Regarding "Mystery no closer to clarity" (Friday Sports Page C3), Notre Dame All American Manti Te'o has been inundated - as has most of America - by the deluge of speculation about whether he was complicit in spreading a fraudulent story about an online girlfriend who died of Leukemia. While the Chronicle article was a balanced account of what is known, most other media outlets have already proclaimed him guilty, even going so far as compare him to Lance Armstrong and speculate that his NFL prospects are perhaps fatally damaged.
What is largely unremarked upon are the true culprits in this story and dozens like it: the greedy college administrators that exploit young athletes, making millions for their universities while the athlete gets thrown to the wolves. If Notre Dame truly had the interests of Te'o at heart, they would have provided an environment similar to the one Coach Kevin Sumlin and Texas A&M provided to Heisman winner Johnny Mannziel: the Media were kept at bay, as were the promoters and Talking Heads eager to exploit everything and anything about Mannziel's amazing story. Unfortunately, Notre Dame saw the same opportunity as it related to Te'o, and made a conscious decision to milk it for all the Heisman hype they could, putting him front and center in countless stage-managed media appearances, and flogging this patently phony story for all it was worth.
Te'o is learning the most important lesson he ever could in college: the adults around you who claim to have your interests at heart should not be trusted when big bucks are in play. That should serve him very well in his professional career as well.
Pete Smith
Cypress
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