Dez bryant being a baby

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http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Dolphins-GM-apologizes-for-asking-player-if-mom-?urn=nfl,237104

 

Shutdown Corner Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:19 pm EDT

 

Dolphins GM apologizes for asking player if mom was a prostitute

By Chris Chase

 

Miami Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland apologized Tuesday to former Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant for asking in a pre-draft interview whether his mother was ever a prostitute.

 

The question was posed at Bryant's interview with the Dolphins earlier this month and first surfaced last week when reported by Yahoo! Sports' Mike Silver. Tuesday, Silver wrote a column identifying Ireland as the offending party.

 

A few hours after the column appeared, Ireland called Bryant to apologize. The receiver, who was selected by the Dallas Cowboys with the 24th pick in the first round of last weekend's NFL draft, accepted the apology. He told Silver that he was "really mad" when the question was asked but didn't show it.

 

Ireland subsequently released a public statement:

 

"My job is to find out as much information as possible about a player that I'm consider drafting. Sometimes that leads to asking in-depth questions.

 

"Having said that, I talked to Dez Bryant and told him I used poor judgment in one of the questions I asked him. I certainly meant no disrespect and apologized to him.

 

"I appreciate his acceptance of that apology and I told him I wished him well as he embarks on his NFL career."

 

The incident is the latest and most egregious in a string of odd questions asked of prospective draftees in the weeks leading up to the draft. Bryant's attitude and background had been a concern for a number of franchises and it appears Ireland was trying to dig a little deeper into those issues. Either that or he was seeing whether Bryant would take the bait and react poorly to an offensive query.

 

It doesn't matter what the reason was, though; Ireland's question was tacky, classless and unprofessional. As Silver wrote, the general manager should be thankful that Bryant kept his emotions in check and didn't lunge across the desk in retaliation.

 

Considering the apology only came after Ireland was publicly identified, it's hard to accept its sincerity. Ireland never acknowledged the question, nor apologized to its subject, Bryant's mother, Angela. Frankly, that Dez accepted the forced apology makes him a bigger man than Jeff Ireland will ever be.

 

 

It has to be a concern about how Bryant was raised. You are going to give him millions of dollars. You have to know how he will react with that cash. I do think it could have been asked differently.

[SpearSrai]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Dolphins-GM-apologizes-for-asking-player-if-mom-?urn=nfl,237104

 

 

 

It has to be a concern about how Bryant was raised. You are going to give him millions of dollars. You have to know how he will react with that cash. I do think it could have been asked differently.

 

Even if someone had a prostitute for a mother, that doesn't mean they'll perform better or worse at a job that they already have an established track record at. Can Bryant catch touchdowns? Is he coachable? What was he like off-the-field? These are the questions you should be asking. Our first-round pick from last year had a drug-addict for a mother... and, while it has shaped his character, it does not define him.

[colincac]

I'm surprised he didn't punch the guy in the face for asking if his mother was a prostitute, I actually thought that it was classy of Bryant that we didn't hear about this incident until now.

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There have been character concerns. You are planning on giving him millions. There are certain things as a team you need to know.

 

1 Will he go off because of the question?

If he threw a punch or something you do not want to draft him. He might pull a Gilbert Arenas.

 

2 If she was a prostitute did he know? What does he think about it? Does he have issues with women now because of his mother?

 

3 If they knew that she had been then does he answer truthfully? Many times teams during the interviews ask questions they know the answers to (have you ever used drugs?) to see if they admit to it.

 

Like I said I think there is a way to ask the question that has more tact.

 

We under stand that your upbringing was difficult. Can you discribe it to us. (Whatever answer)

Your mother was very young when she had you. How did she support you when you were a child?

 

It can go on and on. There are ways to get to the truth that you are looking for.

[OutsideRzAcE]

It's an insulting question that makes assumptions about his upbringing. It should have never been asked. I agree with colincac completely. The fact that he maintained his composure shows that he is anything but a baby.

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His complaining now is childish. Now I garantee the media will start looking into his mother. Also on Sundays he is going to hear really bad stuff from 31 other teams. DB's will go nuts on him.

[SpearSrai]

There have been character concerns. You are planning on giving him millions. There are certain things as a team you need to know.

 

1 Will he go off because of the question?

If he threw a punch or something you do not want to draft him. He might pull a Gilbert Arenas.

 

2 If she was a prostitute did he know? What does he think about it? Does he have issues with women now because of his mother?

 

3 If they knew that she had been then does he answer truthfully? Many times teams during the interviews ask questions they know the answers to (have you ever used drugs?) to see if they admit to it.

 

Like I said I think there is a way to ask the question that has more tact.

 

We under stand that your upbringing was difficult. Can you discribe it to us. (Whatever answer)

Your mother was very young when she had you. How did she support you when you were a child?

 

It can go on and on. There are ways to get to the truth that you are looking for.

 

There's a big difference between asking about drug use (which is directly tied to the individual's decision-making) and asking about a parent's drug use (or prostitution, in this case). There's a reason that talking about someone's mother is right up there with spitting in someone's face on the "things that will almost definitely lead to an ass-kicking" list. Should Ireland have spit in Bryant's face, just to see if he would keep his cool during an on-field situation?

 

I'm sure there are plenty of questions that will give you that same information that don't come off as offensive to the player's mother. And whether or not he knew of his mother's prostitution, if that's even a legitimate question, is completely irrelevant. You can't expect a guy to sit there and talk about his mother's personal life. Even the courts offer protections from testifying in cases where family members are accused of crimes.

 

Again, there are plenty of players with off-the-field issues, but it's inappropriate for anyone without a PhD in psychology to be trying to draw connections between their parent's life choices and their own.

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I was talking to Rex Snyder today. He was saying that children of prostitutes have a bad outlook on women. Being that he was a cop I will concede to his expertise. It could lead to beating women or any other thing. If that is the case you would not want to give him big money.

[SpearSrai]

I was talking to Rex Snyder today. He was saying that children of prostitutes have a bad outlook on women. Being that he was a cop I will concede to his expertise. It could lead to beating women or any other thing. If that is the case you would not want to give him big money.

 

There's a word for that... profiling. There are a lot of reasons why people MIGHT abuse women. Maybe a player didn't get enough hugs as a child. Maybe they were raised in a foster home. Maybe their first girlfriend broke their heart. Maybe they went to Miami University in Ohio. Maybe they listened to a lot of rap in high school. But in no way should any of this influence a guy getting a job unless there is direct evidence that it has actually affected his personality. None of the "character concerns" that I heard associated with Bryant had anything to do with his outlook on women.

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Hey this is the NFL. It is only about money. They are trying to find out what risk they could have drafting him. These owners do not care about anything other than the cash.