Manti Te'o is a really, really good middle linebacker for the #2 ranked college team in the nation, and he finished 2nd in the Heisman voting. Let's not forget that before we get into this next bit of craziness.
Te'o got quite a bit of publicity for his play, his leadership, and for playing through the deaths of his grandmother and his girlfriend which occurred within a few days of each other. I mean, you can't make this stuff up! Oh wait... First came this bombshell from deadspin yesterday, which started a flurry of back-pedaling from
ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and about everybody else associated with the
original story. Frankly, the whole thing makes my head spin, I found this timeline from USA Today quite helpful.
So Te'o made the girlfriend up. Or she made herself up and Te'o is a dupe along with the rest of us. Or he was mostly duped, found out later, but the Notre Dame brass urged him to keep it quiet until after the BCS National Championship game. The fact that Te'o completely fabricated his girlfriend out of thin air is stupid enough that it might be true, or the guy could've been duped and then the truth was temporarily suppressed by Te'o's coaches so as not to be a distraction (which is probably was, given his play in the the title game). As I like to say, let's not rush to judgement before all the facts are in.
Unfortunately upon hearing this news, my brain almost immediately went to the implications on the Lions' draft. Te'o was in the top 2 list of guys I wanted the Lions to draft, the other being Dee Milliner. Now I'm not sure. Speaking of which...
ESPN's Mel Kiper has released his first mock draft of probably 57 or so. It's an ESPN Insider only article though, so you might not be able to view it. Not to worry. Mock drafts are basically useless until after the combine, but... I can't help myself. He's got the Lions taking Jarvis Jones (if you're not familiar with mocks, this will change 28 times before the actual draft). Before yesterday I'd have said take Te'o over Jones in a heartbeat, but it's hard to say now.
ESPN's Mel Kiper has released his first mock draft of probably 57 or so. It's an ESPN Insider only article though, so you might not be able to view it. Not to worry. Mock drafts are basically useless until after the combine, but... I can't help myself. He's got the Lions taking Jarvis Jones (if you're not familiar with mocks, this will change 28 times before the actual draft). Before yesterday I'd have said take Te'o over Jones in a heartbeat, but it's hard to say now.
Here's some Jarvis Jones highlights:
And some Dee Milliner highlights (the ones vs. Michigan are tough to watch):
And finally some Manti Te'o highlights (so sad):
That's all for now. Good luck to the Pistons playing the Knicks (sans 'Sheed, alas) in London tonight.
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