What if he had said yes? What possible difference could it have made?
That's what fascinates me about Jeff Ireland, the general manager of the Miami Dolphins, asking prospective draftee Dez Bryant if his mother was a prostitute earlier in life.
The question only serves to humiliate the player and not inform the Dolphins on the risks of investing millions of dollars in a spectacular receiver who was dragged through a desperate childhood.
It was already well documented that Bryant's mother served 18 months for selling crack cocaine, heading off to prison when Dez was 8 and starting him on a path of living with family members and acquaintances during his adolescent years. How much worse does the story need to be, and what sordid details are worth pinning to a draft board?
If there's any new dirt here, it falls on Ireland's reputation alone. By asking an ugly question in a private interview, he clearly behaved as if nothing he said would become public. Now that it has, Ireland has apologized to Bryant and anybody else who thinks him an insensitive lout.
A moment of poor judgment, that's the rationale. No disrespect.
This raises a larger question about the whole pre-draft interrogation process.
With all the money that NFL teams spend on investigating players and with all the information that is available on every U.S. citizen via public records, why ask personal or character questions at all? Draft prospects aren't going to bring up potential problems that aren't already known.
What's more, pro teams have a long history of talking themselves into committing to a talented player, no matter what.
Jerry Jones, for instance, believes that Bryant will be a success despite missing most of his final season at Oklahoma State for lying to the NCAA. That's why Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, crowed about taking Bryant in the first round, two spots after Denver selected a wide receiver with a safer slate.
Making grandstand plays for box-office stars is in the Dallas DNA. Remember that Jones didn't chase Michael Irvin off in 1996 after he was caught in a hotel-room cocaine party with women who listed their profession as topless models. Irvin, a three-time Super Bowl winner at the time, served a five-game NFL suspension with some fines and probation and returned to give the Cowboys a couple more 1,000-yard seasons.
Jones wasn't interested in asking further questions, primarily because he couldn't trust the answers, but also because he cared more about selling out the stadium.
Let's walk the same path with some of Ireland's Miami players, to see if responses to some personal questions would be worth knowing if Ireland were to ask them.
Ricky Williams, you once quit on the Miami Dolphins and left this organization in the lurch for reasons that made perfect sense only to you. Can you guarantee that you would never do something like that again?
Brandon Marshall, in return for the $47-million contract you just got, can we count on you being a team player in Miami and not lapsing into some of the pouty behavior that wore out your welcome in Denver?
These, remember, are questions about problems that actually have arisen, but they're fairly pointless all the same and exist only as negotiating points.
To go fishing in what amounts to a job interview for something nasty on a player's family member is worse.
It's arrogant, undisciplined and it's below professional standards for basic interpersonal relationships.
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