Nurse the Hate: The Awesome Manti Te'o Story Day 2

I am immensely disappointed that we have had no further developments in this Te’o story in the last day.  Te’o and His People are currently hoping upon hope that Lance Armstrong and his admission to something we all already knew seven years ago will take some of the thunder away from the story.  My belief is that when they see that this has failed to make the story go away, they will bring out Ronaiah Tuiasosopo to fall on the sword on Sunday.  Why Sunday?  Most of the rabid dog reporters will be home and the weekend staffers, largely inexperienced or second rate, will have to pick up the ball.  After some sham press conference in which a written statement is passed out, they will place him back in hiding and see if they can wait this thing out.  It’ll be great, because they will have him looking hangdog yet respectful of the situation.  I’m thinking a dark suit…  Te’o will once again apologize for the “pain and suffering” he has caused people in yet another prepared statement, and may even make a donation to some kind of leukemia foundation in hopes of wrapping it up.  There is no chance he will be made available for an interview until they can hammer out a deal with NBC for some softball interview deal.  Picture Matt Lauer walking the Notre Dame campus with Te’o while he dodges questions with highly coached answers.  Why NBC?  Because they have the broadcast rights to Notre Dame Football, and NBC isn’t going to shoot one of their biggest sports assets in the foot. 

The amazing thing is that no one in the national media has even floated the idea out of him being gay.  I saw the Today Show this morning and watched those dopey talking heads all question each other with “I can’t understand why he would do this?” and “It’s so confusing!”  Clearly no one wants to be the first one with their fingerprints on that hot potato.  I can’t be the only one out here that instantly thought “He’s gay…” right?  It’s the only thing that makes sense.  As Jay Mohr said yesterday, “this makes the Kennedy assassination seem simple”.  Why is everyone pretending that Te’o being gay hasn’t even crossed their minds?  Something you should keep in mind as real issues like gun control, defense spending or abortion are covered by the media is that if they can’t openly discuss a ridiculous football player’s false identity, how can they possibly present factual coverage of anything?   If you can’t say what everyone is thinking on Te’o, how can you possibly criticize defense spending and/or cuts?  It’s such a stupid dance… 

At what point will Notre Dame cut bait and run?  As boneheads on sports talk radio keep thinking this is happened so Notre Dame could get more press, Notre Dame has to feel the heat.  For all intents and purposes, Te’o is now an ex-employee.  What other company would stick their necks out and stay attached to the personal actions of one of their ex-employees?  At some point someone over there will come to their senses and say “Why don’t we say this was all his personal life, we don’t have anything to do with it, and we are all as shocked as you are?”?  There must be lawyers over there howling in protest at how the Athletic Director has handled this thing.  And you know what?  They are right. 

Let’s get this Tuiasosopo interview going already!  The show must go on!