Questions about Sexual Orientation: The Case of Manti Te'o

"Wait - what did you just ask me?"

(image credit: washingtonpost.com)

By now, we're all probably sick of hearing about Manti Te'o and the catfishing hoax that made national headlines for months. If you haven't been following the drama, Te'o supposedly had a girlfriend who died during the football season from leukemia. However, it was later found out that the girlfriend never existed, and that Te'o had never met this girlfriend, but that the relationship had taken place completely via internet and phone communications. It was revealed that the person behind the hoax, and acting as the non-existent girlfriend, was a male who later confessed his love for Te'o. Most believe that Te'o was a victim, fully duped by the hoax. However, others believe that he may have been in on the hoax, and some are even questioning his sexual orientation as a result.

For the most part, that news is all behind us. But with the NFL combine complete and draft day coming up, NFL teams will have the opportunity to focus on Te'o at the upcoming Pro Day at Notre Dame on March 26. This is the day that interested NFL teams can come to South Bend and watch Te'o perform (you could almost call it a type of  work sample test).

If NFL teams want to interview Te'o before draft day (in what would constitute a kind of selection interview), this article from Yahoo! raises an interesting point about questions regarding sexual orientation. Unlike race, age, gender, and religion, sexual orientation is not protected from discrimination under federal law. Some state laws have regulations that prohibit sexual orientation from influencing employment decisions, while other states do not. Therefore, some NFL franchises may have restrictions regarding the information they can gather regarding sexual orientation, while others may not. The article lists 19 NFL teams that theoretically could ask those questions, while 13 other teams could not.

Of course, whether or not questions regarding Te'o's sexual orientation are legal according to state law may be a moot point. Employment decisions should be based on job-related information - so information such as his slow time on the 40-yard-dash at the NFL combine would probably be more relevant. The only possible way that I can think of sexual orientation being job-related in the NFL is the fact that teams are all male, they travel together, shower and dress together, and room together on road trips. Could a gay football player create an uncomfortable (hostile?) work environment for the rest of the team? I'd say this logic is tenuous at best, and reasonable accommodation could certainly be examined in such a case. So I'm hoping that no teams are posing questions regarding sexual orientation. But the fact that some teams could potentially do so legally, while others may be more restricted is an interesting case of how different state statutes may affect the hiring process.