NFL uses Facebook as part of background check on rookies

April 8, 4:39 PMSports ExaminerPaula Duffy

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If only NFL teams would have a person on the payroll that does a weekly sweep of all the social networking sites belonging to its current roster of players.

They might be able to stave off embarrassing revelations on Deadspin. Remember the beer bong photos of Matt Leinart?

Maybe that will or already has become part of the routine, but one thing that the teams surely do is check up on their draft prospects via Facebook and MySpace.

Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports! reports that NFL teams do their homework and have been doing it for a while. In one case, the Minnesota Vikings found disturbing photos of a prospect that included him sitting on the floor with piles of drugs and cash.

OK, then. The young man was grilled on the subject and apparently the team was satisfied with his explanation after investigation.

My favorite tactic engaged in by at least one NFL club is the fake profile test. Can "ghost profiles" of young women ensnare men who have their own Facebook pages? What do you think? That's a no-brainer in my book.

If the profile gets added to the players' friends' list, it lets the team into his world of connections, photos, likes, dislikes and claims he might make about himself. A club source told Yahoo that it, "works like a charm."

Fair or foul? I say fair. If you post online it's not like it's under lock and key in your home.

Colleges are reviewing the pages created by their current players. Matt Stafford has had to explain a photo taken when he was 19 that shows him holding a beer keg over his head.

If there was no beer bong in sight and no half-naked girl draped over it I'd say he is a piker when it comes to partying. Maybe that's why he might very likely be the #1 pick in the draft.