Manti Te'o of Notre Dame speaks to the media during the 2013 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 23, 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo: Joe Robbins, Getty Images) In light of the Manti Te'o situation, the questions at the NFL scouting combine during player interviews over the weekend appear to have touched on some subjects that aren't supposed to come up in job interviews -– namely, sexual orientation. The NFL Players Association is aware of those rumblings and Colorado tight end Nick Kasa's saying he was asked if he's a heterosexual, and wants the league to investigate whether and to what extent it occurred. "I know that the NFL agrees that these types of questions violate the law, our CBA and player rights," NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports Wednesday. "I hope that they will seek out information as to what teams have engaged in this type of discrimination and we should then discuss appropriate discipline." The NFL appears ready to comply. MOCK DRAFT: Who will go in first round? "Like all employers, our teams are expected to follow applicable federal, state and local employment laws. It is league policy to neither consider nor inquire about sexual orientation in the hiring process," league spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in an email to USA TODAY Sports. "In addition, there are specific protections in our collective bargaining agreement with the players that prohibit discrimination against any player, including on the basis of sexual orientation. "We will look into the report on the questioning of Nick Kasa at the scouting combine. Any team or employee that inquires about impermissible subjects or makes an employment decision based on such factors is subject to league discipline." There was a report from ProFootballTalk.com's Mike Florio, speaking on "The Dan Patrick Show," saying the "elephant in the room" was teams' desire to know if Te'o was gay and if his relationship with Lennay Kekua, who didn't exist, was some form of cover-up for his sexuality. FASTER THAN TE'O: LeBron says he is Florio did not state a team asked Te'o if he was gay. Kasa said he was asked the opposite. "They ask you like, 'Do you have a girlfriend? Are you married? Do you like girls?'" Kasa said in an interview with ESPN Radio Denver, per ProFootballTalk.com. "Those kinds of things, and you know it was just kind of weird. But they would ask you with a straight face, and it's a pretty weird experience altogether." Jeff Foster, the National Football Scouting president who runs the combine, said no team, player or agent has mentioned to him an inappropriate question was asked during the private interview sessions, which are conducted solely by the team. Foster and his staff only set up those interviews. The combine staff conducts videotaped interviews that last about 10 minutes and are distributed to teams, who are only permitted 60 private interviews. Those questions, Foster said, "have all been reviewed by legal and human resources to make sure they're in compliance" with legal guidelines. "The 32 NFL teams are professional organizations. At this point, I certainly don't feel we need to remind them they need to act as such I've got no sense of that," Foster said. "I think it's probably like a lot of things that come out of the combine – more rumor and innuendo than fact. "Now, if we found out there was in fact something that was inappropriate, we would address that individually to make sure we understand what's happening and make sure we were all on the same page. But at this point, we don't see that as being necessary."
Source : http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/02/27/nfl-to-investigate-scouting-combine-questions-about-sexual-preferences/1951703/