Griffiths: Notre Dame botched Manti Te’o soap opera big time
By DOUG GRIFFITHS
ISL Assistant Editor
Am I in the minority for being stunned that Notre Dame had a press conference to explain the Manti Te’o soap opera?
Why would a major university hold such an event to discuss its star football player’s now non-existent girlfriend?
This is beyond bizarre and Notre Dame’s handling of this is even more perplexing.
Hey Notre Dame, Te’o’s collegiate career is over. Move on.
But no, Notre Dame apparently feels as though it must protect the face of its football program even before even he publicly addresses this personal matter.
Not that you do, but don’t feel sorry for Notre Dame. Remember it benefitted greatly by receiving tons of publicity in the months that followed us learning the gut-wrenching story of how within hours Te’o lost both his grandmother and girlfriend in September.
Yet Notre Dame didn’t question its star player about why he never saw the girlfriend, didn’t go see her when she supposedly got cancer and didn’t even attend her funeral.
If this story continues to shed a negative light on Te’o and the university, Notre Dame will have to accept the fallout over this as it already is a public relations nightmare and could really blow up into something colossal.
PR nightmares are nothing new at Notre Dame.
Just a couple years ago Saint Mary’s College student Elizabeth “Lizzy” Seeburg committed suicide after she accused a Notre Dame football player of assaulting her. Notre Dame claimed an investigation was done, but the player was never disciplined, and as a matter of fact, he participated in the BCS National Championship Game a couple weeks ago.
Then later in the fall of 2010 student Declan Sullivan was told to film practice from high atop a scissor lift on an extremely windy day. The lift toppled over and Sullivan plunged to his death.
With this latest saga relating to the football program, most people are finding it hard to believe Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick is putting his reputation along with the university’s 100 percent behind Te’o even with so many unanswered questions remaining.
Swarbrick and the university’s conviction that Te’o is simply the victim of a heinous hoax is to be expected.
After all, Notre Dame traditionally stands by its football players and its football program. Football is the lifeblood of the university. It’s been that way for more than a century and will continue to be that way forever. No way was Swarbrick going to face the media and divorce Notre Dame and its mighty football program from the ultra-popular Te’o.
Hopefully in the coming days, we will hear from Te’o, and hopefully he will provide concrete proof that he truly is a victim of a horrible prank.
But if the All-American linebacker is fibbing and had a hand in this hoax, then he and Notre Dame deserve all the negative press that’s bound to come their way.
It’s extremely difficult to buy Te’o’s side of things. His statement and Swarbrick’s press conference have only generated more questions than answers.
Over the years, when controversies arise in the sports world with sports figures, we’ve learned to side on guilt rather than innocence and for good reason.
Remember Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Penn State and many many others didn’t tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth initially.
And until we hear Te’o and are able to try and judge what he has to say, all we are left to ponder is a ton of questions starting with the word why.
One of those at the top of my list directed toward Notre Dame would be: Why did the university wait so long to inform the public of the hoax?
Notre Dame learned of Te’o’s side of things Dec. 26. Yet it took a story from Deadspin.com to be posted yesterday before the university talked about the subject.
According to Swarbrick, the reason for the delay was because the feeling was Te’o needed to concentrate on the BCS National Championship Game against Alabama Jan. 7.
Of course, because football trumps everything at Notre Dame.
I really question whether the university or Te’o were ever going to broach the subject if the media didn’t undercover the story.
I also have a hard time with Notre Dame not coming clean from the outset. Isn’t that the university’s moral and ethical responsibility?
This whole thing just reeks of cover up to me and is another example in an ever growing list at Notre Dame of how the football program and its players continue to be defended at all costs by the university regardless of the fallout.
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