The NFL Combine has always been about more than the on-the-field drills. Teams use this time to interview players and find out more about their off-field lives. This year has been no exception, but former LSU running back Derrius Guice said a few questions crossed the line. In an interview with SiriusXM NFL, Guice said one team asked him if he “liked men” and another team asked, “Hey, I heard your mom sells herself. How do you feel about that?”. Now yes, teams do need to do their due diligence when considering who to select in the draft but this is absurd. The first question is blatantly discrimination. Who gives a damn about a player’s sexual orientation? Michael Sam recently became the first openly gay man to play in the NFL and has proven to be a worthy NFL player. And even if he didn’t end up playing well it would have had nothing to do with him being gay. There is no place for this kind of discrimination in the league and I’m appalled. The second question about his mother is also way out of bounds. I might have jumped over the table if a team exec asked me that. Neither of these questions should have any weight in evaluating a player pre-draft. Should teams find out if a player handles himself professionally off the field? Definitely. But neither of these questions have anything to do with that. They were just trying to get under his skin and that’s flat out wrong. And this isn’t even the first time things like this have happened. Giants’ cornerback Eli Apple was asked if he was gay at the 2016 Combine, three other players were asked similar questions in 2013, and Dez Bryant was asked a similar question about his mother in 2010. The league has reprimanded teams for questions like these in the past but clearly not enough. They need to sort this out and do it fast. I just hope that this story does not affect Guice’s draft stock. His collegiate career proved he has a place in the league and many experts have him going in the first round. The kid can play and he deserves a chance, regardless of his answers to these ridiculous questions.
