Apparently even the suggestion of being gay in NFL football is enough to trigger a Gestapo-like interrogation. That’s what happened to University of Colorado prospect Nick Kasa, who said he was questioned about whether he was into women during interviews with NFL suitors.
“[Teams] ask you like, ‘Do you have a girlfriend?’ Are you married?’ Do you like girls?’” Kasa told ESPN radio. “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.”
Kasa’s remarks come after the bizarre scandal of Notre Dame star Manti Te’o and his fictional girlfriend. Mike Florio, a commentator with ProFootballTalk, told the Dan Patrick radio show that teams have been questioning the possibility that Te’o might be gay.
“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,” Florio said to Patrick. “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.”
Not shockingly, the NFL doesn’t seem accepting of the possibility of gay players, though statistically it seems improbable there haven’t already been gay athletes in its ranks. Last month San Francisco 49ers’ cornerback Chris Culliver made some anti-gay remarks that he later apologized for.
While baseball and other sports have had gay athletes, openly gay NFL players have been rare. Little-known Wade Davis, who played some preseason games, admitted he was gay, but some sources suggest no player has ever come out while playing in the NFL.
