The NFL needs to require that all pre-draft interviews…

….between teams and prospective players be videotaped and put on YouTube.  Where else can you get gems like Miami Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland asking wide receiver Dez Bryant whether or not the player’s mother is a prostitute?  Bryant’s answer was an emphatic “No,” but the fact that the question was even asked eventually sent Ireland backtracking:

“My job is to find out as much information as possible about a player that I’m considering drafting,” Ireland said in a statement. “Sometimes that leads to asking in-depth questions.

“I appreciate his acceptance of that apology and I told him I wished him well as he embarks on his NFL career.” (Miami Herald)

The contracts have gotten bigger, but so have the number of draft busts.  That means NFL teams are nosier than ever in hopes of ensuring they don’t get stuck with the next first round dud.

Out here in the real world, the reality is that not everything is an employer’s business.  But there’s nothing real world about the NFL, not by a longshot.

I dug around and found nothing in regard to the NFL having guidelines regarding what can and can’t be asked during this type of interview.  So it appears to be perfectly acceptable for the Patriots to ask a player something along the lines of, “Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and your mother are inside a burning house.  You only have time to save two of them.  Which two do you save?”

It’s a crazy question, but no more crazy a question than asking where or not a dude’s mom is selling tail.  But while the invasiveness is alarming, the nature of the questions also reveals a lot bout the biases of the folks asking them.  Take the case of running back Toby Gerhart.

He ran for 1,871 yards and 27 touchdowns in a BCS conference last season.  I don’t care if it was the Pac-10 or not, 27 touchdowns is still 27 friggin’ touchdowns.  At the Combine he posted a 4.53 in the 40, which is faster than Emmitt Smith ran back when he participated in the NFL’s cattle call.

But Toby Gerhart happens to be white.  Some scouts and GM’s tried to downplay his talents by calling his running style too upright and writing him off as another T.J. Duckett.  That’s all well and good, but Duckett (who as any NFL fan knows happens to be black) was the 18th pick of the draft by the Falcons back in 2002.

If the two are so comparable, why did Gerhart last until the 51st pick of the draft that just concluded?  I realize no two drafts are the same, there are different trends and team needs that dictate where players are selected.  But did race play a factor in Gerhart dropping that low?

Thankfully, we’ve got a pre-draft interview to confirm that race was very much on the mind of some NFL teams when assessing Gerhart.

“One team I interviewed with asked me about being a white running back,” Gerhart says. “They asked if it made me feel entitled, or like I felt I was a poster child for white running backs. I said, ‘No, I’m just out there playing ball. I don’t think about that.’ I didn’t really know what to say.” (Yahoo! Sports)

In a Fortune 500 company, a manager would lose his or her job for asking a white interviewee if he or she felt “entitled” by their race.  But questions like that appear to be par for the course in the League.

It actually gets better, because there’s also the case of Myron Rolle.  He’s the Florida State defensive back who graduated in light speed and then skipped his senior season to become a Rhodes Scholar.  I’ll let Clay Travis of NFL Fanhouse explain how some NFL teams viewed Rolle’s actions:

Welcome to the 21st century NFL, where your commitment to the game doesn’t get questioned if you fail multiple drug tests, drive drunk or rape a woman. But woe unto you if you have the audacity to graduate early from college and take a year off to pursue a Rhodes Scholarship. Then you’re a smart guy, the NFL’s own version of the untouchable caste in India. That’s why the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, including head coach Raheem Morris, could ask Rolle at the Senior Bowl how it felt to desert his teammates for his senior season.

Wow, just wow.  Rumors about your family can throw up a red flag.  Your skin color can throw up a red flag.  And it would appear that being too smart will do the same thing.

After being labeled a deserter, Rolle dropped all the way to the 6th round before the Titans scooped him up.  I hope the guy doesn’t ever appear on a celebrity edition of “Jeopardy” during his playing career, the NFL might just flat out blackball him over it.

Roger Goddell seems hellbent on making examples out of players who embarrass the league, and for that he can be commended.  But what about teams that don’t hesitate to humiliate the players they intend to draft?  I guess they get a free pass.