No question appears to be taboo at the NFL Scouting Combine.
On Wednesday, March 7, former Louisiana State University running back Derrius Guice met with a prospective NFL team. The teams typically ask about faith, family and social life, but this team went much further. According to a report from USA Today, the team asked Guice if he is gay and if his mother was a prostitute.
‘’It was pretty crazy," Guice said in an interview on the SiriusXM NFL show Late Hits. "Some people are really trying to get in your head and test your reaction. … I go in one room, and a team will ask me do I like men, just to see my reaction. I go in another room, they’ll try to bring up one of my family members or something and tell me, 'Hey, I heard your mom sells herself. How do you feel about that?’ "
Guice was told to come prepared, but nothing prepared him for this.
"It went exactly how everyone told me it would be," Guice said. "It’s exhausting. … It was a great experience. You’re being watched and tested the whole time."
In the past, players have had similar questions that were meant to give NFL teams some insight into the players they may draft. Ohio State cornerback Eli Apple was also asked if he liked men last year by Atlanta Falcons defensive assistant Marquand Manuel.
"It was weird,” Apple told Comcast SportsNet. “I was just like, ‘No.’ He was like, ‘If you’re going to come to Atlanta, sometimes that’s how it is around here. You’re going to have to get used to it.’"
While Falcons' management reprimanded Manuel by sending him to a social responsibility training seminar with a league-approved counselor, he was promoted to defensive coordinator, according to Sporting News.
As for Guice, NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said in an email sent to USA Today Sports that the organization is investigating the matter.
"A question such as that is completely inappropriate and wholly contrary to league workplace policies," McCarthy said. "The NFL and its clubs are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees in a manner that is consistent with our commitment to diversity and inclusion, state and federal laws and the [Collective Bargaining Agreement] (CBA).
"The league annually reminds clubs of these workplace policies that prohibit personnel from seeking information concerning a player’s sexual orientation."