It is very reasonable to feel for Brendan Sorsby. He is a young adult who has made some very bad decisions. The decision to gamble on college football as a player has bad consequences for him. But his decision to trust Cody Campbell and Jeffrey Kessler may be even worse in the long run.
On Tuesday, the NFL issued a statement denying former Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby’s application for the NFL’s supplemental draft. Most people simply assumed that the NFL would grant the accommodation, considering that he became ineligible after the deadline for entering the standard NFL draft. There were also rumors that all 32 teams were planning to attend a workout with Sorsby in July. That assumption proved wrong, when ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported the letter’s existence midday Thursday:
"Your Petition—filed three business days before the deadline, without any supporting information or documentation, and only after abandoning your recent litigation efforts to avoid NCAA sanctions—does not provide a basis for the League to alter those plans. The issues presented by your Petition are too significant, and too closely tied to the League’s core integrity interests, to permit meaningful review within the timeline presented."NFL
In short the NFL claimed that because Sorsby waited until three days before the application deadline, and because the issue of gambling is so important to the NFL front office, they could not adequately investigate the situation to an acceptable level to allow for the supplemental draft. There was more:
"The sole reasons identified in your Petition for seeking entry into the Supplemental Draft are that you have been “declared ineligible” by the NCAA, have “exhausted all of [your] avenues to continue in the NCAA,” and “want to now play in the NFL.” The Petition provides no information regarding the basis for, or timing of, the NCAA’s decision. Public sources, however, indicate that in May 2026 the NCAA issued a determination declaring you permanently ineligible from participation in college athletics, based on a sustained pattern of improper gambling activity during your collegiate career at three different universities."NFL
Brendan Sorsby’s attorney, Jeffrey Kessler later released a statement of his own, telling ESPN’s Pete Thamel:
"It is a violation of the CBA and the law. We will pursue this immediately with the NFLPA"Jeffrey Kessler
There will be court filings, and because the supplement draft is part of the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the NFL Players Association may indeed give this situation some attention…but it’s not clear that the NFLPA would step in to attempt and change this outcome for a player who is, at least for now, not a member of the union.
If Brendan Sorsby does not play football this fall, and is forced to wait until April 2027 for his NFL shot, then it will be unfortunate for him, but his college eligibility is gone because of decisions HE made.
His murky NFL future is also his fault…but not for the gambling. Rather, it’s because he chose to trust Texas Tech billionaire booster and Board of Regents Chair Cody Campbell and the king of billable hours, attorney Jeffrey Kessler.
Earlier this month, in the initial aftermath of Sorsby being granted a temporary injunction that would have likely allowed him to play at Texas Tech in 2026, Campbell told On3:
"This unfortunate situation is the outcome of a broken system. I’m doing everything I can to fix it, but until there is a permanent solution, Texas Tech and its student athletes have to do the best they can to navigate and compete amid the chaos that exists in the reality of the world we live in. "Cody Campbell
If Sorsby had been getting, or maybe if he had been interested in getting, more wise and less compulsive counsel, someone at Texas Tech might have told him that while they empathize with his recognition of an addiction and fully support him in his recovery, the fact that he bet on games as a member of a participating team was going to be a bridge too far. Maybe even grant him a financial settlement to help him on his away.
He might then have had someone, in MAY, draft his petition for the supplemental draft in a thoughtful way. He might have taken full responsibility for his actions, accepted the NCAA’s ruling as a consequence of those actions, and asked the NFL for grace in his recovery and provided full transparency on his gambling history with a clear understanding that he could never and would never engage in that behavior as a member of the NFL.
Would that have changed the outcome? It’s impossible to say. Instead of that, he was wooed by Cody Campbell’s insatiable appetite for buying wins, and Jeffrey Kessler’s insatiable appetite for litigation. These two men somehow convinced him that they could win…and even if they didn’t, the NFL would put him in a supplemental draft just because he was a good player.
Make no mistake…Brendan Sorsby is responsible for his actions. He is also responsible for putting his trust in the advice of two men who have no real concern for his future beyond how it benefits them. Players and their families need to be extremely wary of such characters in today’s college landscape. In that sense, maybe the Brendan Sorsby saga can become a useful cautionary tale.
Add us as a preferred source on Google