Derrius Guice, projected to be one of the top running backs in the NFL draft, says he was subjected to intrusive questions by teams during interviews at this month’s combine.

“It was pretty crazy,” Guice told SiriusXM’s Late Hits. “Some people are really trying to get in your head and test your reaction. I go in one room, and a team will ask me do I like men, just to see my reaction. I go in another room, they’ll try to bring up one of my family members or something and tell me, ‘Hey, I heard your mom sells herself. How do you feel about that?’”

The former LSU running back said he wasn’t surprised by the questions. “It went exactly how everyone told me it would be,” Guice said. “It’s exhausting. It was a great experience. You’re being watched and tested the whole time.”

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Guice did not say which team had asked him the question although Pro Football Talk reported that a source confirmed the player had been asked about his sexuality.

The league has reprimanded teams for asking about players’ sexuality in the past - the Falcons asked Eli Apple if he “liked men” in 2016 and the NFL called the question “disappointing and clearly inappropriate”. In 2010, Dez Bryant, now with the Dallas Cowboys, was asked if his mother was a prostitute by Miami Dolphins’ evaluators. The Dolphins later apologised for the question.

The league reiterated its stance on Thursday. “A question such as [the one about Guice’s sexuality is] completely inappropriate and wholly contrary to league workplace policies,” an NFL spokesman told Pro Football Talk. “The NFL and its clubs are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees in a manner that is consistent with our commitment to diversity and inclusion, state and federal laws and the CBA. We are looking into the matter.”

Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) Braxton Berrios said the strangest question an NFL team has asked him came at the Senior Bowl:”What is Bitcoin? What is Isis?”

The combine allows teams to evaluate players’ athletic skills as well as interviewing them to get a sense of their personality – and some see intrusive questions as a way of testing how the interviewee reacts under pressure.

Other players this year were asked about Bitcoin and Isis.