The NFL has denied Brendan Sorsby’s petition to enter the supplemental draft, stating that the quarterback’s request came “without any supporting information or documentation, and only after abandoning your recent litigation efforts to avoid NCAA sanctions.” However, Pittsburgh Steelers legend Ryan Clark argued that by preventing Sorsby from entering the NFL, the league is also preventing him from receiving the support he needs, given his reported gambling addiction. At the same time, though, Clark also pointed out that the NFL has a problem of its own.

“The NFL proved a point with Brendan Sorsby that we will protect the shield at all costs, but the NFL also has a problem,” Clark said. “Every sport now, especially professionally, pushes betting because when people bet on games, they have more interest in the games.”

Clark used the names of many NFL players getting suspended for gambling, using Isaiah Rodgers, Jameson Williams, and Calvin Ridley as examples. The league had suspended Rodgers for the entire 2023 season after he reportedly made roughly one hundred bets, including on his own team.

During the same season, the NFL suspended four Detroit Lions players for violating the league’s gambling policy, with Williams being one of them. As for Ridley, the wide receiver also faced suspension for the same reasons. And that’s what Ryan Clark is pointing out. On one hand, the league doesn’t allow players to gamble, but at the same time, it also actively promotes gambling to generate interest. In his view, that’s the problem.

According to a 2024 report by Alex Semancik, betting on the NFL in 2024 was expected to reach an estimated $35 billion, a 30% increase from 2023, based on an analysis by the American Gaming Association. In the report, Semancik also quoted Jim Strode, an expert in sports gambling and associate professor of Sport Management at Ohio University’s College of Business, who examined the influence of gaming in sports like the NFL.

“The NFL, like all professional sports leagues, is a business looking for ways to generate revenue,” said Strode. “Many professional sports leagues kept sports betting an arm’s length away due to the history of corruption [and organized crime] involved in sports gambling. When the Supreme Court did strike down [the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act], states were able to not only legalize [sports betting], but also regulate it.”

Brendan Sorsby’s case, however, is different. By denying his petition for the supplemental draft, the league is setting a precedent on gambling, clarifying that a college player who violates the NCAA’s gambling policy cannot simply enter the supplemental draft after being caught or even after voluntarily admitting to the misconduct.

“With Brendan Sorsby, they couldn’t say to him, ‘Hey, look, you told us you had a gambling addiction. And it truly doesn’t matter what sport it is, whether you’re betting on baseball or horse racing or whatever it is, because if you have an addiction, that’s going to in some way leak into your football,'” Clark added.

“…The other piece they have to think of is what precedent does it set that we will reward bad behavior with the supplemental draft? Because what they would have been saying is, you can do these things that put your college eligibility at risk, and we’ll take you. So, we’re not asking you to be a better person. We’re not asking you to be a better player. We’re not asking you to somehow be a role model for young people. We’re rewarding you because you did the wrong thing. They can’t do that.”

Brendan Sorsby has confessed to gambling throughout his collegiate career, including on his team in Indiana, when he was a freshman. The NCAA forfeited his eligibility to play for Texas Tech this year, but the quarterback eventually received a temporary injunction to play in the 2026 season. amid a Big 12 lawsuit and uncertainty to play, Sorsby applied for the supplemental draft just three days before the deadline. However, the league isn’t allowing him to enter the NFL.