Jeff Ireland Interview of Dez Bryant Shows Ugly Side To NFL Business

If you listen to the National Football League—the league offices, owners, team spokesmen—football is a business. The ultimate goal is to create a winning (and entertaining) product for immediate sale to consumers—the fans.

Try to sneak hundreds of fully obstructed view seats into your stadium?

No hard feelings, just business

Not spending money on free agents?

Business in a tough economy.

Help create a law stealing retirement benefits from your employees?

Business!

The NFL and its franchise owners do a lot of things that might shock the common man.

Not wanting to bite the hand that feeds, ESPN doesn't typically run with these stories, nor do many other sports news outlets. The most attention the NFL's business practices get is usually from the Sports Business Journal (which more people should read).

Once in a while, an item presents itself holding broader appeal.

Recently, a business practice—more specifically a recruiting or interviewing practice—became a main-stream sports story. 

During a pre-draft visit, Jeff Ireland, general manager of the Miami Dolphins, asked (now Dallas Cowboys) wide receiver Dez Bryant if his mother, Angela, is a prostitute.

The most shocking part of that story is not that Ireland had the chutzpa to ask the question, but rather that Dez Bryant didn't knock Ireland to the floor right then and there.

Kudos.

Mike Ditka thinks he should have:

"I think the individual who asked that question, somebody ought to whack him in the head...What are you going to confront a young man with that situation for? He probably loves his mother no matter what she is or who she is."

Maybe a whack on the head isn't the most appropriate punishment, but this is an issue that certainly warrants one.

According to US Code Title 18 Subsection 1514(c)1., harassment is "a course of conduct directed at a specific person that causes substantial emotional distress in such a person and serves no legitimate purpose."

If the NFL is a business, there is no reason Bryant should have been asked that question. If the NFL is a business, it should be subject to the same anti-harassment laws that govern every other workplace.

Of course, another culture exists in the NFL—the "football culture."

This "good ol' boys club" has its own set of rules, priorities, and justifications for things like taking your pants off in the locker room or (allegedly) punching an assistant during a meeting.

This football culture is rarely apologetic and cares less when things happen and more when they become public.

So Ireland apologized. Sort of:

"My job is to find out as much information as possible about a player that I'm considering 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."

An apology isn't really an apology if you still believe what you did was justified.

An "in-depth question" would be, "what does your mother do for a living?"

Asking if someone's mother is a prostitute is not appropriate—especially if you didn't ask that exact same question to the white athlete from the upper middle class suburban neighborhood.

At least he apologized. Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross was more stoic:

"As an owner of many companies and organizations, including the Miami Dolphins, I have always strived to comply with the highest standards in all aspects of my businesses including recruiting. In interviewing employees we always look to obtain relevant and appropriate information in adherence with the best industry practices."

The NFL Players Association and their Executive Director, DeMaurice Smith, believe this is a much larger issue. Essentially, NFL owners and their employees think they can do whatever they want or ask whatever they want in these interviews. That is not how a business works.

“We need to make sure the men of this league are treated as businessmen. During interviews, our players and prospective players should never be subjected to discrimination or degradation stemming from the biases or misconceptions held by team personnel."

Obviously, in the business culture the NFL is trying to present, an incident like this has no place. But, In the fraternity atmosphere the NFL has tried to hide, this sort of thing happens more often than let on.

The irony (read: "hypocrisy") is that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has worked tirelessly to make the NFL a place for "business." Just ask the pocketbooks of Chad Ochocinco or Wes Welker—fined for having too much fun in the work place.

River dances and snow angels are, apparently, not business.

If the NFL is a business, its employees—players along with coaches and other personnel—are businessmen. If players can be fined or suspended for conduct unbecoming a place of business, why not Jeff Ireland?

Will Jeff Ireland be punished? Will his conduct, or that of other front office personnel, by monitored and regulated in the future?

It is time NFL players are protected from those in the culture who might treat them as worthless as a sleazeball executive treats his secretary with nice legs. Harassment, even when it is not sexual, is a serious, and legal, matter.

It is time for a comprehensive, and public, system for dealing with the conduct of the other half of the league's employees.

What happens in team offices and behind closed doors can tarnish the sterling image of the NFL shield just as much as what happens on the field.

What is it NFL? Are you all business, or just a big joke?

Michael Schottey operates Blue And Silver Pride and is a Detroit Lions featured columnist for Bleacher Report . He also serves as a team correspondent for DraftTek.com and is a guest blogger for Mlive's Highlight Reel . Check out his Podcasts and add him on Twitter .