Roman soldiers cast lots, gambled, on which soldier would take Jesus’ tunic/robe (See John 19:22-29). The New Testament refers to this shameful activity to help portray the crucifixion as even more humiliating. Each of the Gospels mentions this story that helps set forth the evil of the event and how Jesus was demeaned. In other words, gambling is not an admired activity, at least when it comes to stealing the clothes of Jesus.
Indiana University had no knowledge of Brendan Sorsby’s gambling addiction while he played quarterback for IU his red-shirt freshman year of 2022. The NCAA informed Indiana University after Sorsby’s illness came to light while he played at Texas Tech; he had also played at Cincinnati after he left IU and gambled while there too, although there’s no evidence Cincinnati was aware of it.
In a podcast from Texas Tech, Tech’s president, Lawrence Schovanec, the head Athletic Director, Kirby Hocutt, the assistant AD, Grant Stovalle, and the head football coach, Joey McGuire, all defended the court decision that ruled against the NCAA’s ban of Sorsby from playing college sports. Their strong, collective position was that the most important issue was dealing with Sorsby’s gambling addiction. No mention was made of any potential harm to college sports.
If someone bets a beer on who will win the Rose Bowl, unless that someone is a player in the game, no harm results. However, if a quarterback bets thousands on his team to lose, questions should arise. It is not that people do not have sympathy and understanding of addictions. The difficulty is integrity of a college sporting contest as affected by the addiction. These must remain completely separate issues and should be dealt with accordingly. Help the former player deal with his or her mental problem but do not enable them to help tear down legitimate competition. In other words, ban them from college sports. They can still go pro if good enough and if they do not bet on the game.
I have no wish to see Brendan Sorsby’s life further destructed by his illness. I hope he gets treatment and that it is successful. However, I cannot help feeling great relief that Sorsby was not at IU in 2024-26 as we climbed out of obscurity to be national champions. We have suffered too many years of losing to see our moments of glory besmirched.
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