NFL prospect asked by team 'do you have both of your testicles?'

Texas cornerback Kris Boyd answers questions from the media during the NFL Scouting Combine. Photo / Getty

It just wouldn't be the NFL scouting combine without a decidedly inappropriate question or two, right?

Actually, it would be great if we could get through an installment of the event without such needless moments, but yesterday, along came Kris Boyd with the latest tale to tell.

A cornerback out of the University of Texas whose 19 bench press reps were the most for his position, Boyd told ESPN's Jeff Legwold that he was asked, "Do I have both of my testicles?"

"I was like, 'Yeah, I don't know why you got to ask,'" he said.

At least Boyd wasn't asked about his sexual orientation, as past prospects have alleged NFL teams have done at the combine.

Then there was the infamous question posed to Dez Bryant in 2010 about his mother possibly being a prostitute, a reported question last year about whether a player found his mother attractive and one fielded in 2015 by Obum Gwacham, now with the AAF's Arizona Hotshots, about when he lost his virginity.

There have been plenty of questions posed at the combine that were less sordid but still very odd, such as how many ways a brick could be used in a minute, whether a player was afraid of clowns and, of course, more familiar personality tests such as what kind of animal a player thinks he would be.

It's not clear where staring contests lie on that spectrum, but those apparently are part of the combine experience, as well. Another cornerback, Kentucky's Lonnie Johnson, said the Seahawks asked him this past week in Indianapolis to take on one of their scouts to see who blinked first.

"They asked me how many times I wanted to do it over, and I just kept doing it until I got a better number, man," Johnson said (via kentucky.com), noting that he topped out at 15 seconds. While Johnson said he couldn't remember the scout's name, he added with a laugh, "I remember his face. I stared at him long enough."

Johnson should definitely hope that he performed well at keeping his eyes open, because the Seahawks put Texas punter Michael Dickson to the same test last year - then, a couple of months later, traded up to draft Dickson in the fifth round. "I tried a few techniques, looking away from the light, trying to block any sort of wind coming into the eyes," the punter said at the time. "That was a weird process."

NFL teams weren't always springing verbal surprises on prospects at the just-concluded combine. UNC-Charlotte guard Nate Davis offered this anecdote (via The Athletic's Arif Hasan): "I went in for a meeting and for a handshake - 'How you doing?' - and he punched me in the chest."

"He was like, 'You have a soft chest,'" Davis said of the unidentified team official. "I was like, 'OK,' and we just kept it going."

Good thing, for all involved, a version of that strategy wasn't used on Boyd.