Some questions at the combine
 

Mr. Ireland is very lucky he never asked me a question like the one Dez Bryant got. No, I wouldn't bash him over the head, but I would take him to the labor board. from:

hxxp://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ms-trippintuesday042710


On the second day of 2008, Jeff Ireland got the type of big-time NFL gig he’d always wanted, leaving the Dallas Cowboys’ personnel department to serve under football czar Bill Parcells as the Miami Dolphins’ general manager.




“We might pop a bottle of champagne!” Ireland’s elated mother, Sandi Holub, told The Miami Herald’s Jeff Darlington upon learning of the hiring. Holub explained that Ireland, the grandson of longtime Chicago Bears personnel guru Jim Parmer (and the stepson of E.J. Holub, a Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker/center), had yearned for such an opportunity from a young age.
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It has been his ultimate dream all his life,” she said, “from the time he would ride on trips with his granddaddy, sitting in dark rooms, watching 16-millimeter film with Daddy. He’s always wanted to have the chance to build a championship team.”
Ireland got off to an impressive start, revamping the roster of a team that had gone 1-15 the previous season and deservedly receiving praise when the Dolphins stunned the football world by winning the AFC East in ’08.
By all accounts, he is very good at evaluating talent. Unfortunately, his people skills aren’t nearly as accomplished. From what I can tell, Ireland seems like a strong candidate to be decreed the biggest jerk in the history of job interviewers.
I wonder how Sandi would feel about the story I’m about to share, one which simultaneously illustrates the Dolphins’ organizational arrogance and the NFL’s complete disconnect from society when it comes to such things as respect, decorum and class.
In fairness to Ireland, the Dolphins’ habitually brusque treatment of their current and prospective players is purely a Parcells production. Unfortunately for the general manager, he’s about to be unmasked as an A-list A-hole.
Last Wednesday, the night before he was selected 24th overall by the Cowboys, former Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant(notes) told me that during one of his predraft visits, a high-level executive of one NFL franchise had asked him if his mother, Angela, was a prostitute.
“No, my mom is not a prostitute,” said Bryant, whose background – including his mother’s lifestyle and past legal troubles – was under great scrutiny prior to the draft. “I got mad – really mad – but I didn’t show it.”
I’ve since been told by a source close to Bryant that Ireland was the person who asked the question during a meeting in the GM’s office. On Monday, Ireland declined to comment on the allegation. Harvey Greene, the Dolphins’ senior vice president of media relations, said: “It’s our organizational policy that we don’t discuss publicly the process we use to evaluate potential draft choices.”
That’s a wise idea given the demeaning, offensive and possibly actionable evaluation process that was used to assess Bryant’s fitness to catch passes for Miami, a franchise that apparently holds nothing sacred in such contexts.
In recent weeks, we’ve heard about some preposterous questions that have been tossed at this year’s top draft prospects, including one team’s query to defensive tackle Gerald McCoy(notes) during an interview at the NFL scouting combine: Do you play in a G-string or a jock strap? (Creepy.)
Safety Myron Rolle(notes), who passed up his senior season at Florida State to accept a Rhodes Scholarship, said he was asked by the Bucs what it felt like to desert his team. (Ignorant.)
Recently, Heisman runner-up Toby Gerhart(notes) told me one team asked him if being a white running back made him feel “entitled.” (Nonsensical.)
And the question Bryant claims Ireland asked, which came with only a desk in between them? I must say I’m rather impressed – with the size of the GM’s cojones, and with the comprehensive coverage that’s evidently offered by the Dolphins’ dental plan.
“I don’t care who you are or who you’re talking to – that kind of question usually gets your [expletive] teeth kicked in,” says former NFL lineman Kyle Turley(notes). “I mean, where do these people come from? That’s just completely [expletive] classless and totally unprofessional.”
I realize there will be plenty of people who’ll try to defend such actions as sound management techniques. Some of you who operate under the assumption that the NFL is a hallowed American institution that’s beyond reproach will say these are justifiable screening tactics, given the multimillion dollar investments teams make in signing highly drafted players. Others will undoubtedly rationalize the confronting of athletes with unpleasant topics as a shrewd personality test, a means of gauging players’ reactions to stressful circumstances and assessing self-control.
And I’m not buying any of it. Maybe this kind of crap flies in your fantasy league, but if you think it’s cool for actual NFL team executives to behave this way, you need a reality check.
First of all, can you conceive of anything like this happening in any other industry in American society? Imagine an entry-level applicant who is considered to be one of the best prospects in the nation being interviewed for a highly paid, high-profile position at, say, an investment-banking firm. After the young hotshot sat down to meet the hiring committee, how do you think the G-string question would play in the conference room?
In many states, employers can theoretically be sued for so much as inquiring about an applicant’s age. I’m pretty sure the kind of racially charged questions Gerhart said he fielded would make most company lawyers go into convulsions.
As for the idea of teams attempting to incite draft-eligible players to see how they’ll respond, I must say I’m a bit confused. Surely, there is something to be said for displaying self-discipline and restraint, as Bryant did during his meeting with Ireland. Yet this is football, a sport in which aggression, violence and prideful rage play an enormous role in one’s propensity for success. If I were an NFL general manager, I think I’d be more inclined to draft a kid who’d react angrily to questions such as the one apparently Ireland asked Bryant.
I’ve been covering the NFL for more than 20 years, and when I think back to the best, most passionate players I’ve encountered during that time, I’m convinced that a high percentage of them would have had Ireland up against the wall by his collar in that situation, or at least have been very close to doing so. Ronnie Lott, Ray Lewis(notes), John Elway, Junior Seau(notes), Michael Strahan(notes) and Warren Sapp(notes) come to mind.
“They’re trying to break people down in ways they’ve never been broken before, to see if a kid will snap,” Sapp says. “They know exactly what they’re saying, and it’s a damn shame we’re still at this point.”
Basically, some team executives are applying a “Mad Men” mentality to a modern, more enlightened era, and their cluelessness is cringe-inducing.
This kind of behavior is an embarrassment to the NFL, whose commissioner, Roger Goodell, has gone to great lengths to improve the league’s branding – most conspicuously implementing a no-nonsense personal-conduct policy designed to, as he has said, “protect the shield.”

