Players (including Denard) were asked at the combine whether they're straight

Were they asked whether they were planning on getting pregnant any time soon?

Is it OK to ask how many baby mamas a playa has?

How would you feel if you were playing center and you knew your QB was gay and hits on you?

/s

they were asked, essentially, whether they were gay or straight during the combine

I've heard several players said that they were gay during the combine, but when the combine ended, they were straight

What horribly inappropriate questions.  If I'm running a football team, it wouldn't matter to me if they were gay (or anything else) or not.  If you can play football and you are about the team, why should it matter?

(Yes, I did read WolvinLA2's reasoning above.)

to this BS line of questioning was something like the 2:07 mark in this clip:

...during the interview process (and have) to see if candidates can think on their feet...if u like girls is not one of them. It is illegal in the real world to ask that type of question and should be illegal for the NFL...and I imagine that after all of this publicity...there will be some changes to the permissible questions teams can ask of potential draft picks when all is said and done.

And yes...feel free to down vote me b/c I am an attorney...should have gone to Ross instead!

All of these posts, and nobody has raised the perfectly legitimate concern that maybe straight men want to have sexual privacy, just like women do, which is why we have opposite sex bathrooms and opposite sex locker rooms.  I wonder if everyone here screaming "homophobia!  Grrr!" would be perfectly allright getting naked in a locker room with an openly gay man every day.  At the very least, it would probably make you feel uncomfortable.   And you might be a little resentful of some sanctimonious asshole who forces you to do this because it is politically correct and then labels you a "homophobe" if you object .  Maybe it's something you could get used to.  Maybe not.  But you're not some kind of bigoted homophobe for feeling this way. It's natural, and it's universally accepted with women in their attitudes towards heterosexual men.  Which is why, as I said, we have separate facilities for men and women.

Every argument that can be made for integrating locker rooms for sexual orientation can be made for integrating locker rooms for gender.  A heterosexual man is just as likely to ogle an attractive woman as a homosexual man is to ogle an attractive man. And by all accounts, professional athletes are some of the most sexually desireable people in the world.  A gay man is no more or less able to control who he is attracted to than a straight man.  A gay man is no more or less likely to be able to restrain his sexual impulses and act in a professional manner than a straight man.  

If I wanted a job that would require me to get naked on a daily basis with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, you wouldn't label somebody who obejcted to this as a "heterophobe" or a bigot, because it would be fucking stupid.  You would side with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, because it isn't taboo for women to want sexual privacy from men, no matter what the reason.  But it is taboo for men to want sexual privacy from gay men, and I guarantee that I'm not the only person thinking of this right now, but nobody wants to say it, because it's taboo.  It's one of things that you can't say anymore. 

I'm agnostic when it comes to the concept of integrating institutions like the military and professional sports.  I don't love it, but I'm open to it.  The sexual privacy issue is one that can be managed, but to manage it, you first have to address it.  And to address it, you have to stop being a fucking slave to political correctness and pretend that it is not a legitimate issue. 

Wolvin',



Thank you for sharing. I think you raise fair questions but I believe the NFL is past it. I believe that the NFL is already in a don't ask don't tell environment for the most part. Clearly not everyone is onboard as some organization was asking at the combine but I bet MOST organizations see it this way: if we ask, the gay kid will lie. We will never get the truth from just asking, neither will teammates. We would rather draft the best player and hope nobody, especially us, ever knows he's actually gay. Not knowing means it never became an issue. The case study for this in pro sports is the Phillies. The Phillies had an every day starter who was gay. Teammates, "knew" but he never brought any evidence in front of the team and teammates never wanted to have that awkward conversation for fear of "rocking" the metaphorical boat of the pennant race and possibly their own careers. Think about it, if starter, All-Star is gay, and worth millions to the franchise, then you are an idiot if you threaten that. You would have to be really valuable to the organization to raise a fuss and not get yourself traded or cut. So everyone pretended. That player is now retired and I really don't think the media ever knew. To think this hasn't happened (isnt happening) in the NFL is naive. It's not just gay either. Rex Ryan's foot fetish certainly makes conservative Christians very uncomfortable. But he survived being outed and anyone on his team who publicly spoke out against him didn't. I would bet a lot of money that more than a few somebodies in NFL have sexual submissive fetishes that other NFL players would find deeply offensive to their Christian values. They all seem to get along well enough though that we never hear about, except for Rex Ryan.

10. Have you ever tried to Wonderlic a metal post when the temperature outside was under 10 degrees Fahrenheit?

9. Would you like to see a tweet that’s longer than 140?

8. Has Bill Belichick ever secretly taped you?

7. Have you been fully inoculated for measles, mumps and kabeer gbajabiamila?

6. Would you have any problem wearing USC Trojans elastic bands?

5. Do you like movies about gladiators?

4. Would you enjoy being sequestered with your school’s cheerleaders?

3. Have you ever been treated for a serious case of houshmandzadeh?

2. Has your sleep ever been interrupted by WikiLeaks?

1. Does this thong make me look fat? 

They are not advised/ allowed to ask if potential employees are gay, or not. They are allowwed to ask if they have girlfriends, are married, or like girls. The onus is on the candidate to sue if they find those questions descimainatory.

I'm all for equal opportunity and employment. I'm agaist sexual descrimination and sexual orientation descrimination. But, just for a second, consider the difference in marketabbility, and profitability, between  a gay and hetero NFL employee.

If their net value to a corporation is more, or less, should they not be compensated same?

Just as an example: An openly gay superstar could become an icon in San Francisco. Such a person should not be hindered in doing so.

But, an openly gay player in a less tolerant market may be of less value to the parent corporation.

Equal is equal. You cannot have it both ways. The EEOC and it's rules already amply protect those who could be descriminated aginst. And, I have no doubt, ample legal power will be brought to bare to continue to protect gays and transgenders who choose to maintain privacy with regard to their orientation.

Personally, I'm shocked a female kicker has not successfully sued for lack of equal opportunity and access. That's more likely a front burner issue, as many soccer players seek to prolong their career and generate revenue.

No politics means no politics. 

This shouldn't even be a discussion if we're honest with ourselves. By letter of the law, this is not a job interview. Therefore, they can ask whatever the hell they want. Period. 

Apparently they got away with asking Bryant that question a few years ago...I imagine the "investigation" into the sexuality questions will again be much ado about nothing.