INDIANAPOLIS — Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o drew a very large media crowd for his session at the podium during the 2013 scouting combine in Indianapolis and it did not take long for the first question about “the incident”. Te’o knew the questions were coming and said that some of the NFL teams are getting that issue out of the way at the start of their 15-minute interviews. “Quite a few teams asked me about it,” Te’o said. “Some go to certain lengths, some just ask me, ‘Just give me a brief overview of how it was’ then they get straight to business. “Some guys just talk briefly for 30 seconds and the next 14 minutes is all plays and getting down to business. That’s how I prefer it to be.” Several NFL coaches and general managers have been asked this week about the “catfishing” hoax and how it could affect Te’o’s draft status. The consensus has been that while they’re interested in seeing how Te’o handles the media scrutiny, they know how well he plays on the field and that, above anything, will determine where he gets picked. “If he can handle that distraction and still be able to perform on the football field, I really don’t think it makes that much of a difference,” Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera said on Thursday. “Whatever happened is a set of circumstances that only he really knows what it was all about. We’ll talk about it. We’ll find out about it. The bottom line is, is he a good person and can he play football? That’s probably the most important thing that he’ll have to answer. “I don’t think it’s going to hurt his draft stock. He’s coming here to improve his draft stock. I do think he’s a heck of a football player and I think he’s got a bright future in this league.”
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From the combine: NFL teams more concerned with football than ‘catfishing’ when it comes to Manti Te’o (Shutdown Corner)
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