Days after PFT’s Mike Florio predicted Manti Te’o’s sexual orientation would be an actual topic at the NFL Combine, a player not nearly as well known claims a team asked similar questions during an interview earlier this week. From NFL.com’s Greg Rosenthal :
“They ask you like, ‘Do you have a girlfriend?’ Are you married? Do you like girls?’ 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,” TE Nick Kasa told ESPN Radio Denver Tuesday, via ProFootballTalk.
It sounds more than weird. It’s embarrassing. I could imagine folks in the league office reading this and cringing, so I reached out to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.
“Like all employers, our teams are expected to follow applicable federal, state and local employment laws,” he said in a statement. “It is league policy to neither consider nor inquire about sexual orientation in the hiring process.
“In addition, there are specific protections in our Collective Bargaining Agreement with the players that prohibit discrimination against any player, including on the basis of sexual orientation. We will look into the report on the questioning of Nick Kasa at the Scouting Combine. Any team or employee that inquires about impermissible subjects or makes an employment decision based on such factors is subject to league discipline.”