A Slippery Slope

Interesting comments from the NFL Players Association regarding the handling of newly-drafted receiver Dez Bryant. It seems that as part of the interview process between NFL teams and prospective players held before the draft, Dolphins G.M. Jeff Ireland asked Bryant if his mother was a prostitute. Ireland later apologized and is now under investigation by Dolphins ownership.

The NFLPA was obviously critical of the situation and executive director DeMaurice Smith went on to say, "During interviews, our players and prospective players should never be subjected to discrimination or degradation stemming from the biases or misconceptions held by team personnel. NFL teams cannot have the free reign to ask questions during the interview process which can be categorized as stereotyping or which may bring a personal insult to any player as a man."

OK, no problem there. This is an internal matter and the NFLPA is telling the owners to use more discretion in its pre-draft interviews. But play the "what-if" game for a minute. Substitute
the word "media" for "NFL teams" and read the sentence: "[Members of the media] cannot have the free reign to ask questions ... which can be categorized as stereotyping or which may bring a personal insult to any player as a man."

No one is saying the NFLPA would ever take such a step. And no one is defending the type of question Ireland asked of Dez Bryant. But if the NFLPA can lay down rules to the league about what types of questions it can ask, is it completely out of the question to think that somewhere down the line it might make rules for the media? NFL players are already complaining that they give away their interview time for free as part of televising the games on Sunday, so the slope keeps getting slipperier, which is not good news for the sports media. In its report, the ESPN headline says NFL interviewers can't "cross the line." The question then becomes ... who determines that line?