Sexuality still elephant in room for Te’o

Monday, 25 February 2013 10:30 AM Written by 

The easy part -- the mass media interview -- is over for Manti Te’o. The hard part is yet to come. When he joins an NFL team, his sexuality will be an on-going question with teammates and that can become very ugly.



By Mike Florio, ProFootballTalk.com

As the public and the media begin to grow weary (we hope) with the controversy involving former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, the fake dead girlfriend story hasn’t begun to die for teams interested in Te’o's talents.

The lying to his father and Te’o's failure to come clean once he knew or should have known that the dead girlfriend was neither real nor dead are minor issues in comparison to things other players do.  That’s a point former Chiefs G.M. Scott Pioli made eloquently during Friday’s Pro Football Talk on NBC Sports Network.

But the elephant in the room for many scouts relates to the question that Katie Couric abruptly posed to Te’o — and that Te’o answered in a way thatspeaks volumes as to the current culture of football:  Is Te’o gay?

Read the rest of the story.

* * *

Jason Cole, Yahoo! Sports: Will Te’o be able it handle verbal abuse in NFL