Brendan Sorsby Will Get the Shot He Deserves
Brendan Sorsby deserves a shot in the NFL, and he is almost certainly going to get one.
Sorsby is now headed to the NFL supplemental draft after a college gambling scandal ended his fight to play at Texas Tech. According to reporting, he wagered around $90,000 over several years and placed bets connected to Indiana football while he was a student-athlete there. That is serious and nobody should minimize it. There are real questions about judgment, maturity, and whether he fully understands what he risked.
However, the idea that this should be a death sentence for his football career is ridiculous. I keep hearing people, generally guys older than me, asking why any NFL team would take a chance on this kid. My response is simple: why wouldn’t they? He is a talented quarterback in a league where half the teams are always searching for one. My guess is at least 25 teams will be willing to take that chance.
Sorsby made a major mistake, but we need to keep some perspective. This is not a case where a young athlete should be permanently branded as hopeless or untouchable. I saw one comparison to Art Schlichter, which is sick and unfair to do to a 22-year-old kid. Schlichter was a four-year starter at Ohio State, and the fourth overall pick in the 1982 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Colts. His gambling addiction destroyed his playing career and contributed to forty years of legal trouble. To throw that comparison on Sorsby is reckless and cruel.
The biggest criticism of Sorsby as a quarterback is that he can take too many risks, believing he can fit the perfect throw into a window that is too small. The same concern that exists off the field. Teams will have to evaluate whether the risk-taking is manageable, whether the treatment and accountability are real, and whether he can be trusted inside an NFL building.
But here’s the thing, in 2026, we also have to be honest about the world we built around these athletes. You cannot watch a major game without being buried under sports betting ads, in-game odds, sportsbook promos, arena signage, and broadcast segments built around gambling. We have created a culture where young athletes are surrounded by betting at all times, and then we act shocked when one of them falls into it.
College athletes still need to be educated, protected, and prohibited from gambling on sports. The integrity of the games is of paramount importance. But if society is going to tolerate predatory gambling marketing everywhere, then we cannot instantly turn our backs on a kid who made a mistake inside that same culture.
Brendan Sorsby will get his shot at the NFL, as he should.
