Ex-UC Bearcats QB Brendan Sorsby's future may rest with attorney hire

If the 2022 gambling charges at Indiana are found true, Brendan Sorsby would likely be permanently ineligible.

Prominent sports, anti-trust attorney Jeffrey Kessler enters picture

Kessler is the co-executive chairman of the New York firm Winston & Strawn. USA Today named him one of the 25 Most Powerful People in college sports last August.

Sports Business Journal named him among the 50 Most Influential in Sports Business in 2015, 2021 and 2024 and among the Most Influential in the last 25 years last December.

In September 2024, Sports Illustrated had him on their Power List among the Top 50 most influential people in sports. Here are a few things you may know Kessler from, in addition to being a lecturer-in-law at Columbia University.

Jeffrey Kessler, attorney for the NFL Players Association, leaves NFL headquarters on June 23, 2015, in New York. Kessler was there in relation to Tom Brady appealing the four-game suspension the league placed on him for the 2015 season for using deflated balls.

Kessler was part of House vs. NCAA decision leading to unprecedented revenue sharing with athletes

As the lead attorney, Kessler was able to get $2.8 billion in damages from the NCAA and FBS conferences plus the revenue-sharing that began last July 1. This ruling put schools like UC on the hook for $20.5 million per season to share with student-athletes. Some schools got in front of the July 1, 2025, date, which explains payrolls exceeding that amount, particularly in football and basketball in power conferences.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and UC director of athletics John Cunningham have since been involved in the College Sports Commission (CSC) to oversee revenue-sharing, but Kessler, as recently as April 20, was involved in saying the CSC was "overreaching" in overseeing Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals.

In a June 2024 CBS Sports article, he was described as "one huge pain in the butt" by Dennis Dodd.

"As long as my clients don't think I'm a pain in the butt – I feel that's my audience," Kessler told CBS Sports. "Frankly, if all the adversaries thought I was wonderful, I was probably not doing my job."

Kessler represented former NFL QB Tom Brady in "Deflategate"

Brady and the Patriots were charged with deliberately deflating footballs in the AFC Championship game in January 2015. He was suspended the first four games of 2016, the Patriots were fined $1 million and they forfeited two draft picks in 2016.

Brady appealed and was reinstated for the 2015 season, but the U.S. Court of Appeals reinstated the suspension, which he served in 2016 before leading the Patriots to another Super Bowl.

Kessler represented U.S. Women's national soccer team for equal pay

Kessler and the Winston team won a $24 million settlement. Twenty-eight national team members filed the suit in 2019 and it was settled in 2022.

Potential penalties from Sorsby case

If the 2022 gambling charges at Indiana are found true, he would likely be permanently ineligible, much like former Iowa State quarterback Hunter Dekkers was in 2023. Gambling on any pro sports where the NCAA also holds a championship (such as baseball) is illegal. Whether or not "balls and strikes" falls into gambling on baseball may be debated, but it surely would have triggered on the ProhiBet app required on the phones of all Big 12 athletes.

UC's response of not knowing of any illegal betting would cover MMA, horse racing, NASCAR or anything where the NCAA didn't hold a championship.

As for the use of gambling apps, which are prevalent among young people, the NCAA is suing DraftKings for copyright infringement over the use of the terms "March Madness", "Sweet 16", Elite Eight", "Final Four", etc. The NCAA is partnered with Genius Sports, which supplies NCAA data feeds to sportsbooks.

Kessler and the Sorsby team are hoping for a "compromise," or they could pursue filing in a Lubbock district court, where a favorable ruling may allow him to play if a judge allows him to despite an "ineligible" tag by the NCAA.

NFL supplemental draft may not be given for Sorsby

While many have pointed toward the NFL supplemental draft, which typically takes place in early-to-mid-July, it may not be an option if Sorsby is ruled ineligible. CBS Sports NFL Insider Jonathan Jones was quoted in a John Talty article saying there may not be interest.

"If he wanted to apply to the NFL for the supplemental draft, folks I talked to believe he would not be approved," Jones said. "So the supplemental draft seems like an extremely unlikely pathway this summer. And here's why: The NFL is obviously very hard on those who gamble on NFL games … If you are in the NFL and you do bet on your team − win or lose − you are banned a minimum of two years. That's how seriously the league takes this."

How would NFL supplemental draft work with Sorsby?

If he had takers and if the NFL held the event (none have taken place since 2023), teams would bid for the round where they would like to claim him and the highest bid wins. The last player selected in an NFL supplemental draft was Jalen Thompson by the Arizona Cardinals in 2019. The last quarterback selected was Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor in 2011.

The site Fantasylife.com said Sorsby in the 2026 draft would have been considered with Ty Simpson of Alabama, Carson Beck of the Miami Hurricanes and Drew Allar of Penn State. In a Pro Football Focus "way too early" 2027 mock draft, Sorsby was seen as the No. 8 pick overall to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Should he be permitted in the NFL supplemental draft, teams projected to take a bid on Sorsby are the New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers, in that order.

"That was always my No. 1 concern because, to me, any time you had something that became legal that was against NCAA rules, it made it a very difficult management and something that was difficult to control," former Alabama coach and ESPN GameDay host Nick Saban said in the CBS Sports Talty piece.

In October, the NCAA voted to allow gambling on pro sports by athletes and athletic staffers. By late November, it was rescinded across all three NCAA divisions and it remains illegal.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ex-Cincinnati Bearcats QB Sorsby banking on prominent sports attorney