Brendan Sorsby's decision to drop his unprecedented legal battle to play for Texas Tech and turn to the NFL for his next football opportunity has created a whole new set of challenges.
Sorsby's attempt to speed up his professional career leans heavily on a rarely used offseason process designed for prospects not eligible for the NFL's primary draft. The quarterback declared for the supplemental draft Tuesday and has until the league deadline's Monday to file.
The quarterback who transferred earlier this year from Cincinnati to Texas Tech was banished from competition by the NCAA for gambling activity that included wagers on his own team while on the roster at Indiana in 2022 and betting on pro sports.
Sorsby spent a month in a residential treatment program for a diagnosed addiction. Then he sued the NCAA and gained a court-ordered reinstatement that prompted nationwide backlash toward Texas Tech.
The NFL takes gambling very seriously, and now teams have to decide whether to risk a valued selection by drafting Sorsby.
Here’s what to know about the NFL's gambling policy and punishment, Sorsby and the supplemental draft:
The NFL has a long history of monitoring gambling carefully. The league's 2018 gambling policy for league personnel states in part: “Gambling, particularly on NFL games or other sports, presents potential risks to the integrity of our competition and can negatively impact team cohesion.”
Players are not allowed to place a bet while on league property, and that policy prohibits all other NFL personnel from placing or facilitating bets on any other professional, international or Olympic sporting event. Yes, that includes college sports.
The league ramped up efforts in 2023 to better educate players, especially rookies, on where and when they can bet and what they can bet on. That followed the suspensions of 10 players for either betting on NFL games or placing bets while on league property.
The NFL has suspended players for gambling violations from 1963, when Paul Hornung and Alex Karras lost a season, to 2022, when wide receiver Calvin Ridley, now with Tennessee, was suspended for gambling on NFL games in 2021 while away from Atlanta addressing mental health concerns.
Sorsby won a temporary injunction against the NCAA on June 8 allowing him to remain eligible at Texas Tech even after he acknowledged making thousands of impermissible bets worth at least $90,000 on college and pro sports. Those include some bets on his own team when he was a freshman at Indiana.
The court order sent shockwaves through college sports. Big 12 Conference Commissioner Brett Yormark said the decision involving one of the league’s schools caused “great concern amongst our membership.”
The NCAA twice denied Texas Tech’s petition to restore Sorsby’s eligibility, then appealed the injunction. Sorsby still needs that injunction dismissed to be eligible for the NFL supplemental draft.
The quarterback tentatively plans to work out for NFL teams July 10 at a Dallas-area high school, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Wednesday. That person spoke on condition of anonymity because the process for conducting the supplemental draft wasn’t complete.
The NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell will have to determine how to handle Sorsby if a team takes him in the supplemental draft.
Can the NFL sanction, limit or punish Sorsby for gambling while in college? Messages to league officials by the AP on Wednesday were not immediately returned.
The NFL Players Association likely will have something to say if a new player is punished for bets made before joining the league, creating yet another possible challenge.
Sorsby had been projected as a possible first-round selection for the NFL's 2027 draft. If selected in the supplemental draft and available this season, he would join a 2026 rookie class that had 10 quarterbacks taken in April.
Fernando Mendoza went to the Las Vegas Raiders with the top overall selection. Only Mendoza and Ty Simpson, taken at No. 13 by the Los Angeles Rams, were drafted in the first round. Carson Beck didn't get drafted by Miami until the first pick of the third round.
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FILE - The NFL logo is displayed on a goal post at Acrisure Stadium before an NFL football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens in Pittsburgh Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The eight men killed in this week's fiery crash of a B-52 during a test flight at California's Edwards Air Force Base included four active duty airmen, a reservist and three civilians who were on a team devoted to keeping the bomber flying for decades to come, military officials said Wednesday.
The airfield where the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress crashed shortly after takeoff on Monday remained closed but other base operations have resumed, according to a base spokesperson. No cause has been determined. Officials said it could take six months to complete the investigation.
The victims were identified as: Col. Gregory Watson, 53; Retired Lt. Col. Miles Middleton, 50; Lt. Col. Gabriel Estrella, 40; Maj. Alexander Davis, 34; Maj. Robert Dee, 40; Maj. Brad Hovey, 35; Jeromy Smith, 32; and Christopher Rischar, 41.
