Stoney said:
**** Whitman said:
Manti Te'o is every bit the folk hero among Notre Dame fans that Tebow was among Florida fans.
Some distinct differences:
The "folk hero" type popularity with Teo didn't really begin until his senior year, and most of the nation outside Domer World barely knew anything about him until this year. With Tebow it began basically around the end of his freshman year and only grew from there. 1 year of it vs. 4 years of it.
Tebow's teams won big all four years, and he won two national championships. Teo's first three teams were pretty crappy by Notre Dame standards, only his fourth one is a title contender. 4 good teams vs. 1 good team.
A Heisman Trophy winner vs. a Heisman Trophy loser.
Those certainly are differences, but I don't think those kind of one-to-one comparisons completely work here.
Certainly Te'o's first three Notre Dame teams were nothing particularly special, but his final team - win or lose on Jan. 7 - is one of those that will be revered for all-time by its fan base. Kind of like the Kentucky basketball team that made a run after probation finally had ended for that program.
Te'o picked Notre Dame on National Signing Day, when I think most had him pegged for USC, his school's biggest rival and one that it had beat it like a drum the previous few years. It was a pretty shocking signing by what was essentially a lame-duck head coach - and a defensive player at that, at a school that had long struggled to stop anybody. As much as a recruiting coup can, this one energized a very demoralized fan base.
Then you have the personal travails he's gone through this season, losing both his girlfriend and grandmother the same week.
And the fact that he elected to return for his senior season rather than jump to the NFL, as most expected.
And the fact that, well, he attends a school that has a habit of making folk heroes out of its football stars.
I'm not even convinced that finishing
second in the Heisman race hurts his standing at all, among his own fan base. He was a linebacker finishing that high, first of all. Second of all, at least from what I've seen and heard from some of the loonier portions of that fan base, it feeds into their persecution complex.
