It’s well documented: bounties, collusion, inappropriate questioning during interviews, tuck rule, Wilson’s game “winning” interception etc…

You guys made it! Instead of the internet/media he used “all over PFT”. Incredible, great job Florz

Wow, ya, that’s about as indirect/subtle as a brick to the face. Well done NFL on swaying absolutely no one to your train of thought.

If you ask a question during a job interview of course its part of the interview process. And I suspect if any of these kids every had reason to sue the NFL, ie not drafted or added to a team as an undrafted FA, that a court would certainly consider them part of the process.

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Too bad their isn’t as much of an open dialogue within the management of these blog comments. There seems to be a definite favoritism bias of what comments get deleted depending on what teams are being commented on or the actual conversation posts get curtailed or not allowed to begin with in order to control the directions of the opinions.

This probably won’t get posted….

How is this a non-story? I’m not some PC crazed liberal D-bag, but this is an organization exempt from anti-trust, who gets public funding for their stadiums, in a moment in time where Americans really need to take a look in the mirror and decide what this country is about. The existence or precieved appearance of discrimination over sexual orientation is extremely important. I would expect that, should these questions be true, my elected officials would rip away tax exemptions from this league. This shouldn’t be about politics, just basic human decency. The NFL is the single largest sports entity in the United States, they need to be held to an absolute standard. No GM who inquired about an athletes gender interests, was making a joke, they were dead serious. As a business in this country, the NFL needs to be held accountable. Either from within or from the out.

You are dancing around this. Is it illegal to ask a prospective player if he is gay, when the NFL is interviewing in Indianapolis? Does it matter which team is asking, i.e. Dallas O.K., 49er’s Illegal because of their respective state laws?

If it is totally legal then your beef is with lawmakers and your articles insinuating that it is illegal are nearly defamatory to those who asked the questions. Your articles also perpetrate the myth that sexual preference is a protected class in federal law.

I don’t know the answer so I am asking. Would it have been illegal to come right out and ask at the combine if the prospect was gay and to not hire him because of it?

Another thing why is the New York Attorney General saying that Roger Goodall needs to “give him a call” rather than just proactively persuing it himself? What is this All Hail to Roger??

The NFL general counsel is trying to protect the league, but the teams don’t listen to him, the real work has to be done by teams’ own counsel, who I will bet are trying not to avoided annoying the lucrative client.

I find it humorous that Goodell coordinates collusion against the union and bargains in bad faith — and now the commissioner is up in arms about potential discrimination.

Florio, I used to not like you b/c of your hatred towards the Steelers, but you have definitely earned my respect by being one of the few who isnt afraid to call out the League with their BS. I now frequent this site more than any other for NFL news
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Florio hates me and will probably delete this response, but I completely agree with you. With so much of the media in the league’s pocket, Florio has the spine to call them out. Much respect to you, Mike.

I mean I don’t suggest to make it part of the interview process though, so we will schedule it for the 5 minute period after our interviews end, duh. And for the players that are uncomfortable with groping, don’t worry there will be some drugs to take the edge off, not supplied by the team of course, but from some person who is 2 connections removed from the interviewer it’s not a direct transaction and therefore doesn’t count.

And probably no law against listing the post interview session as “aka a real interview but keep it on the downlow”. Sure that would be awfully braggart, but what can anybody do? There’s not enough specific laws and expectation to follow laws here in the NFL, so no reason for anybody to get their panties in a bunch, after all there’s a place to deposit them in our office, if you are into that type of thing as a football player, well are you? hehe I’m smiling so it’s legal and you have to answer!

As noted in the article, the NFL has a stranglehold on the job market so much in their career field, that it is all the more intimidating to go against them if they did break the rules. The fear young players would have to face of having their dreams dashed by an employer that holds the entire job market in their hands would be sizable. It seems to me, in my opinion, they have merely tried to brush this aside and stick their heads in the sand rather than being proactive about condemning the teams’ conflict with hiring rules.

How long will it take for some recruit to not land a roster spot, get less than he feels he was worth, or just be plain brave enough to stand up to the league and make the issue stick. Then will the league will wish they had addressed the issue better in the public light?

Regardless of how people feel about the sexual orientation issue, (I acknowledge its a hot topic for many people) there are anti-discrimination rules in place all across our country and its totally unacceptable for the league to ignore the situation as if it did not really happen at a spot where everyone is getting evaluated for jobs.

None of that means it is moral to ask these questions. The interviewers really need to grow up.