NFLPA Weighs Brendan Sorsby Draft Fight as 1 Roster Spot Could Cost a Member Job

Q: Should a players' union protect current jobs by preventing a talented non-member from entering the league?

Generally, yes—but only up to the point of serving the union’s core duty to current members, not as a blanket bar on outside talent. A players’ union exists to protect the wages, benefits and job security of the players already in the bargaining unit. In the NFLPA’s case, Brendan Sorsby is not yet a member. If he enters the league through a supplemental draft, a current player could lose a roster spot. That is not theoretical; the Second Circuit said in the Maurice Clarett case that eligibility rules can protect veteran job security by reducing competition for limited NFL jobs. That makes the NFLPA’s position different from Sorsby’s. He can argue that the NFL applied the supplemental-draft rules unfairly or arbitrarily. But the union is not required to champion that claim, and may reasonably decide that helping a non-member would work against members’ interests. Still, a union should be careful about becoming purely exclusionary. Its role is to bargain fair entry rules, not to block talented newcomers simply because they are talented. In Sorsby’s case, the NFL says its denial rested not just on timing and paperwork, but on serious gambling violations and integrity concerns, which are legitimate league-wide issues beyond job protection. So the best standard is narrow: a union should defend collectively bargained rules that protect current members and the sport’s integrity, but it should not oppose new entrants solely to shield incumbents from competition.

3 articles · Updated · NBC Sports · Jun 24

Brendan Sorsby still has no union-backed path into the NFL supplemental draft because the NFLPA would be defending a non-member against the interests of current players.
One roster opening is the union’s core dilemma: if Sorsby were drafted onto a 90-man roster, a current NFLPA member could lose his job, with another cut possible at the 53-man deadline.
A 2004 appeals ruling in Maurice Clarett’s case supports that tension, saying NFL entry limits can protect veteran players by reducing competition for capped team spots.
Sorsby can still sue the NFL on his own, but no filing has been announced and the window for winning a court order forcing a supplemental draft is shrinking by the day.