What we know about Manti Te'o

Tom Geiger

A guest post by my friend Tom Geiger. In addition to being a Notre Dame fan, he's one of the most insightful people I know, so I had to get his thoughts on the Te'o story. The best way to describe Tom and I's relationship is that we once considered entering Kenyon's Battle of the Bands and rapping Forgot About Dre. He was Eminem, and I was Dre, obviously. We would've won in a landslide but I was too chicken to go through with it. Picture captions are my sidenotes and not the opinion of Tom Geiger. Enjoy.

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So being a Notre Dame fan over the past two decades has been a Sisyphean endeavor, and the past two weeks have clearly demonstrated this: from going undefeated in the regular season out of nowhere and becoming popular underdog picks in the BCS title game, to getting dismantled by a much better program for the one game everyone decides to watch, having their savior head coach nearly leave for a job in the NFL, and yeah, the star player is a total weirdo and potentially a fraud. It's definitely the sort of thing that makes you wonder why you care about sports to begin with, and whether it's a worthwhile use of your time. It probably isn’t, but whatever, go tribe.

don't worry, you're still a future millionaire

I’m not sure if I’m in the minority here, but to me it seems kind of obvious what went down. Te’o was legit duped, eventually figured out what was going on, and became too embarrassed to discuss the matter in public so he kept it going. That definitely doesn’t clear Manti 100%, but, well, he’s young. Stop and think about that for a second. And think about what his buddy over at Texas A&M is getting done (fun: google ‘Johnny Football halloween’). Or what every other DI athlete is doing every Saturday night. This is remarkably embarrassing.

What bothers me about my passion for sports is that I get caught up in instances where fans fail to use logic. I root for the shittiest teams in sports, which sucks, but it gives me an opportunity to watch most games without much of a vested interest. And when a team I like happens to find itself in an opportune position, like a national championship game, and proceeds to embarrass itself, it gives me a chance to reflect on the ways we can interpret sports from biased and unbiased perspectives.

Lance Armstrong being involved with this 
scandal is my favorite conspiracy theory

Regardless of whether Te’o lied or not, the argument that nobody could be delusional enough to believe in Lennay is bullshit for three reasons. One, more often than not, that statement is predicated on a hatred for everything Notre Dame. Two, we're talking about a guy who mentions “heavenly father” at some point during every sentence that escapes his mouth. He’s…kind of crazy. Three – and more importantly – we don’t know anything about Te’o. In fact, we don’t know anything about anyone in sports. They aren’t our friends. They don’t really give a shit about us. So why do we let our hearts get broken when they “betray” us? 

There’s an important lesson here. It’s useful to take a step back every once in a while and acknowledge that we’re watching grown men play games for money (and in this case, they aren’t even being paid). Before we get all bent out of shape and let our emotions get the best of us, let’s try and acknowledge reality. So as much as it pains me, I’m going to demonstrate how to let reality supersede subjectivity:

I don’t know if Lebron James is a total ass hat. He probably is. He pulled his pants down and took a horrendous shit on the team I like. No, I don’t like Lebron James. However, I do know that, objectively speaking, he’s by far the best player in basketball, so I’m going to acknowledge that because it’s true. I don’t solely attribute his success to the refs (when did everyone forget about Jordan rules?), and I’m not dense enough to believe that he’s playing second fiddle to anyone on his team. Lebron James is awesome at basketball.

pictures speak louder than words

I called my brother after Notre Dame beat Oklahoma and told him that Manti Te’o was the best player I’ve ever seen in gold and blue. He concurred. We both really love Manti Te’o. Now, I don’t really care much for the guy. He seems like a strange bird, and it appears that he’s an attention whore. But rationally speaking, it seems like he was actually duped in this situation. If you take a good look at the evidence, it stacks up heavily in his favor. It also strongly suggests that he let things get carried away. If something comes out in the future that contradicts this viewpoint, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that I was incorrect. And hopefully most of ND nation will do the same, though we’ll probably never get the full story.

Hopefully this is something Manti Te’o will someday learn from. On the other hand, I don’t give a shit if he learns anything other than an NFL playbook. I still think he’s the best player I’ve ever seen at Notre Dame, and I think he’s going to be an outstanding linebacker in the NFL. Why? Because he has the right fundamentals, puts up good numbers, and he reportedly rallies his teammates pretty damn well. So, objectively speaking, Manti Te’o is awesome at football. And objectively speaking, he desperately needs a girlfriend. These are basically the only things we know for sure about Manti Te'o.