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00:00Mike Florio joins us. Pro Football Talk on the Wise Heart Right. We Make It Right. Call Kyle Wright Hotline.
00:05We have gone from, are the Browns going to get him? Could the Browns get him?
00:08Well, is he even going to play this year? And I think it takes on a different meaning.
00:11So Mike joins us right now. Again, on that Wise Heart Right. We Make It Right. Call Kyle Wright Hotline.
00:17Mike, will Brendan Sorsby play or be eligible to play in 2026?
00:24Still to be determined. And the first question is, when you consider the money he had to have spent on
00:32legal fees to win his eligibility to play in the NCAA before he abandoned that at the direction, essentially, of
00:41Texas Tech and went to the supplemental draft, he has to ask himself, how much more money do I want
00:44to pour down this hole?
00:45Is it just going to be more legal fees, more delay, and ultimately the same result that I'm not going
00:56to be allowed into the supplemental draft?
00:59And there's also that practical consideration. Even though this is wrong, the NFL may not react kindly to his effort
01:08to sue or otherwise fight back against the NFL's decision to reject him from the supplemental draft.
01:14So he's got a decision to make. And there's really no good decision. I just posted something at PFT about
01:19his other options for playing football.
01:20There aren't many, and none of them are good. The CFL season's already started. He could play community college or
01:25non-NCAA football like Hunter Deckers did after he lost his eligibility for gambling in 2024.
01:31Or he could try to join the UFL, but their season doesn't end until after off-season workouts end.
01:38So there really isn't a good option here. He's just got to come up with the best bad solution to
01:44a situation that the NFL has put him into.
01:47Well, they wrote it right there, Mike, that they encourage him to focus on preparing for possible entry into the
01:52NFL through the 2027 draft.
01:54I mean, I'd be at the point right now, even if you do take him to court, you just said
01:59it.
01:59The NFL is going to look kindly on that just because you're taking him to court through the ringer.
02:03They got more money than God. They don't matter. It doesn't matter to them.
02:07You just got three to four or whatever million dollars from Texas Tech to walk away.
02:10I'd just start to pour that into training and start looking forward to 2027.
02:14The problem is your draft stock isn't going to go up by not playing.
02:20There's going to be a group of quarterbacks who play very well this year who move up the board.
02:25Look at Fernando Mendoza. A year ago, nobody expected him to emerge the way he did at Indiana
02:31and become the Heisman Trophy winner, national champion, and first overall pick in the draft.
02:35Frankly, that's why Sorsby wanted to play one more year of college football.
02:38He could have entered the draft in April. He wanted to enhance his standing.
02:42And, hey, now you get paid to play college football, and you could end up being drafted a lot higher
02:48than you would have been,
02:48and you could be 50 million-plus number one overall pick.
02:51So he will be entering the draft without the benefit of another year of games, the experience that comes from
02:57that.
02:57And I don't think it's going to help him when April rolls around.
03:02So it's just a bad situation for him.
03:05And, look, I don't agree with the NFL's position based upon the language of the CBA when it comes to
03:11the supplemental draft,
03:12but it doesn't matter what I think.
03:13What matters at this point is what Sorsby is willing to spend to try to fight this thing if he
03:17wants to fight this thing.
03:18Mike Florio joined us on the hotline.
03:20It's very interesting to me, Mike, that they didn't suspend him for the year.
03:26They kind of just punted it, but the language was that, like, the filing wasn't accurate or on time, even
03:36though it was,
03:37and that they felt like he didn't show enough remorse because he's fleeing the NCAA.
03:41Even though he was trying to play college football, they forced his hand, but he was willing to accept a
03:47two-game suspension.
03:48So that remorse and accountability thing, along with they're dinging one of the world-class lawyers we have in antitrust
03:57law in this country on a bad filing?
04:01And here's what doesn't make any sense, because Jeffrey Kessler's office put out a statement yesterday saying,
04:06we gave them everything they asked for, and we asked, do you need anything else?
04:10It's just a one-page document to apply for the supplemental draft, and this is the problem I have with
04:15the NFL's position.
