Sorsby’s lawyer moves fast to stop NFL penalties

Brendan Sorsby’s – Brendan Sorsby hired attorney Jeffrey Kessler in May, and Kessler has already begun building a case aimed at preventing the NFL from blocking his supplemental-draft path. The concern: the league could reject his application or suspend him, citing eligibility a

Brendan Sorsby didn’t just hire an attorney in May and move on. He brought in Jeffrey Kessler for a specific kind of fight—one Kessler has taken up before, in court, pushing back on both the NCAA and the NFL.

For weeks. the question attached to Sorsby’s next step has been whether he can enter the supplemental draft if his eligibility isn’t restored. In that scenario, Kessler’s presence becomes more than a procedural detail. The concern is that he could try to force the NFL to allow immediate entry “with a clean slate. ” stripping the league of roadblocks before a judgment is even fully formed.

Now, a source with knowledge of the situation says Kessler has already started working to make sure the league doesn’t impose punishment that could derail Sorsby’s effort to join the NFL. The NFL has multiple ways it could respond, and the anxiety around the league’s options has sharpened.

One possibility is straightforward: the league could try to reject Sorsby’s application for the supplemental draft. Another would be more consequential. The NFL could suspend Sorsby, crafting an outcome it ties to the integrity of the NFL’s gambling policies.

That fear isn’t built on a vague history. Commissioner Roger Goodell previously duplicated the five-game suspension imposed by the NCAA on Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor. who later became a third-round pick of the Raiders in the 2011 supplemental draft. In that decision, Goodell expressly cited the “integrity of, and public confidence in” the league’s eligibility rules.

Goodell also wrote about Pryor in a way that now looms over any case that resembles a player trying to use timing and eligibility structure to change consequences. He said: “In my judgment. allowing players to secure their own ineligibility for college play in order to avoid previously determined disciplinary consequences for admitted conduct reflects poorly not on college football — which acted to discipline the transgressor — but on the NFL. by making it into a sanctuary where a player cannot only avoid the consequences of his conduct. but be paid for doing so.”.

If the NFL chooses to follow that same line of reasoning with Sorsby, the argument would be that the quarterback ultimately used the NFL as that “sanctuary,” avoiding consequences tied to conduct by benefiting from how eligibility plays out.

For now, multiple teams are concerned that Goodell could impose a significant suspension on Sorsby. Kessler’s job. the source says. pivots on that exact point: keeping the league from turning eligibility and discipline into a detour that costs Sorsby months—or more—while the decision process stretches out.

Kessler’s court experience has made him a familiar adversary for the league in these moments. But the stakes for Sorsby are immediate and career-defining, and the timing of the legal response is the clearest sign of how closely everyone is watching what comes next.

Brendan Sorsby Jeffrey Kessler NFL supplemental draft Roger Goodell Terrelle Pryor Ohio State Raiders gambling policy eligibility rules legal challenge NCAA suspension