00:00Let's get to Dan Wetzel, who joins us right now, senior writer ESPN.
00:03He joins us on the Wise Heart Right, We Make It Right, called Kyle Wright Hotline.
00:07Dan, good morning to you.
00:09It took a little bit to get to you because we just had this breaking news
00:12from the Cleveland Browns, Joe Batonio, announcing his retirement.
00:15You wrote a scathing piece in ESPN, Dan,
00:21about the judge and this whole thing with Brendan Sorsby.
00:24Can you give us your thoughts about what you wrote?
00:30Yeah, ripping a judge is always fun.
00:32I'm going to definitely drive really slow if I ever, in whatever county that is.
00:37As long as you stay out of Texas.
00:39I know the town you're in usually.
00:41You should be fine up there.
00:42They don't care.
00:43Check me in Lubbock County, man.
00:46I'm going 10 under the speed limit.
00:48Let someone else drive.
00:50You just let someone else do it.
00:52Be careful.
00:54I mean, this is a ludicrous decision.
00:56I mean, Brendan Sorsby gambled over 9,000 times, including, you know,
01:06at least 40 on his own team that he's playing for Indiana at the time.
01:11Some of those were betting, like, the unders in performance, at least two.
01:16I mean, this is just the third rail type stuff.
01:19I tried to find yesterday, and I couldn't.
01:22There's not a single sports governing organization that allows for the athlete
01:32or participant to bet on their own team and not face banishment.
01:40And I'm talking NBA, NFL, FIFA, the Chinese table tennis, you know, world cricket,
01:48the competitive eating, you name it, you can't do it.
01:53Other than poker, I will say, you're allowed to bet on yourself at poker.
01:56It's pretty much the only thing.
01:58Nothing else is out there.
02:00So, basically, every sports organization on Earth is allowed to ban somebody
02:08who bet on their own.
02:09Every one of them thought this was a good idea.
02:12No government has come along and said, no, you're not allowed to do that.
02:16No one's really arguing the opposite side and saying we should have a movement
02:20where the athletes should be able to bet on their own contests.
02:23All of the 8 billion people on Earth have agreed that this is the integrity
02:28importance of competition.
02:30And along comes Judge Curry down in Texas saying, well, let's take a look at this.
02:38So, it's put the NCAA in a weird thing.
02:41And the number of, like, texts and calls, I mean,
02:43even people who just absolutely despise everything about the NCAA are like,
02:46well, yeah, but not on this.
02:49So, just a ludicrous ruling, in my opinion.
02:53And it certainly set off a firestorm all across college athletics.
02:57I kind of want to ask you the kind of thing maybe a Browns fan.
03:01I mean, we're in a Browns town.
03:02We're in Cleveland.
03:03So, let me ask you what they may be thinking.
03:04And we'll get to Joel Batonio and his retirement coming up here in a little bit.
03:08But, Dan, we have you.
03:09Let me ask you this.
03:13Does this or should this take him off the board for an NFL football team?
03:18Should Browns fans swear off?
03:21Because we're kind of going into, like, I said to Lima Yut last week.
03:25I'm like, man, I'm willing.
03:27I hate to say it.
03:28I'm willing to bet because it's such a terrible choice of words.
03:30Promo code.
03:31Yeah.
03:32Yeah, I mean, you know.
03:33Promo code Big Fat Ken Karn.
03:36Promo code hypocrisy.
03:37I'm willing.
03:38I work at ESPN.
03:39But that's all right.
03:39I mean, well, you know what?
03:41Let me bring it into that for a second.
03:43Like, I've promoted alcohol before.
03:47You know, I've promoted other things before.
03:50Everything's supposed to be done within moderation.
03:51So, it's like, well, you're part of the problem.
03:53You're part of the problem.
03:54Well, we get a lot of nasty things that happen because of alcohol in the league.
03:58And, I mean, everything should be done responsibly.
04:01So, when it comes to the gambling thing of it, I didn't know exactly how maybe a team would feel.
04:07Because I know how I feel like, as a fan, I understand the hypocrisy of it going, hey, there were
04:12253 guys drafted.
04:13You're telling me none of them put a bet down last year in April?
04:17Like, Brendan Sorsby and the only one we're going to talk about with this.
04:22No, I think that's a different equation.
04:25I think what the issue here is that he found a way to get around punishment by a league.
04:32If a team, and certainly Brendan Sorsby and, you know, in whatever the draft would be, nine months, ten months,
04:42something like that.
04:44You know, if he performs really well and he handles things and there's no indication of trouble,
04:49then I don't think we need to just bury a guy forever.
04:53I mean, I want to give grace to everybody to have an opportunity to come back.
04:57It's not like, it's still just sports wagering.
05:00But I do think that every sports league should have the right to punish for something this significant.
05:09You absolutely have to have integrity in your competition.
05:13Or fans, once they start doubting that, saying this is fixed, you stop watching.
05:19And so the entire enterprise collapses.
05:22And that's an enterprise that has created a situation where a guy like Brendan Sorsby can not only have a
05:29free scholarship to college,
05:30but he's going to get paid about $5 million this year to play football for Texas Tech.
05:35So the system works for him, too.
05:38This rule is just so clear.
05:42There's no gray area.
05:44And they educate over and over.
