Heisman finalist linebacker Manti Te'o (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
There are no virgins in big-time collegiate athletics.
That?s a favorite phrase of a good friend of mine who grew up in the collegiate athletic world and knows it well. Let me add one caveat.
Except for Manti Te?o. Until now.
Only days ago Te?o was hailed as what collegiate athletics is supposed to be all about ? a gifted athlete, team leader, good student as well as one who radiated true character. He also may turn about to be, if not a fraud, then less than truthful.
Last September the story about the death of his girlfriend and his grandmother within days of one another but did not deter Te?o from playing. After their deaths Te?o?s play improved and that kick started talk of him winning ?the Heisman Trophy.
Throughout the fall Te?o gave interviews about his late girlfriend who had the misfortune of being in a serious car accident then being diagnosed with leukemia. Te?o stood by her virtually. The operative word being virtual since they conversed over the phone and via text. The two never met but Te?o, a devout Mormon, claimed upon her death that she was the love of his life.
Sad, but untrue. Totally. The story was a hoax, according to Deadspin, the only outlet that bothered to investigate it. Every other media outlet from the TV networks and?Sports Illustrated to major newspapers as well as the South Bend Tribune took Te?o at his word and ran with it.
Was Te?o complicit in this hoax? Notre Dame claims he was not as does Te?o, but questions arise about why he never saw the young woman, never visited her, or attended her funeral yet pledged undying love. He did reveal in interviews that the two would meet again, presumably in heaven. Or now as it turns out maybe some place else, because the voice he was speaking to all this time is still alive. She called him last December, and that?s when he blew the whistle on the hoax to Notre Dame.
The media has been beating itself up over not being more vigilant in probing the story for accuracy. To me that?s not the real issue, the bigger issue that this story, as an article in the Washington Post pointed out, was enhanced and spun by an organization that knows all about spinning. Notre Dame. No other school knows how to blow its own trumpet as well as the Golden Domers do.
Notre Dame?s athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, has backed Te?o?s story. In a recent press conference, Swarbrick claims that an investigation was conducted and shows that Te?o was telling the truth about the hoax. Swarbrick also said, with a catch in his voice, ?There?s a lot of tragedy here. There?s a lot of sorrow here. But the thing I am most sad of [is]? that the single most trusting human being I?ve ever met will never be able to trust in the same way again in his life.?
Cynics might call what Te?o underwent, if he is truly a victim, growing up. Good news is that fictional story died. The tough news is that Te?o and Notre Dame officials must face the music.
But this story is far bigger than egos at Notre Dame. It hits on a theme that gets at the heart of collegiate athletics. Image building, or in reality image pimping.
We ? and by that I mean schools, fans and the media ? want to turn these kids into things they are not. We want to paint them as heroes overcoming incredible odds to excel on the fields of play. But that?s not enough. We want to portray them as humanitarians, too.
Players are encouraged to visit children in hospitals and do volunteer work in their spare time ? that is, when they are practicing, attending class, and exercising in the weight room. To their credit, many athletes do wonderful work in their communities, but that does not make up for the hoax that is collegiate sports.
The real fraud in collegiate athletics is the idea that schools care about their athletes.
What they really are is pawns in a system. Too many football and basketball players at big-time programs never graduate. The schools use them to further their economic ends but care little for the student when eligibility is over. (Note: Notre Dame?s graduation rate for its football players is among the highest.)
And this does not cover the legacy of injuries (bad knees, weak shoulders, arthritic hips, etc.) that football players will carry for the rest of their lives.
As my friend says, there are no virgins in collegiate athletics, but there may be plenty of pimps. We simply call them by another name ? university administrators.
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