Eli Apple: Falcons coach asked me if I'm gay during meeting

So do you think he is likely to get drafted somewhere @mojoreece ?

 

I'm guessing most coaches/owners don't want to deal with anything that could cause a distraction to the team esp Considering the media blitz over Michael Sam.

 

Falcons apologize after asking prospect if ‘he liked men’

Falcons apologize after asking prospect if ‘he liked men’

The Falcons issued an apology Friday to a prospect for an inappropriate and possibly homophobic question he was asked recently at the NFL scouting combine.

One coach asked Ohio State prospect Eli Apple if “he liked men.” The prospect was caught off-guard and went public with the story.

“This is disappointing and clearly inappropriate as the Falcons acknowledged,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told ProFootballTalk.com by email. “We will look into it.”

Apple, a New Jersey native, was making an appearance on Comcast SportsNet’s “Breakfast On Broad” in Philadelphia to talk about his potential future in the NFL.

“I am really disappointed in the question that was asked by one of our coaches,” Falcons head coach Dan Quinn said in statement sent to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday. “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.”

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The Apple incident was the third reported misstep by an assistant coach from the recently completed scouting combine.

Assistant coach Bryan Cox got into a shoving match with a scout from Arizona, and offensive line coaches asked Western Michigan tackle Willie Beavers if saw himself as a “cat or a dog.”

 

This is really nothing new. The biggest mistake they made was asking the question directly. That's the only reason they're bothering to apologize. In most states it's not illegal anyway. Just a bad PR move.

NFL Should Worry About Fake Girlfriends, Not Gay Players
A fake girlfriend and phony romantic tragedy are far worse for the sport's image than a real, gay player.

By Susan Milligan Mar 5, 2013

BOULDER, CO - NOVEMBER 03: Safety Jordan Richards #8 of the Stanford Cardinals breaks up a pass intended for tight end Nick Kasa #44 of the Colorado Buffaloes to force a fourth down in the third quarter at Folsom Field on November 3, 2012 in Boulder, Colorado. The Cardinal defeated the Buffaloes 48-0.
I can think of a bunch of questions a professional football scout or coach might ask a potential player. Do you take illegal drugs, maybe? Do we need to worry about you carrying an (illegally) concealed gun, then accidentally shooting yourself with it? Are you going to torture dogs on your days off? Do you have an issue with domestic violence? Are you willing to let us toss you onto a field, have huge men pummel you, and possibly give you a concussion that could lead to brain damage later on?

All of those inquiries are more relevant than this one: Are you gay?

[ Read the U.S. News Debate: Should Football Be Fundamentally Changed to Make It Safer?]


And yet players have revealed they have been asked that question—not directly, but in a way clearly mean to figure out the players' sexual orientation. Reports Salon:

Wade Davis, the former Tennessee Titan who came out of the closet last year, wasn't surprised by an NFL recruit saying he'd been asked if he were straight.

After a football game in college, a pro scout asked Davis's coach, "Is Wade a ladies' man?"

"There's a certain cachet in being someone who seemed to be able to get girls," Davis told Salon. "My coach said, 'No, Wade isn't a ladies' man.' I immediately wondered if he'd seen through the mask I'd put up....

"NFL teams go through exhaustive measures to learn everything they can about a player. Because imagine if I'm drafting this guy in the first round; that's millions of dollars. There's an investment. Is he a troublemaker? Is he going to be out all night long? When you're meeting scouts, you put on your best side. But is what he's showing me through these interviews what he's going to demonstrate for three, four, five years?" Scouts may see a masculine-acting young man in interviews, but want to ensure that the men they recruit are straight — or at least can stand up to direct questioning.

[ Take the U.S. News Poll: Is Football Too Violent?]

And ESPN radio reports that University of Colorado tight end Nick Kasa said:

They ask you like, 'Do you have a girlfriend? Are you married? Do you like girls? Those kinds of things. It was kind of weird. But they would ask you with a straight face, and it's a pretty weird experience altogether.

What is the purpose, then? Unit cohesion? Even the military—which experiences far more pressure and relies even more on communal support—has given up that argument. Does the NFL, which often seems irritated at having female fans (except when they buy baby T-shirts with team logos) actually believe that women only want to watch football so they can see cute guys in tight pants? That may be a tertiary draw—like the "cheerleaders" who long ago gave up gymnastic moves for hair-swinging are for male viewers. But nope, most of us watch to see a well-executed pass and good blocking help our home team get a touchdown.

 

MONDAY, MAR 4, 2013 10:04 AM CST
Wade Davis on NFL’s gay witch hunt: “These athletes are very vulnerable”




(Credit: AP/Michael Conroy)


Wade Davis, the former Tennessee Titan who came out of the closet last year, wasn’t surprised by an NFL recruit saying he’d been asked if he was straight.


After a football game in college, a pro scout asked Davis’ coach, “Is Wade a ladies’ man?”

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“There’s a certain cachet in being someone who seemed to be able to get girls,” Davis told Salon. “My coach said, ‘No, Wade isn’t a ladies’ man.’ I immediately wondered if he’d seen through the mask I’d put up.”

More likely, Davis said, the question, prohibited by law, wasn’t based on any knowledge of the player’s inner life: it was posed to all players, he said, in one way or another, long before this year’s Manti Te’o scandal raised eyebrows about the Notre Dame star’s fake girlfriend. (Te’o was reportedly asked by teams if he was gay, as well.) “They really do an exhaustive job learning everything they can,” Davis said.

“NFL teams go through exhaustive measures to learn everything they can about a player. Because imagine if I’m drafting this guy in the first round; that’s millions of dollars. There’s an investment. Is he a troublemaker? Is he going to be out all night long? When you’re meeting scouts, you put on your best side. But is what he’s showing me through these interviews what he’s going to demonstrate for three, four, five years?” Scouts may see a masculine-acting young man in interviews, but want to ensure that the men they recruit are straight — or at least can stand up to direct questioning.

“They ask you like, ‘Do you have a girlfriend? Are you married? Do you like girls?'” said University of Colorado tight end Nick Kasa in a recent interview with ESPN Radio. “Those kinds of things. It was kind of weird. But they would ask you with a straight face, and it’s a pretty weird experience altogether.”

Said Davis: “I don’t think [Kasa] knew what he was doing. He didn’t have the foresight to think this was going to become what it became. Now that he understands the ramifications of what he said, he must be thinking, ‘Shit, people are reading it this way and I still have to get drafted.'”

Because getting drafted — and becoming the object of major investment — is no small feat: “There’s a huge power and privilege dynamic there. These athletes are very vulnerable. People think athletes have all this power, but they don’t,” said Davis. The likely reason for their disempowerment has less to do with anti-gay prejudice very strictly defined but a more insidious notion that gay men are “bad for morale.” This after a Super Bowl defined in part by the culture war, in which a player for the victorious Baltimore Ravens said that they supported a hypothetical gay teammate, and a San Francisco 49er was widely criticized for saying the opposite.

“It’s not as cookie cutter as just asking how this person is,” said Davis. It’s a question of, how’s he going to fit in to the locker room?”

Daniel D'Addario is a staff reporter for Salon's entertainment section. Follow him on Twitter @DPD