Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby has been the talk of the football world as of late due to his eligibility fight against the NCAA after admitting he has a gambling addiction.
Sorsby, who won a temporary injunction against the NCAA allowing him to be eligible for the Red Raiders next season, opted to withdraw his case and instead enter the NFL Supplemental Draft.
Stephen A. Smith Warns NFL Teams Against Picking Brendan Sorsby
On ESPN’s “First Take,” NFL analyst Stephen A. Smith called into question Sorsby’s trustworthiness due to the breadth and scale of his gambling activities during his college football career.
“As a freshman, you rolled up in there gambling… You ain’t even 20 yet. You rolled up as a freshman and made 40 bets. That’s very suspicious to me. What that tells me is that you wanna do what you wanna do, when you wanna do it, how you wanna do it. And it’s all about the benjamins and everything else comes second. That’s dicey to me, from the quarterback position, a position of leadership. A direct position upon influencing the outcome of games.
“For you to have that kind of proclivity where you are constantly betting… 9,000 bets?! [Expletive]… You bet three times a day or something! That’s highly suspicious. I would be very, very leery picking my quarterback that is constantly gambling like that, and you’ve been doing it since you were a freshman?! … When you get paid by somebody, it’s primarily because they’re saying they trust you. I know the brother can play, but I’m supposed to trust him? I wish him nothing but the best, but I can’t trust that.”
During an appearance on the “105.3 The Fan in Dallas” show on Wednesday, Sorsby’s agent Ron Slavin revealed that the Cincinnati Bearcats were aware of the quarterback’s gambling habits but did nothing to combat them.
Sorsby posted a PFN QB Impact Score of 88.2 last season, which ranked 10th in the nation. He totaled 2,800 passing yards, 27 scores, and 5 interceptions, while adding 580 rushing yards and 9 touchdowns on the ground for the Bearcats last season.
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During Wednesday’s episode of “The Pat McAfee Show,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter pointed out that while Sorsby has applied to enter the NFL Supplemental Draft, he still must be approved.
“He could say he plans to be in the supplemental draft, but the NFL still has to sign off on a supplemental draft, and that decision is up to the commissioner,” Schefter said. “It is within his jurisdiction to decide whether or not there would be a supplemental draft this year.
“If there is a supplemental draft this year, it likely would be held in the back half of July, and then we’d see which of these teams, as you mentioned in that tier system, would wind up picking Brendan Sorsby.”
The supplemental draft was first held in 1977 and was last held in 2023. The last time that a player was picked in the supplemental draft was in 2019 when the Arizona Cardinals selected safety Jalen Thompson in the fifth round.
