Seems to me a very vague and easily side-steppable question. In any case, it’s no more or less relevant to their football-playing-ability than their favorite color or their taste in music. If they want to waste time asking pointless questions, I say that’s between them and the players.
In the state of California, it is illegal to ask about sexual orientation during an employment interview. Other states may or may not have similar laws, but football player or not, you would have a nice employment discrimination case if the interview took place in California.
I see this as totaly different. The Dez Bryant question was because of answers Dez had already give.
They always ask about family life and such. When asked what his father did for a living Dez replied " He’s a pimp". They then moved on to " Is your mother employeed? What does she do?’ Dez replied " She works for my daddy."
You give those answers to routine questions, you should not feign indignation, when the follow up, then is " Is she a prostitute?"
I’m wondering if this is supposed to be a test of the player’s ability to answer a dumb or intrusive question rather than an actual question about their sexual orientation. I was reading just the other day that there is a lot of that in NFL prospect interviews. That said, it’s a stupid question that makes the NFL look bad, and if it’s a test, they could use other questions for the same effect. If they’re actually asking about sexual orientation, it’s very inappropriate and of course pointless.
Wait a minute… I believed that they asked Dez that question because they knew his mother had a drug history. So to them , it was “logical”, that she was also a prostitute.
Did he really say that his father is a pimp? or was that just an example?
Either way, we do agree that “do you like girls” is kind of absurd?
Perhaps. I read that they ask some pretty interesting questions.
However, there are some reports swirling around that the whole Manti T’eo thing is kind of like an elephant in the room. So teams are discreetly trying to find out who prefers what.
If so, it’s pointless because they could easily find out about openly gay players (if there were any) and any player who didn’t want them to know the truth would just lie. Which doesn’t mean nobody would be dumb enough to do it, of course.
As seen in Saving Silverman, where Jack Black ably fields a bunch of questions.
“Have you ever fantasized about having sex with a man?”
"Which man?
“Any man.”
“You mean like a tall man?”
“Sure, whatever.”
“'Cause I don’t like tall people; they bother me.”
“What about a short man?”
“How short? Sometimes people can be too short – that’s weird – like midgets.”
“Have you ever fantasized about having sex with any man, any man at all?”
“Does that include celebrities?”
The NFL thinks entirely too highly of itself. It’s way past the time when the negotiating leverage should have swung to labor’s side; it’s been far too unequal a fight for far too long.
I actually think this is genius. The potential players, going forward, should make a game of seeing just how absurd they can answer the intrusive questions. If nothing else, it’ll show an ability to think on their feet.
It’s a little misleading to say “the NFL” is asking these questions. It’s not like it’s part of an application or something. It’s more “one or more [unnamed] scouts/GMs” asking these questions.
If the league could be forced into giving up its draft and instead the teams had to compete for players, this kind of nonsense would come to a quick halt.
Why? A team still couldn’t hire everyone who applied, so they would still have to choose, and would still want any info they can get about the players.
I don’t see how eliminating the draft would change either the legality of asking this particular question or the teams’ desire to know the answer.
In an open recruiting environment, teams that insist on asking these kinds of intrusive questions might be putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Perhaps a team that treats a potential employee with a little more respect would win his services instead.
A: Yes. With fava beans and a nice chianti.
Edit: For the record, i stepped away from my computer after opening this thread, and Der Trihs’ post was not showing when I made my post.
Great minds think alike…