The Draw Play

Last week I was feeling pretty bummed out regarding the entire Sorsby situation regarding the plague of sports gambling and where things are headed. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the Rubicon remains uncrossed and the line remains held. For now, we can hold our breath.

About once a decade or so, the big evil corporation known as a sports league actually manages to take the moral high ground in a situation and allows us to root for them. The last time this happened was when the NBA banned Donald Sterling. The NFL forcing Dan Snyder to sell may get half-credit.

The NFL has decided not to hold a supplemental draft this season. This isn’t particularly notable by itself; the NFL hasn’t held one for a few years and often doesn’t even draft anyone when they do. It’s notable now because in deciding against it, they have effectively banned Sorsby from the league for at least a year, directly blocking his attempted escape route. No Sorsby, you set this fire, you get to burn in it.

What makes this so delicious is the letter the NFL sent directly to Sorsby. I can’t remember the last time a corporation so publicly and blatantly dunked on someone so directly, with such prejudice. They outright call him out for his attempts to avoid facing consequences. It almost feels personal. Reading the letter is like watching someone you hate get repeatedly kicked in the nuts.

Sorsby’s attorneys have obviously released a statement that they plan to fight this, etc etc, as is to be expected, but I cannot imagine the NFL would send a letter this harsh if they actually feared they’d lose any retaliation attempt. This is it. They slammed the door in Sorsby’s face, told him to pound sand, and then sprayed him with the hose just to get him off the property.

We can level an unfathomable amount of criticism at the NFL. They would deserve it all. In this one, very specific situation, they got it right, and they crushed it. I will hand it to you just this once, Roger.

Since Sorsby attempted to join the NFL and withdrew his fight against the NCAA, he is ineligible to play football. His options are now, in rough order:

-Go play for the CFL, who already started its season
-Play for the UFL, whose season just ended (Congrats to the Louisville Kings!)
-Go back to Tech if allowed, not play, but just hang around like a weirdo making everything awkward
-Go fuck off by himself and prep for next year at his local gym
-Get a real job

He’s fucked. He wasn’t a talented enough prospect to really get teams’ motors running (If he was, they probably would have held the draft), so now he has to sit in silence with no recourse and hope next year’s QB draft class is super shit so he gets another chance. This is hopefully the end of Brendan Sorsby. Get the help you need, my guy, but you are now in the pantheon of dipshits who bet on themselves and got caught. Rare company, the opposite of esteemed. A real…Sorsby Spot. Don’t be a Sorsby Loser. Other puns.