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The Scouting Combine is an annual event that allows NFL teams to meet with a number of the year’s draft prospects. Teams get a chance to get to know the prospects better, both as people and athletes. Beyond physical drills and medical examinations, teams also meet with players individually, often asking questions to better understand their personalities and what makes them tick. But those questions have invariably veered toward the weirder end of the spectrum.
Two years ago, an unnamed team asked an unnamed prospect whether or not he had the hots for his own mother:
Strangest interview question I've heard a NFL team ask a prospect so far: Do you find your mother attractive? #NFLCombine
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) February 25, 2016
Former defensive end Austen Lane was asked about murder—twice:
When a scout asked me at the combine if I had to murder someone: Would I use a gun or a knife? pic.twitter.com/R5BHMxiDM7
— Austen Lane (@A_Train_92) February 23, 2016
When a scout at the combine asked me... "If you could kill someone and not get caught, would you?" pic.twitter.com/mwK5UX8gvW
— Austen Lane (@A_Train_92) February 23, 2016
And now the Cleveland Browns are getting spiritual with at least one prospect, sort of.
According to Alabama running back Bo Scarbrough, the Browns wanted to know if he thinks “God is an Auburn fan.” Scarbrough’s response? “No sir, I do not think that he was.”
The NFL Combine is known for teams asking prospects wild questions.
— 247Sports (@247Sports) March 1, 2018
Bo Scarbrough, a former Alabama running back, was asked by the Cleveland Browns if God is an Auburn fan.
Yes, that happened. pic.twitter.com/RUo0C2iAqS
Why on earth the Browns would want to know if a particular deity prefers the football team of an in-state and conference rival of Scarbrough’s Alabama alma mater is anyone’s guess. But it’s not the Browns’ first rodeo when it comes to weird lines of questioning at the Combine. Defensive end Chris Smith, currently with the Cincinnati Bengals, recalled two years ago that the Browns once asked him to name in one minute how many ways he could use a brick. Maybe to defend against scary clowns?
True story: one player was asked during combine interviews if he was afraid of clowns.
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) March 5, 2017