04:17And this is where it's important to set aside whatever you feel about Brendan Sorsby betting on Indiana when he
04:24wasn't playing for Indiana
04:25or betting when he was underage or whatever the activity was.
04:29You've got to set that aside, and you've got to look at what the CBA says.
04:32The CBA doesn't include a purity test.
04:35It doesn't include an integrity test.
04:37It says if you were eligible for the draft in April and then you became not eligible after that,
04:43you're eligible for the supplemental draft.
04:45That's what it says.
04:46It doesn't say if we decide to let you in.
04:50Now, there's language in there basically saying, well, we can say we don't feel like having a supplemental draft,
04:54but the response to that is have you ever not had one when you have an eligible player apply?
04:59Are you specifically targeting this player and breaking from your established precedent?
05:03Remember when Josh Gordon was in the supplemental draft?
05:06He'd been kicked out of college for multiple marijuana tests back when the NFL actually cared about marijuana use.
05:12They didn't delay the supplemental draft for him.
05:15They held one.
05:17So that's the thing that's weird about this.
05:20I thought what they would do is say, well, you knew or should have known you weren't eligible to play
05:25college football
05:26and you should have entered the April draft, and that's why we're not letting you in.
05:29That would have been cleaner under the terms of the CBA.
05:32They're just hiding behind this idea that we don't have to have a supplemental draft if we don't want to,
05:37and we're choosing not to because you're presenting issues that we feel like we don't have enough time to fully
05:43resolve.
05:43There's nothing in the CBA that supports that kind of a response.
05:46It just feels like, to me, they're trying to go through the path of least resistance because it's like,
05:52okay, take us to court, and then we'll be in the – because it's almost July.
05:54We're getting ready for camp coming up here next month.
05:57And, again, I just keep going, man, timing is everything.
06:00He was trying to stall out the NCAA, and now the NFL is trying to stall him out.
06:04And now the NFL stalls him out.
06:05I wonder if they just get to the point.
06:07Again, I don't mean to re-say it, Mike, but it's like they got billions.
06:10You don't.
06:12Unless Jeffrey Kessler wants to do it pro bono and just be a thorn in the side.
06:15But then we can drag this into 2027 as well.
06:17It's just like, hey, we got what you don't, and we have the position that you want to play.
06:23We will stall you out, and you will come to our terms instead of anything else.
06:27Can I ask you a different question, Mike?
06:29Because this has been asked several times over the last couple of days.
06:33And Mike Florio joining us from Pro Football Talk.
06:36What is the rules on just trying out for a team and signing with a team as, like, an undrafted
06:43free agent?
06:43Because there are several people like, hey, man, they have tryouts all the time.
06:46What's stopping them from just trying out for a team and signing with a team?
06:49That, and I've gotten that question as well, he just can't do it.
06:52He has to go through a draft.
06:54You have to be eligible and in a draft pool.
06:57You can't just say, I'm going to go sign as an undrafted free agent with whoever I want to sign
07:02with.
07:02He is out of the NFL until 2027, and his only path in is through the draft.
07:08If he goes undrafted, then he's available to go sign with the team as an undrafted free agent.
07:13But he can't do it now.
07:15There is no end run that he can pull.
07:17The draft is the gate through which he has to go to get into the NFL.
07:22And that's why he's got to decide.
07:24And, look, you guys mentioned that the NFL's got billions and they'll fight him in court.
07:29It's a fairly simple exercise at this point because what he'd try to do is get the same thing he
07:34got in Texas,
07:35an order forcing him in temporarily.
07:38It would be most likely federal court, maybe in the NFL's backyard in Manhattan,
07:43and there would be a motion for a preliminary injunction forcing the NFL to hold the supplemental draft,
07:49a temporary restraining order, whatever it would take.
07:51They would try to bring this to a head right now, understanding and explaining that time is of the essence.
07:57And courts typically respond to that.
07:59If you can convince that, you know, I've got legal rights that need to be resolved,
08:03and those rights are going to be irrelevant pretty quickly,
08:07I need something that gives me what I'm looking for while we figure out this case,
08:13then he's got a chance.