Yet no team thought to ask JaMarcus Russell if he sucked?

Ponderous.

It was an extraordinarily douchy thing to do, and I'm glad these guys are getting called on it.

What the hell, why ask that. Who cares??

My first thought when reading through the article actually made it in at the bottom. How can Goodell talk about protecting the shield and then letting this type of crap take place. There is no way that should be acceptable behavior and Goodell should see to it that people who ask questions like that are no longer in the league.

More offended still by someone asking Gerald McCoy if he wears thongs when he plays.

how can a white running back be entitled? entitled to what? not being taken seriously? constantly being compared to mike alstott and tommy vardell?

Who is your daddy, and what does he do?

You forgot about John Riggins.

I post in a thong... in case anybody was wondering.

Since that seems incredibly random, I have to figure that the allegation had come up somewhere in the background research on Bryant.

Considering the PR aspect of what team's deal with, it seems like a pretty rational question, especially considering that there appears to be some issues concerning her background. And before anyone says that her life history isn't relevant to him as an employee, the same knife that makes Bristol Palin newsworthy because of who her mother is also makes Mrs. Bryant newsworthy because of who her son is. Any problems with her can quickly become a team problem as well.

Sorry but I'm not seeing this as being worth even 1/10th of the ink it apparently got.

I'm shocked at Turley's response. Who would think he'd resort to violence when offended?

Huh. So apparently in Jon's world, a daughter making news for making life choices that flew in the face of her mother's proclamation that "abstinence-only sex education WORKS" is exactly equivalent to "So, hey, is your mom a whore?"

I'm not surprised Jon's an asshole. It's just what he is, and I've learned to accept that.

No, I'm surprised that he's a moron.

In the context of the other questions asked (of other candidates), it doesn't seem all that random, though.

