Manti Te’o Ready to Move on with Football
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George Gojkovich/Getty Images(INDIANAPOLIS) — Former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o addressed the girlfriend hoax that became a national phenomenon.
Te’o is preparing for April’s NFL Draft, but fielded questions for what he hopes is the final time about his girlfriend that never was.
“You’re walking through grocery stores and you’re kind of like get people double takes to see if they’re staring at you,” Te’o said on Saturday. “It’s definitely embarrassing. It’s I guess a part of the process, it’s a part of the journey, but it’s only going to make me stronger and it definitely has.”
Te’o met with the media for about 15-minutes and appeared ready to move on with his life.
“If you forgive you’ll get majority of the blessing,” Te’o said on Saturday. “I always try to forgive, it’s definitely benefitted me.”
“It’s hard but a tremendous ride for me and my family and the University of Notre Dame,” Te’o continued. “Hopefully after this I answered the things I needed to answer and we can move on with football.”
But what has he learned since the hoax?
“Just to be honest in anything you do and everything from the big things to the small things,” Te’o said. “To keep your circle very small and to really understand who’s really in your corner and who’s not.”
Te’o also said that he spoke with the Green Bay Packers and Houston Texans already and is scheduled to meet with 18 more teams.
“Quite of 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 and then they just get straight to business about football.”
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