At least one NFL club hasn’t learned its lesson, apparently.
During an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio on Wednesday, former LSU running back Derrius Guice was asked to remember the most unusual question he had to answer at the 2018 NFL Scouting Combine. His response raised a few eyebrows.
“Man, it was pretty crazy, bro,” Guice said, via Sporting News. “Some people really try to get in your head, man, and really just test your reaction and see what your reaction is going to be.
“I’d go in one room and a team would ask me, ‘Do I like men?’ just to see my reaction. They’d try to bring up one of my family members or somebody and tell me, ‘Hey, man, I heard your mom sells herself. How do you feel about that?’ Just random stuff like that, man, to see how you respond.”
Guice, a projected first- or second-round pick, laughed while recalling the story and appeared to take the questions in stride. He’s also not the first NFL draft prospect to be asked such questions. Atlanta Falcons assistant coach Marquand Manuel asked cornerback Eli Apple if he liked girls in 2016 while running back Le’Veon Bell and tight end Nick Kasa recalled fielding similar queries in 2013. The Miami Dolphins asked Dez Bryant in 2010 if his mother was a prostitute.
NFL teams have repeated this behavior despite it being a clear violation of league policies. The NFL’s Excellence in Workplace Conduct policy prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or other personal factors and even explicitly states that teams may not ask prospects questions about sexual orientation. In fact, “Do you like women or men?” actually is written in the league handbook as an example of a question not to ask.
The league has issued warnings in the past — the Falcons apologized after Manuel’s incident and went through a “training seminar,” according to head coach Dan Quinn — but for one team, at least, those warnings have fallen on deaf ears.