:withstupid:

If the article did not include the other questions, I might be more upset. The fact is NFL teams have been asking such questions for years now. It has been portrayed in exactly the way the author stated for years. Oh the team is just doing its due diligence. Not sure why it is drawing such a negative reaction now.

The point is to get the player upset and out of their "comfort zone" to see how they react - a stress test.

This is one of those very few times I agree with JiMGA. My guess is a background check raised a concern, and the question was phrased much more softly than is being reported, which in turn is why Bryant didn't spark him out right there.

If she had indeed been involved in prostitution, it was better for everyone that it would have been cleared prior to the draft so everyone, including his mum, knew what was likely to come out so it could be media managed so the imapct was as little as possible to all parties, again including his mum.

It's a shitty subject to have to broach, but it's not worth the even the time I've just spent typing this post IMO.

I was wondering.

I'm sorry, but there are questions that can be left out. You can challenge a guy and get him out of his comfort zone without being a dick. You can also find out about his home life without having to drop to that level. The PR excuse also falls on deaf ears here. When is the last time a players mother/father/brother/sister caused an NFL team to lose revenue? Am I missing a case where that has happened?

Pumpy posts wearing nothing but a bowling ball. And a glove. just a glove.

In the case of Bryant's question, I don't believe that had very much (if anything) to do with the question.



Be tone deaf if you like, that's up to you. But if I'm about to pay a guy millions & there's "his mom is a crack whore" negative publicity coming down the pike about it, then I want to know beforehand. Did you see the article I linked earlier this week about Demaryius Thomas & his background (mom & grandmother both in federal prison for drug crimes)? Smart players and/or smart teams get ahead of stories, not wait to be surprised by them.

If it were me I'd hire a prostitute that looked like his mom and bang her while he watched. That way I'd know what would happen if a sex video featuring his mom ever surfaced.

Just due diligence.

No glove, no love!

Jon,

Again, I don't recall any NFL team losing revenue because of a players family. If the question wasn't meant to try to raise a reaction out of Bryant, you think maybe they could have approached it a different way then asking if his mom was a whore? Something like "In doing our background check, we've a lot of things about your mother, we have some questions about these issues, not to hurt you, but to get ahead of the issue and to help protect us, you and your mother."

No? it's acceptable to simply ask if the mom is a prostitute? That's not out of line?

I'm not being naive here. I understand a team is investing a lot of money into these kids and they want to know the entire story. I also know there are ways to go about things with class and sensitivity. I'm also curious about the question above. Name a single time an NFL team lost revenue because of a players mother.

Geez, I hope no one here takes me to the labor board.

I find the question reasonable, given her documented background & no, I don't believe asking it before deciding to sink millions into an employee to be out of line.


Depending upon the player's reaction to the situation (i.e. something opposite the D. Thomas story I mentioned earlier) the potential exists. My interest in a number of sports has been diminished by the actions/comments/attitudes of any number of players, the potential for negative consequences for a team and the league definitely exists.

Perhaps he didn't ask it in the right way, but why beat around the bush? When my brother was going through his interview with the NYPD, they wanted to know my history, our mother and father's, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. I'm not entirely convinced it only has to do with a PR standpoint, but a character issue, as well. If your mother is a crack whore, what kind of effect has it had on you? How have you dealt with it? Are you carrying around any baggage because of it? Just like any other profession where you are held to higher standards, you need to know what you're getting involved with when it comes to your employees.

:lol:

I find it odd that they took him to task, and then picked up Brandon Marshall instead.

I would have done the same thing in their shoes, they chose a proven play maker over a potential play maker...they both had character issues, so i fail to see where anyone with that choice would take Bryant instead.

This is pretty overblown to me. Other players are going to try and get inside these guys heads. What is wrong with seeing how they react in a controlled enviroment before hand delivering them millions of dollars and seeing how they react on the field?

The fact that the article quotes Kyle Turley just hammers the point home. Turley is a guy who cost his team a game by trying to pull another player's head off and threatened to kill his coach -- his temper probably could have used some scrutiny like this before he started cashing NFL checks.

