Jalen Mills Says NFL Team Asked How He Would Kill Someone in Interview

NFL teams have already faced scrutiny for questions asked during predraft interviews, but a new one posed to LSU safety Jalen Mills takes things to another level.

Speaking to Ryan Wilson of CBSSports.com on Wednesday, Mills said one NFL team asked him if he would use a gun or a knife to kill someone.

Mills did not specify which team asked him the question, though he said the team graded his answer based on the weapon he chose: "If you choose the knife, you know, now you're killing for fun...because you have to continuously stab somebody with it."

There's a difference between trying to glean information about a player's mental toughness and asking how the player would commit homicide.

This isn't even the first time a player has been asked if he would use a knife or gun to kill someone. Former defensive end Austen Lane, who Jacksonville drafted in 2010, tweeted in February that he was asked the same question:

Yet these unusual questions happen all the time during the predraft process. Ohio State cornerback Eli Apple told Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia's Breakfast on Broad that an Atlanta Falcons coach asked if he was gay:

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The Falcons coach, one of the coaches, was like, "So do you like men?" It was like the first thing he asked me. It was weird. I was just like, "no." He was like, "if you're going to come to Atlanta, sometimes that's how it is around here, you're going to have to get used to it." I guess he was joking but they just ask most of these questions to see how you're going to react.

"

The question to Apple about his sexual orientation is forbidden by NFL rules. It was later revealed that Falcons defensive backs coach Marquand Manuel posed the question. Manuel and Falcons head coach Dan Quinn issued statements on the incident:

In 2010, Miami Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland apologized after news emerged that he asked Dez Bryant if his mother was a prostitute.

None of these questions do anything to inform team personnel about whether or not a player has the talent to make it in the NFL, as well as the mindset to succeed, yet they keep getting asked for no reason that's been explained to anyone.

Given all the scrutiny around these questions, the NFL and its teams should take a more proactive approach to help curb some of these ridiculous and irrelevant items to keep the focus where it belongs.