05:46And I think everybody just basically understands the concept that I think the league's right to punish how it wants
05:56to is more important
05:57than whether an individual team says, hey, you know what, young man made a mistake.
06:02A lot of these bets, you know, the bets on his own team was when he was a freshman.
06:06He sought treatment, all of those things.
06:08So would it certainly be one of those things you've got to spend a lot of work on or whatever
06:13they like to say in the draft?
06:15Absolutely.
06:15But if Brendan Sorsby bought out, I mean, this is the NFL.
06:20It's all about whether your problems outweigh your talent or your talent outweighs your problems.
06:25And he may be able to have all that.
06:27So I hope he has a great career.
06:29I hope he does great.
06:30I just think that when you have one judge, they had to bring in a retired judge from 14 years
06:38back from another county to make this ruling.
06:42And a single judge can upend what is basically, you know, an agreed upon policy by everyone else in all
06:50of all of the sport, let alone all of sports.
06:53That's where you really have the problem.
06:54Dan Wetzel with us on the hotline.
06:56We're seeing the news, Big 12 and SEC AD's call for boycott against Texas Tech.
07:00Big 10 discussing a mandate not to play Texas Tech.
07:04And I heard you chuckle.
07:05But is there a way that if there's enough organization here that this is the way around a ruling like
07:13this and that they could force the hand of Texas Tech?
07:16I mean, you could if no one's willing to play him or you're going to get kicked out of the
07:21league or something like that.
07:25I would think that Texas Tech would say, OK, we're not going to play this guy.
07:32There's always a lot of hot takes with the ADs and the presidents and stuff in the small term.
07:40I don't see it going anywhere on that.
07:43And I really don't think that Texas Tech took advantage of how college sports works right now,
07:54which is you find a judge and you argue that the NCAA's rules are unfair and you get an injunction.
08:00And let's be clear on what this ruling is.
08:02The judge didn't say you should be allowed to gamble on your own games.
08:07What he said is Brendan Soresby gets a temporary injunction until his full case is heard.
08:14And because by suspending him for this season or banning him, his eligibility, he suffers irreparable harm.
08:21And this is a problem in college athletics.
08:23And this is why, you know, you hear this one team just signed this 27 year old from the Albanian
08:29Pro League.
08:30And he's going to suit up for the Sweet 16 and you go, how did that happen?
08:34They don't really argue that it should happen.
08:37They argue that they should have the right to argue that it should happen.
08:41So give us some time.
08:42And then by the time this case would actually be heard and you'd argue, you try to argue the merits
08:48that it's OK to gamble on your sport.
08:52Brendan Soresby's eligibility be up anyway.
08:55So it's like a trick.
08:56And by doing that, the burden of proof in the plaintiff is so low.
09:01All you're saying is, hey, he might have a good argument.
09:04And in this case, the judge said, OK, I think he has he might have a good argument.
09:09He didn't say, I believe his argument.
09:11I agree with his argument or even that he will 100 percent win.
09:14And so that's part of the problem here.
09:16Now, Texas Tech is obviously being very aggressive here.
09:18But let's let's let's be honest that that that ship has sailed.
09:22There is no more like collegiality in college sports.
09:26There's no more self-discipline or, you know, personal responsibility in college sports.
09:34I don't know that there isn't anywhere in society anymore.
09:36Normally, anybody gets caught doing anything to say, yeah, but look, the other guys did it, too.
09:40Or these guys are doing so.
09:42Everyone is quick to lawyer up as much as I think this ruling is ridiculous.
09:47And, yeah, in a perfect world, a school like Texas Tech might say, hey, look, you broke the rules.
09:52We're not going to go to bat for you this way.
09:55That's just not how the world works anymore.
09:57It doesn't matter whether you are.
09:59I mean, you know, Michigan was ready to try to get a temporary restraining order to get Jim Harbaugh back
10:04on the field.
10:06You know, during all of that, the Big Ten can't suspend our guy and they end up dropping it.
10:11But, you know, all of these different players that are playing, all the different stuff that goes on.
10:17So I think that would be a little hypocritical to go after Texas Tech on this.
10:21We got Dan Wetzel joining us on the show.
10:23So, yeah, I was going to offer, like, I would come up and clean up after your dogs if West
10:29Virginia said, we are not going to play Texas Tech.
10:33Like, there's television.
10:34There's TV deals that are involved in this.
10:37Like, there's a lot here, Dan.
10:39Texas Tech's playing Cincinnati where Sorsby was.
10:42Amazing.
10:43If you're at Cincinnati, at Nippert, like, that's not as good as Lane Kiffin returning to Ole Miss.
10:48But it's going to be a pretty good game.
10:49It's going to be a pretty fun game.
10:50I mean, honestly, I think Rupert Murdoch might show up and actually hold an AD at gunpoint and go, get
10:55your team out there right now.
10:56And who's he betting on?
10:58Who's he putting his money on in that game?
10:59I don't know.
11:00That's what we all want to know.
11:03Tone.
11:04Promo code Sorsby.
11:06Dan, thank you so much for the time.
11:09You know we have to run you down again.
11:11I'm sure this isn't over.
11:12So we thank you so much, and you take care.
11:13Take care.
11:14Dan Wetzel, ESPN, senior writer for ESPN.
Comments