Stop the presses, OMG, this is the worst thing ever! It's actually leading some sportscasts on ESPN.
NY PostIf whether a prospect finds his mother attractive isn’t off-limits, then a player’s sexuality apparently isn’t, either.
That’s the reality of the NFL Scouting Combine, where no question is too intrusive and no stone goes unturned in the quest to find the league’s perfect specimen, inside and out.
The latest rubber-necking question comes via Eli Apple, a cornerback out of Ohio State, whose sexual orientation was apparently pertinent to whether the Falcons would consider drafting him.
“The Falcons coach, one of the coaches, was like, ‘So do you like men?'” Apple, out of New Jersey, told Comcast SportsNet on Friday. “It was like the first thing he asked me. It was weird. I was just like, ‘No.’ He was like, ‘If you’re going to come to Atlanta, sometimes that’s how it is around here, you’re going to have to get used to it.’ I guess he was joking, but they just ask most of these questions to see how you’re going to react.”
After Apple, projected as a first-round talent, revealed the prying, it was the Falcons who had to react.
“I am really disappointed in the question that was asked by one of our coaches,” read the statement, attributed to head coach Dan Quinn. “I have spoken to the coach that interviewed Eli Apple and explained to him how inappropriate and unprofessional this was. I have reiterated this to the entire coaching staff and I want to apologize to Eli for this even coming up. This is not what the Atlanta Falcons are about and it is not how we are going to conduct ourselves.”
It’s the latest in a long line of invasive questions asked of potential NFL players. As they try identifying the right individual to invest millions of dollars in, teams want to be sure of every aspect of what they’re signing up for — to a ridiculous extent. The questions aren’t always crossing a personal line — “Would you rather be a cat or dog? — but they do try to unearth something about a prospect.
What learning his sexuality could reveal, though, even the Falcons can’t answer.
I predict the next great thing will be gay quotas, where each NFL team has to have a certain minimum number of homosexuals on their rosters, regardless of football talent. Michael Sam, call your agent.
