Recently, we explained that NFL teams are curious as to whether Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o is gay. Somehow, this reality was misinterpreted by some as being an official PFT position that this is a legitimate question, for Te’o or anyone else.
It isn’t.
But the NFL is a unique industry, both in good ways and in bad. When it comes to outdated, intolerant views regarding the sexuality of its players, the NFL’s difference is that it doesn’t embrace diversity.
Case in point: Colorado tight end Nick Kasa was asked a stream of questions that touched on sexual preference at the Scouting Combine.
“They ask you like, ‘Do you have a girlfriend?’ Are you married?’ Do you like girls?’” Kasa told ESPN Radio Denver on Tuesday. “Those kinds of things, and you know it was just kind of weird. But they would ask you with a straight face, and it’s a pretty weird experience altogether.”
It’s more than weird. It’s troubling. While on one hand teams try to throw players off the prepared answers that make them seem as complex as a cardboard cutout, on the other hand that effort should be undertaken without touching on inappropriate subject matter.
The league should be troubled, too. And the league should contact Kasa immediately, with a very specific follow-up question: “Which team(s) asked you that?”