Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby sued the NCAA in Lubbock County (Texas) District Court on Monday for breach of contract and breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, as the self-described gambling addict seeks a court order to block the NCAA from denying his eligibility.
Sorsby, who reportedly landed a $5 million NIL deal to join Texas Tech as a transfer from Cincinnati earlier this year, went on an indefinite medical leave last month to participate in a residential treatment program for a gambling addiction.
In a complaint drafted by Texas attorneys Dustin Burrows and Ted A. Liggett of Liggett Law Group as well as prominent sports litigator Jeffrey Kessler and his colleagues at Winston & Strawn, Sorsby says he suffers from the mental health condition “Gambling Disorder,” as recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Sorsby’s case doesn’t involve the Americans with Disabilities Act as the ADA excludes compulsive gambling as a covered disability.
Sorsby’s condition allegedly began in high school when he and friends visited a casino near Oklahoma where he could legally gamble. He would receive “hundreds in ‘free’ betting credits” from sports betting operators who “lured him,” and he eventually became addicted.
