,” he said last year. “My son’s actions were absolutely inexcusable, and for that we are both deeply sorry.

“I promise my son, and I will work hard to demonstrate we are better than this.”

Further, Tampa Bay Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht, while appearing on the Rich Eisen Show at the time, said that one way to reduce prank calls was for general managers themselves to make video calls to prospects to convey the messages. So, the league seems to be learning from what went long last year.

However, that might not work entirely. It will not be possible for the NFL to prevent all prank calls made by friends or even others who may already have access to a prospect’s contact number. But limiting direct access to a prospect’s contact information will be a good start.

In practice, only a handful of people per team, the owner, general manager, and head coach, actually need those numbers. That is why the league has decided to narrow things down to a single point of contact within football operations instead of letting that information circulate broadly. It will be interesting to see how things go this year.