Yep.

Your aren't interviewing this guy to be his friend...you are interviewing him to see if he is worth giving millions of dollars to play a physically, mentally, & emotionally tough sport. This is just one of many tests he is given...and he is given this test precisely because he is considered a top-notch player. The same reason that the media, fans, and other players will heckle him.

I know people who, everyday, have their hands all over hundreds of millions of dollars of their company's money and need to have the physical, mental, and emotional strength to be able to withstand the wild swings in value and the stress that comes along with it...and their interview questions consist of things like "how many pay phones do you think there are in NYC?"

You don't think the most important issue here is the relevance to your family's background and if there are any criminal connections, considering your brother was interviewing for a job in law enforcement? That's a relevant inquiry given the line of work. You're talking about potentially compromising safety and quality of investigations - not to mention the lives of your fellow law enforcement - if you don't do due diligence on the background of potential officers.

There's really no relevance to the job of a WR if his mom's a prostitute. At least, I don't see teams making big cases out of the questionable family/friends certain players run with, other than doing their own investigations and drawing conclusions from that. This clearly seems like a stress test based on some info they dug up - but it was in incredibly poor taste and inappropriate, IMO.

I hear ya, and I'm not saying there is a direct correlation between the two, however, I do feel it was a relevant question. If I'm about to hand you millions of dollars and potentially make you my star WR, I would wanna know about your history. If your mother is a prostitute with a drug problem, and you now being a millionaire, are we on our way down a slippery slope? I think it's a bit naive to think that a player's family problems will not have a direct effect on the player himself. Personally, I think he was just doing his job to get all the information he felt was needed.

Again, perhaps he didn't go about it in the right way, but it's best to get it out there and sort through it. I'll use my brother's experience as an example... within their investigation, they found out about our mom's uncle, although I don't believe he was a "real" uncle, I'm a little fuzzy on the story myself. Anyhow, he was a dirty NYPD cop years ago, and they grilled him about it. Point is, they put it out there, asked him all sorts of questions about it, and were satisfied with his answers and moved on.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...html?eref=sihp

"She was his accountant."

I mean this really takes the douchery off of Ireland doesn't it?

"She was his travel agent."

"Travel agent?"

"Yeah. She was in charge of trips around the world."

If that quote is accurate it makes a huge difference, and the fact that Dez Bryant decided to throw someone under the bus due to a misunderstanding would color my opinion of him.

I would love to hear the context for the Gerald McCoy question, which is by far the strangest in the story above.

If you believe it. Not that I automatically believe everything Bryant said, but you would think there would have been a quicker denial or clarification put out by the Dolphins as this story persisted over the week.

This was my first thought. In this world of PR we live in, you'd think the Dolphins would have put their side of the story out there much quicker if that were the case. Someone from the Dolphins could have "leaked" that part of the story almost instantly. Why would they have waited that long to get their side out if it's this clear cut?

The rebuttal. Spin-doctoring in full effect on a Friday afternoon...

I think the big thing i have a problem with is this is the same guy who missed his entire final year of college because of lying...this guy lied out his ass to the NCAA, why should i suddenly believe him now that hes the victim?

I don't know, if that is true why did Ireland apologize? Why didn't this story come out right after the other one broke?

This is a tremendous exaggeration.

+1 it was hardly anything imo. well maybe it was, but IMHO I think he was just scared about the meeting, and understand it, but maybe im more forgiving then the next guy.

Duh. PR, insincere/unwarranted apologies are a pretty common tactic just to make something die down. And they'd want it to die down in order to try to avoid shoving a guy that you've just spent a draft pick on even further under the bus than he already started.

Bryant should have just said "My daddy was a pistol & I'm a son of a gun", would've been a lot simpler.

How is it an exaggeration? Please explain it to me...the way i see it, he took an action, when someone asked about it he got scared and lied(even though he didnt do anything wrong). How is him lying to avoid trouble, even if he wasnt actually in trouble, mean calling him a liar is an exaggeration?