The guys on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown have engaged in an intriguing debate regarding the question of whether it will be worse for linebacker Manti Te’o at the NFL level if he was involved in the fake, dead girlfriend hoax -- or if he wasn’t.
Cris Carter suggested that it could be hard for NFL players to respect Te’o, if the truth is that he had no involvement whatsoever in the hoax perpetrated on him over a period of years. Still, most of the guys at the big desk think it’s better if the truth is that Te’o had no involvement.
Tom Jackson disagrees.
“If he’s part of the scheme, we can work on that,” Jackson said. “I can deal with that. But that amount of naivete, that’s hard to cure.”
“If he’s part of the scheme, he fits right into the fabric of the NFL,” Carter added.
“He ain’t seen no scheme yet,” Carter said later in the segment. “He ain’t seen women to the liking of the National Football League. If that got him duped, oh my goodness.”
Carter is right. But there’s a pretty good chance that Te’o has learned a valuable lesson.