NFL to Teams: No, You Can't Ask About Sexuality

The NFL promises to investigate claims by at least one NFL prospect that teams asked about players' sexuality during interviews at this week's scouting combine, reports USA Today. "Like all employers, our teams are expected to follow applicable federal, state and local employment laws," says a league spokesman, responding to the brouhaha that erupted when Colorado's Nick Kasa told a radio show that he was asked questions such as, "Do you like girls?"

"They would ask you with a straight face, and it's a pretty weird experience altogether," Kasa told ESPN Radio Denver. His comments came after NBC's Mike Florio said on a different radio show that teams were trying to figure out whether Manti Te'o was gay in the wake of the bizarre fake-girlfriend hoax. "Here's the elephant in the room for the teams and it shouldn't matter, but we have to step aside from the rest of reality and walk into the unique industry that is the NFL," said Florio, reports Yahoo Sports. "Teams want to know whether Manti Te'o is gay. They just want to know. They want to know because in an NFL locker room, it's a different world. It shouldn't be that way." (But it is apparently, as the Chris Culliver flap around the Super Bowl made clear.)