After deciding to leave college ahead of a seemingly uphill legal battle against the Big 12, Brendan Sorsby had his sights set on the 2026 NFL Supplemental Draft. On Tuesday, the NFL (attempted to) close that door on him. Predictably, Sorsby and his team are not inclined to accept this decision.
Perhaps
anticipating litigation, the NFL came out with a claim of its legal authority to make such a decision and explained its theory of the case. Notably, the letter mentions that the NFL hasn’t held a supplemental draft in recent years, and was not planning to do so prior to the 2026 season.
According to the letter, Sorsby’s petition for the supplemental draft came just three days before the deadline and made an argument that relied heavily on the fact that he had exhausted avenues to continue his career at the college level. The letter also alleges that Sorsby’s team did not address the gambling addiction that made him ineligible for college play.
While I have not read the NFL’s bylaws and will not do so without the requisite attorney’s fees, I do have a legal education. My impression is that the NFL is likely to win this case, and I struggle to even imagine a winning argument that Sorsby’s attorneys could make on his behalf.
Unlike the NCAA, which has seen its legal authority attacked from all directions in recent years, professional sports leagues have a history of suspending and/or banning athletes whose conduct threatens the integrity of the game.
Besides the common sense underlying the league’s interest in maintaining its integrity, there is no legal right to work as a professional athlete. Players who have been drafted and signed contracts could sue for breach of those contracts, but the NFL isn’t infringing on some constitutional or statutory right to be drafted and signed by a professional football franchise.
Sorsby’s attorneys may be working on some legal theory that will completely blow my mind and prove us all wrong, but they will have to overcome the fact that – athletic ability aside – there was no guarantee that Sorsby would be drafted.
Even if a team liked his film, they would have been taking a massive risk in spending any resources on a player that the NFL may have ended up disciplining anyway. And NFL scouts don’t have him as a day one prospect anyway, making that risk for an NFL franchise even bigger.
Who would want to spend money and other franchise resources on a guy who isn’t guaranteed to be an instant impact guy?
I can’t fault Sorsby for wanting to pursue a football career, but his team’s readiness to litigate every issue in his path reeks of cynicism. Lawyers are quite expensive and he no longer has the backing of a multi-million dollar institution like Texas Tech or an NFL franchise.
Intentionally or not, the people advising Sorsby down this path are essentially encouraging more gambling. He is either spending money he already earned for playing football or borrowing against POTENTIAL future earnings on what looks like increasingly diminishing odds that he can continue making money playing football.
As a fan/blogger whose followed Sorsby’s career since his time at Indiana, I genuinely hope the best for him. I just do not get the impression that everyone advising him also has his best interests at heart.