“They were dedicated professionals, beloved family members and irreplaceable teammates," Col. Thomas Tauer, commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards, said in a statement.
Watson, a weapons systems officer, and Middleton, a pilot, were Boeing employees and the company said their loss "is deeply felt across our teams, and our hearts remain with their families, loved ones and those who worked with them.”
Rischar was a flight test engineer with government contractor JT4 who had worked at Edwards for 10 years, said his wife, Rebecca Rischar. She said he loved going to airplane museums and showing their two children, 15 and 14, different types of aircraft and how they functioned.
She recalled how her husband’s father, who also works at the base and had seen the crash, called her to ask if Christopher had been flying.
“I knew he was on that flight,” she said Wednesday. “It was routine, and if the plane went up, he was going up with it.”
Rebecca and Christopher met at a church youth group while attending the same high school in nearby Lancaster and had celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary in April. He had just started helping their teenage daughter learn how to drive.
“Our marriage is not just for this life here on Earth but for eternity, so we are sealed together,” she told The Associated Press.
The B-52 that crashed Monday was taking part in a test mission as part of a program aimed at making the 65-year-old bomber fleet operable through at least 2050. The bomber had arrived at Edwards in December after having a modernized radar installed at Boeing’s facility in San Antonio, an Air Force press release said at the time.
The plan was to use the bomber as a testbed throughout 2026 to help military officials decide whether to proceed with the B-52 Radar Modernization Program, the Air Force said.
For almost a decade before the plane served as a testing platform, it was based in Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, where the bomber was the flagship of the 307th Bomb Wing.
Its pilot, Col. Bruce Cox — an alumni of Texas A&M -- dubbed the bomber “The Spirit of Aggieland.” An Air Force press release from 2015 said that the bomber was “dedicated to former and future cadets that graduated from Texas A&M; University’s Corps of Cadets Program.”
Cox would go on to take his final flight aboard the bomber in 2017 before retirement, according to the unit’s Facebook page.
The aircraft took off shortly before noon on a clear day, heading southwest into the prevailing winds. It flew straight and crashed on the same 15,000-foot (4,572-meter) runway. The compact wreckage indicates the plane dropped sharply.
Aviation safety experts have said their first thoughts about what might have caused the crash were about a malfunction in the flight controls or engines, but it is much too early to know. Investigators will consider several factors, including the age and maintenance of the plane.
Aerial footage showed virtually nothing left of the aircraft that went down at the base in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles (161 km) northeast of Los Angeles.
Lauren Smith told Eyewitness News KBAK-CBS and FOX58 that her husband, Jeromy Smith, was a flight test engineer for the U.S. Department of Defense and died doing what he loved.
“It is such a horrible hurt, and I’m still processing everything that happened,” she said Tuesday.
The B-52, a long-range bomber that entered service in 1955, is designed to carry both conventional and nuclear weapons. It has been used in conflicts involving the U.S. military from Vietnam to Iran. .
Edwards is home to the 412th Test Wing, which conducts regular developmental testing of all Air Force aircraft, weapons systems, software and components before purchase by the service as well as throughout their life span. Test missions take place at Edwards daily, officials said.
The base is where Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager reached a speed of Mach 1.05 and broke the sound barrier in 1947.
Rush reported from Portland, Oregon, and Toropin from Washington, D.C. Associated Press journalist Josh Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska.
This undated photo provided by the Edwards Air Force Base shows Maj. Robert Dee. (Edwards Air Force Base via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Edwards Air Force Base shows Maj. Brad Hovey. (Edwards Air Force Base via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Edwards Air Force Base shows Maj. Alexander Davis. (Edwards Air Force Base via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Edwards Air Force Base shows Col. Gregory Watson. (Edwards Air Force Base via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Edwards Air Force Base shows retired Lt. Col. Miles Middleton. (Edwards Air Force Base via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Edwards Air Force Base shows Jeromy Smith. (Edwards Air Force Base via AP)
This image taken from video provided by KABC shows law enforcement responding to the scene of an aircraft crash, Monday, June 15, 2026, near Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. (KABC via AP)