08:15And it shouldn't cost a tremendous amount of money to put together the paperwork that would tee up that argument.
08:22Do you find it interesting at all, Mike Florio joining us right now,
08:26that I recall vividly the Maurice Claret situation,
08:30and I saw how the public, much of the public,
08:34despite the things that Claret was accused of at the time,
08:38and there were a slew of them, and people here in Cleveland know firsthand
08:40because they celebrated him winning a national championship.
08:43He's from the Youngstown area.
08:45People were rooting for him, a lot of people, from a lot of different corners
08:49because it was the man against the machine
08:52and to become eligible and right to work and right to earn a living.
08:57And even with Terrell Pryor, I saw some of that too.
09:00In this case, Sorsby has become the least sympathetic figure ever.
09:05Is it just that he's gotten paid?
09:07Because these guys all lawyer up.
09:10These guys all have various levels of, you know, feeling bad about what they did or accountability.
09:17Why this one?
09:19Why is this one such an affront to the community?
09:22I don't understand it.
09:23And first of all, Claret's case was a lot weaker than Sorsby's
09:26because Claret was trying to show that he should be eligible,
09:31and the NFL was able to convince after losing at the district court level,
09:37he convinced an appeals court, or the NFL convinced an appeals court that he's not eligible,
09:42that the three-year rule keeps him out.
09:45You've got to be at least three years removed from high school graduation to get into the NFL draft.
09:48He was trying to get rid of that three-year rule,
09:50and he wanted a rule that basically you can go into the NFL draft whenever you want
09:54after you finish high school.
09:57This isn't about eligibility.
09:58This is about whether or not they're ignoring the fact that he's eligible
10:02and coming up with some other roadblock.
10:03And as it relates to the public perception, this really is weird to me
10:07because not enough people are taking a step back
10:10and looking at the environment in which Sorsby's behavior happened.
10:15This isn't Art Schleister.
10:17This is a guy who grew up in an age where everywhere you turn,
10:22it's bet on this, bet on that.
10:23Every show you watch if you're a sports fan, they're sponsored by a sports book.
10:28They're touting picks.
10:29There's this not-so-subtle notion that you're not really being a sports fan
10:35if you're not betting on these games, that it's cool, that it's fun,
10:38and that everybody does it.
10:39And I think there's a whole generation of kids that don't think there's anything wrong with it.
10:44It's not just legalized.
10:45It's normalized.
10:45And I don't know why Sorsby's the pariah.
10:48There's no evidence that he's bet on a team while playing.
10:52Kayshaun Booty, who plays for the Patriots, did that at LSU.
10:55But because the NFL didn't know about it, there was never a punishment.
10:58Hunter Deckers did what Sorsby did when he was at Iowa State.
11:02The NFL didn't put up a roadblock to keep him out of the draft.
11:07So it really is odd to me that at a time where it's no longer illegal
11:12and everyone's doing it, so many people are wagging a finger at Brendan Sorsby
11:15for what he did when he was 18, 19, 20 years old.
11:18In addition, Kirk Signetti came out and said only positive things about him.
11:23You can't find an ex-teammate if anybody would be speaking out about this broken covenant
11:29between the locker room and the sanctity of the game.
11:32It'd be his ex-teammates.
11:33None of them have stepped forward to say anything malicious about this kid.
11:37And yet, can you imagine, ironically, a worse advertisement for these apps
11:43and gambling on football than his situation in which his livelihood might be ruined
11:49and who knows where he goes from there?
11:51Like, is that really what they want to put out there?
11:54Hey, this is a great cautionary tale.
11:56You know, I wrote a book last year called Big Shield that looks at a fictional gambling controversy.
12:02And I think anybody that reads it and understands it, it would scare them away
12:06if they're athletes from getting involved in gambling in any way, shape, or form.
12:11And Sewersby is a real-life example.
12:14And one thing he could do over the course of the next year, he could go around to a bunch
12:17of high schools
12:18if he wants to.
12:19It's up to him.
12:20But he's in a position where he can really paint a picture for a lot of these kids
12:25about what happens when you just do what everybody else is doing
12:29and you get caught up in that dopamine rush.
