Former Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby expressed remorse for his history of sports betting in a new documentary series behind the scenes of the Red Raiders’ turbulent offseason.
“The Program: Texas Tech,” a four-part series on the rise of Texas Tech football and its preparation to chase a national championship in 2026, features the first interviews Sorsby has granted since the April revelation of his gambling addiction and the thousands of wagers he made over his college career, resulting in the NCAA deeming him permanently ineligible.
Sorsby sat down for a final interview with the production in July after the quarterback parted ways with Texas Tech amid the school’s legal battle with the Big 12 over his eligibility. The series premieres Friday on Paramount+.
I have a ton of remorse
“I have a ton of remorse and a ton of regret for the things that I’ve done in the past,” Sorsby said. “Just for my coaches and teammates and those guys, and then all the backlash that we faced — they’re having to face all the scrutiny and backlash as well.”
Sorsby said his relationship to gambling began at 18 during his senior year of high school with trips to an Oklahoma casino with friends to play blackjack. He said over time, he couldn’t watch sporting events on TV without “wanting to have something at stake.”
“I gambled all throughout my time at Indiana, pretty much all throughout my time at Cincinnati,” Sorsby said. “Made some mistakes, though, especially early on betting on my own team, which obviously everybody knows. Whenever I’d gotten to Tech, same deal. Making more money than I ever made in my life, no reason at all to gamble, and yet I still did it.”
In April, Sorsby entered a gambling addiction treatment program in Arizona.
Sorsby has acknowledged placing more than 9,000 wagers
Sorsby has acknowledged placing more than 9,000 wagers totaling at least $90,000 on professional and college sports over four years, including at least 40 wagers involving Indiana football when he was a freshman with the Hoosiers in 2022. He also sent approximately $5,000 to friends to place bets on pro sports on his behalf after enrolling at Texas Tech.
The series captures coach Joey McGuire and his coaches and players reckoning with the revelation of Sorsby’s issues and how to support him as well as with the intense national backlash that came after Sorsby obtained an injunction from a Texas judge that would’ve allowed him to play in 2026 despite his NCAA violations.
“You know, I expected some pushback,” McGuire said in one interview. “I never saw what was coming.”
Soon after obtaining the court order June 8,
Soon after obtaining the court order June 8, Sorsby returned to Texas Tech’s football facility and was welcomed back with applause.
“Yeah, this journey has been wild,” Sorsby said at the time. “It’s been a lot of ups and downs. Glad we avoided disaster with that. Definitely was scared in the moment. You know, nobody bats an eye, nobody says a thing; it’s just kind of understood here what the common goal is, and that’s to go win championships.”
McGuire acknowledged in the documentary that Sorsby winning his injunction was unexpected but told his team captains, linebacker Ben Roberts and center Sheridan Wilson, they’ll have his back if Sorsby can play. Within a week, though, Texas Tech determined it could no longer fight for Sorsby’s eligibility after the Big 12 filed a federal lawsuit against Tech on June 15.
Once that finally came out, I
“Once that finally came out, I was on the phone with my parents and agent and I’m sitting there bawling my eyes out,” Sorsby said. “In my head, I’m thinking I just threw everything I’ve worked for my entire life out the window, like it’s over. Coach McGuire and me sat down at his office, and there was a lot of tears shed between the both of us.”
The series includes footage from McGuire’s team meeting later that day to explain Texas Tech’s decision to his players.
“What he does not want to do is to put this team in a situation that we play all year long and the Big 12 sanctions us that we cannot go to the Big 12 championship, and by doing that that we could not be in the College Football Playoffs,” McGuire told the team. “Brendan Sorsby does not want to do that. And so he’s gonna step away. And it sucks.”
Sorsby applied to enter the NFL supplemental draft but was denied by the league, which opted to not hold a draft. Sorsby, who will enter the 2027 NFL draft, is currently training in Dallas.
Source: www.espn.com
