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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.”