Manti Te'o's transition into being a professional football player has not exactly been as easy as he might have hoped. The former Heisman Trophy candidate received a large amount of scrutiny leading up to the NFL Draft as many experts believed he was not worthy of a high draft pick. After finally getting selected by the San Diego Chargers, he now has to deal with teasing from veterans and the media. The Chargers are doing their best to protect the rookie from at least one evil as Te'o has escaped media during most of OTAs.
After being very open to the likes of ESPN's Jeremy Schaap and Katie Couric during the aftermath of the highly publicized fake girlfriend hoax, Te'o has yet to address media as an NFL player. In the initial rookie minicamp, Te'o was made available to the media once, since then, he has yet to be heard from as the Chargers are restricting access. Talking to the media is part of the NFL job and cannot ultimately be avoided, but San Diego is doing all they can to prolong it.
Head coach Mike McCoy understands that with Te'o's past, he is open to a lot of teasing from teammates and veterans but expects it to stop there. He is not interested in his linebacker becoming a celebrity for all the wrong reasons. As the Chargers continue their transition from Norv Turner to McCoy, they intend to eliminate jokes from outside distractions.
Te'o is showing that he is clearly ready to move past the offseason drama, showing up the Maxim Hot 100 party honoring his fake dead girlfriend. The magazine took a shot at the linebacker by placing his fake girlfriend as No. 69 on the annual "Hot 100" list. They even invited Te'o, an opportunity he decided not to pass up.
Editor-in-chief Dan Bova was happy to see Te'o took the joke in stride, showing up the event.
"It seems like he has a good sense of humor about the whole thing which I think is the best way to handle a situation like that," Bova said to Yahoo! Sports.
If Te'o can keep laughing about the situation, it should eliminate any distractions within the locker room. It is only a matter of time before he is forced in front of the media in a Chargers uniform, but he seems more prepared to handle it than ever before.
