N.Y. attorney general turns up heat on NFL

Lindsay H. Jones, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

BOULDER, Colo. – Nick Kasa started a storm with his post-combine revelation that he was asked about his relationship status by an NFL team. He wishes the whole controversy would go away.

But that's not likely, especially now that the New York Attorney General's Office has officially contacted the NFL to look into whether the league – via its teams – has broken employment laws by asking prospective draft picks about their relationship status or sexuality.

The NFL's main office is in New York City.

"From the Scouting Combine to the playing fields, everyone deserves equal protection under the law and the right to a fair workplace," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement Thursday.

"In New York State, we have no tolerance for discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation. Employment discrimination is ethically wrong and illegal no matter who the employer is. I hope we can work together with the National Football League to send a powerful message that employment discrimination will not be tolerated in any form."

Last month, Kasa described the interviews to ESPN Radio in Denver: "(Teams) ask you, like, 'Do you have a girlfriend?' Are you married? Do you like girls?'"

He did not identify who asked him.

Those comments, Kasa said, "spiraled into a lot of buzz that I didn't want."

He did national radio and newspaper interviews, including with USA TODAY Sports, and received a call from the NFL office in New York as the league started an investigation into what sort of questions teams asked in the 15-minute combine interviews.

"It was a short phone call. I think they understood that it was misinterpreted how I was led on to say those things," Kasa told USA TODAY Sports after his Pro Day workout on Thursday. "I told them it was not something that I meant for all this to happen, and it really wasn't anybody direct asking me that, so it wasn't a big deal at all."

Schneiderman sent a formal letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday, and in it he named Kasa, Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson and Michigan State running back Le'Veon Bell as prospects who had said they were asked questions regarding their sexual orientation. In the letter, Schneiderman wrote that at least 20 of the league's 32 teams are located in states that "prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment based on sexual orientation."

Schneiderman asked NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to call him by next Wednesday to schedule a meeting on the matter.

League spokesman Greg Aiello told USA TODAY Sports that the NFL is "looking into the matter and will discuss it further next week at our league meeting in Phoenix."

Kasa said he hopes the notoriety he gained in the last months because of the comments won't affect his status with NFL teams, and he said his agents have gotten positive feedback from teams about him.

"NFL coaches have been saying, 'We see this all the time. It's just the media,'" Kasa said.

For now, New York's attorney general seems to disagree.

In February, DeMaurice Smith, the head of the NFL players association, said in a statement that, "I know that the NFL agrees that these types of questions violate the law, our CBA and player rights."

Contributing: The Associated Press

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Follow Lindsay H. Jones on Twitter @bylindsayhjones

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