Brendan Sorsby Got Kicked Out of College for Betting. Now the NFL Won’t Touch Him Either.

Brendan Sorsby wanted a second chance. The NFL decided not to give him one.

The league confirmed it won’t hold a supplemental draft in 2026, effectively shutting down the quarterback’s last real shot at turning pro this year. Sorsby had thrown his name in after Texas Tech kicked him off the team over a gambling scandal where he admitted to placing more than $90,000 in bets on his own college games over four seasons.

That revelation alone blew up his college career. He played at Indiana, then Cincinnati, then transferred to Texas Tech. The NCAA ruled him ineligible, but he fought back with a lawsuit and won an injunction forcing his reinstatement. Texas Tech still wanted no part of him. So he was left with no school and no path to the NFL draft unless the league did something unusual.

The supplemental draft was created in 1977 specifically for players whose situations kept them out of the regular draft. It’s not used often. But it exists for exactly this kind of circumstance. The NFL just chose not to use it this year.

Mike Florio thinks Sorsby has a real legal argument

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio laid out the case on his show and said a lawsuit might not be crazy.

“It depends on the judge you get. It depends on the ideology of the judge. But the facts, the case, the precedent as it relates to the supplemental draft, as it relates to other players in the league who did similar things to Brendan Sorsby did, and when you look at the language of the CBA regarding the supplemental draft, as I said before, there’s no purity test, there’s no integrity test, there’s nothing in there that allows the NFL to consider any other policies or any other violations,” Florio said.

His bottom line: “If they want to punish him, punish him after he’s drafted.”

The point is that the collective bargaining agreement doesn’t give the NFL a blank check to deny someone entry into the supplemental draft based on personal conduct. The criteria are specific. Gambling violations aren’t listed as a reason to bar a player from the process. Florio called Sorsby’s potential argument “persuasive.”

Fighting the league might not be worth the fight

For all that legal momentum, Sorsby hasn’t sued. And he might not.

Florio said that staying quiet is probably the smarter play. “Sorsby’s giving up a lot by not fighting this, but as I said last week, it’s probably the right move. It’s probably the only move, especially if he’ll get a guarantee that he’ll be in the April 2027 draft,” he said.

That’s the trade-off. Sue the NFL and you might win the right to enter a supplemental draft that may or may not produce a contract worth signing. Or wait, keep your head down, and show up for the 2027 regular draft with a cleaner story. The league hasn’t offered any guarantees, but the implication from Florio is that Sorsby’s camp might have gotten some informal signal that he won’t be blackballed if he just rides this out.

Sorsby was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team. He’s not some scrub. He can throw. The talent is there. The question is whether any NFL front office will look past the betting history and the legal noise.

As of now, Sorsby hasn’t said anything publicly about what he’ll do next. No lawsuit. No statement. Just silence. That probably tells you everything.