“Buyer Beware!” - Rich Weighs In on Brendan Sorsby Entering the NFL’s Supplemental Draft

The Brendan Sorsby saga set the entire college football world aflame, and it lasted about as long as Bill Belichick's head-coaching tenure with the Jets. A little over a week ago, a retired judge in Tarrant County, nearly 300 miles from Lubbock, ruled that Sorsby could play for Texas Tech. His lead attorney was Jeffrey Kessler, the man the NFL world knows as someone who wins cases.

The facts underneath the ruling are stark. Sorsby placed more than 9,000 bets totaling at least $90,000, including wagers on the teams he was playing for. Kessler convinced the judge to frame that gambling history as a mental health issue the NCAA was obligated to support rather than punish, arguing the NCAA failed to look after Sorsby's wellbeing when it ruled him ineligible.

Jay Bilas came on the show and predicted the ruling would be appealed and not hold up. In the meantime, everything escalated. Conferences talked about refusing to schedule Texas Tech. The Big 12 excoriated the judge and filed for a federal injunction to preserve its right to discipline Sorsby. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton weighed in on Texas Tech's behalf, other states' attorneys general pushed back, and the NCAA asked an appeals court for an expedited resolution before the season. As Rich put it, everybody's pissed off.

In the end, Sorsby, his family, his legal team, and Texas Tech decided it wasn't worth fighting. With the June 22nd deadline to apply for the NFL Supplemental Draft looming as the last safety valve, Sorsby is leaving college football for the NFL.

Texas Tech Board of Regents chairman Cody Campbell put out a long statement lamenting that Sorsby would be "stripped of the opportunity to continue to develop as a better and stronger man" and praying he stays on his path to recovery. Rich echoed the hope for Sorsby's recovery but drew a hard line on the framing. Nobody stripped Sorsby of anything. "He stripped himself with his behavior," Rich said. "It's called consequences." As a parent, he explained, you discipline with sympathy, but you still discipline, and the consequence is often what leads someone to get the help they need.

The gambling itself is the part that can bring the whole house down. Rich connected it to the baseless conspiracy that De'Aaron Fox was on the take after a poor Finals, noting Fox simply played badly. But when a player actually bets on his own team, that's a violation that justifies real consequences, which is why a judge waving them away struck so many people as absurd.

Then came the NFL portion: buyer beware. Rich recalled how Terrelle Pryor once had to serve a five-game suspension in the NFL and Jim Tressel lost his career over players getting free tattoos and memorabilia money, a scandal that looks quaint in 2026. He noted Reggie Bush got his Heisman back and Kayshon Boutte, who gambled on LSU games, drew no NFL suspension. Nobody has been chosen in a supplemental draft since 2019, where the bottom third of the league picks first, then the middle group, then the playoff teams, with order randomized inside each tier and teams forfeiting the corresponding pick.

Jets head coach Aaron Glenn was asked about Sorsby and handled it expertly, saying he's focused on his current quarterbacks and that it wouldn't be fair to that player to comment. With Geno Smith and a war chest of picks, the Jets, like every team, now face the same question Rich kept returning to: the talent is real, but who wants to figure out the everything that comes with it?