By now, we know there are a number of weird questions that tend to get asked to players hoping to be drafted by NFL teams when at the league’s scouting combine. Sometimes, the questions are offbeat by design, purely to gauge how a player reacts to questions they may not have been prepared to answer. It is a good way to get a better idea of how a player may handle questions thrown their way by the media down the line.
However, those questions can occasionally get a little personal, some of which might make the player think, “Did they really just ask me that?”
Ohio State cornerback Eli Apple said in a TV interview with Comcast SportsNet’s Breakfast on Broad in Philadelphia (via The 700 Level) that he was asked one particular question by the Atlanta Falcons that took him by surprise. He was asked if he likes men.
“I’ve been asked a lot of weird questions. I don’t know if I could say on TV,” Apple said.
“The Falcons coach, one of the coaches, was like, ‘So do you like men?’ It was like the first thing he asked me. It was weird. 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.’ I guess he was joking but they just ask most of these questions to see how you’re going to react.”
Naturally, this kind of question seems to cross a line and it most certainly would never be asked in any other job interview. Because of this now being made public, the Falcons had to release a statement regarding the question from the still unnamed assistant coach. The following statement was released by Atlanta head coach Dan Quinn;
“I am really disappointed in the question that was asked by one of our coaches. I have spoken to the coach that interviewed Eli Apple and explained to him how inappropriate and unprofessional this was. I have reiterated this to the entire coaching staff and I want to apologize to Eli for this even coming up. This is not what the Atlanta Falcons are about and it is not how we are going to conduct ourselves.”
If you still cannot believe any coach would have asked such a thing to a prospective draft pick, do not worry. There is video evidence of the story being told.
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