JRaider 🌵@xjraider22
I appreciate the willingness to talk about this and give an explanation for why these decisions were made. There are two themes I hear in this conversation: care and consequences.
A+ to Texas Tech for the care you're providing and the practical steps taken to help Brendan. I love hearing that there is a program at the school to help with addiction recovery. Well done—this issue of sports betting no doubt affects many other young people who need help. The genuine care for Sorsby that each of these men have is evident.
But there is also the issue of consequences in this case, and it's unclear what Texas Tech is going to do in that regard. This is the reason for so much criticism (not because people are just jealous of Tech's recent success or money). While things may need to evolve, there is precedent and a prevailing attitude in the sports world that gambling that close to your own team is a dealbreaker and must be punished. Texas Tech plays football as part of the NCAA, their governing body that represents and enforces these consequences. Things get questionable when that governing body is ignored and a lawsuit opens the door for those consequences to be bypassed.
Texas Tech could provide all the care for Brendan and say he isn't going to play. He will be part of the team, train, and hopefully go on to play professional football. But we realize that while we still care for him, the nature of his mistakes has caused the NCAA to deem him ineligible, and as part of the NCAA we will abide by that ruling.
Maybe Tech is going to do this and just can't say it that clearly. But I would love to see the same level of care without a loophole to avoid the NCAA's consequences.
Lastly, this is more complicated than just care because of how much money is at stake with NIL. It's hard to imagine that doesn't influence this in some way.