12:32Even if it's two $3 bets, which my understanding is that's all he was doing.
12:36But, you know, for a lot of these kids, and Hunter Deckers said it, it felt like an extension of
12:41a video game.
12:42You know, you're not going to find a bookie on the wrong side of the tracks.
12:46You're not dealing with unsavory people.
12:48You're picking up your phone and you're pressing a button.
12:50And you're not even, like, feeding a dollar into a slot.
12:54Like, it's all electronic.
12:55It doesn't feel like gambling used to feel.
12:58And I just think the NFL has an obligation, given how much money it's making off of gambling,
13:02to take a more pragmatic look at these things.
13:05But it's clear that, at least for now, the NFL is not willing to do that.
13:08So my final one for you, Mike.
13:10Well, for one, I was actually going to promote your book, Big Shield, because I go, this is perfect.
13:14It's about gambling, and we're talking about a gambler over here.
13:16So you can find it on Amazon.
13:18That's Mike's latest.
13:19It is Big Shield.
13:20But let me bring this up with you here, because Lima tried to scare you.
13:23So the discussion when he first came out, should the Browns get him?
13:27Should the Browns get him?
13:27I go, man, we've got enough problems.
13:29We don't need to be inviting this.
13:30Let's just get to 2027.
13:31And if one of the guys in this QB room work out great, if not, we'll kick the can down
13:36the road for another year.
13:38Lima tried to scare me and say that the Steelers were interested in him.
13:42I said back, I go, nah, you know, you look at their history, the family who are in, organization.
13:46I brought up Dan Marino in 83, the whole thing.
13:50Am I right?
13:51Would the Steelers not be interested in Brendan Soresby with all this looming?
13:56Well, I don't know why the Steelers wouldn't be, and they did learn a valuable lesson in
14:001983.
14:01Tony Dungy tells the story about what happened then.
14:03They still had Terry Bradshaw, and they thought it would be awkward to have Dan Marino there
14:07before Terry Bradshaw was ready to end his career.
14:11It turns out that Bradshaw played a handful of additional games in 1983 and never played
14:15again.
14:16And that was the year that they could have had Dan Marino and passed on it.
14:18And as it relates to the gambling concerns, you know, again, you got to understand the
14:24broader context, and I think teams will.
14:26You got to do the evaluation of the player and decide whether or not you think he can
14:30be the answer for you.
14:31And I think teams would have done that.
14:33And for a team like the Steelers, it's never going to be drafted in the top 10.
14:36You know, they've never drafted, at least since they became a good team, they've never
14:39drafted higher than seven.
14:41They've picked in the top 10 five times in 50 plus years.
14:44You're not going to be in position to get a potential franchise quarterback at the top of
14:47the draft.
14:48I was saying last week, they'd be a perfect team.
14:50And it's kind of hard for the Steelers to take a principled stand against gambling,
14:56as legend has it.
14:57Art Rooney bought that team based upon his winnings from a racetrack in the 30s.
15:02And, you know, there was a time where the Steelers had to completely reconfigure their
15:06ownership structure because they were into gambling in Florida.
15:10And they went from dog racing, which was allowed, into, you know, some of the slot machines and
15:16the electronic machines, which, which wasn't, and multiple members of the Rooney family
15:20had to exit ownership over it.
15:22So gambling has been part of the DNA of ownership of the Steelers for a long time.
15:27So it would be weird for them to all of a sudden run in the other direction because somebody
15:30gambled.
15:32Well, damn, I ain't been that wrong in a long time.
15:35All right, Mike, thank you very much again.
15:36His book, Big Shield, Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk.
15:39Thank you for the time, Mike.
15:41Thanks, guys.
15:41Mike Florio, on the wise heart right, we make it right, call Kyle Wright hotline.
15:45Well, I guess we don't have to worry about it because we ain't even eligible to play.
15:48What do you think of that, Don't?
15:50Do your champions pose.
15:51No, there's no reason to here.
15:53Do your champions pose.
15:54I just, I think what stinks is I so wanted to see where he was going to get taken.
15:59And we still may.
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