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Te’o interview ‘scrapped’

Ferd Lewis
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COURTESY CAL SPORT MEDIA / NOVEMBER 2012
Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o entered Notre Dame stadium for the last time as a player prior to the game with Wake Forest. Notre Dame All-American linebacker Manti Te'o will apparently wait a little longer before publicly speaking to the media about his bizarre story centering around a fictional girlfriend's purported death in September.

Notre Dame All-American linebacker Manti Te’o will apparently wait a little longer before publicly speaking to the media about his bizarre story centering around a fictional girlfriend’s purported death in September. 

Te’o, who Wednesday issued a statement saying he had been victimized in an online hoax, had been expected to appear on television Thursday afternoon with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap in a one-on-one interview that was to have been put together by his representatives at Creative Artists Agency. 

But the Chicago Tribune reported today that the plan had been "scrapped."

An ESPN spokesman told the Star-Advertiser in an email, "we never announced we had an interview … we are pursuing one like every other media outet."

Te’o, a 2009 graduate of Punahou School from Laie, issued a statement through his representatives Wednesday but has yet to appear in front of the media. Te’o said he was embarrassed and humiliated to acknowledge that he had been duped in a bogus online and phone romance.

He reportedly is in Florida at the IMG Institute in preparation for the NFL Draft Combine Feb. 20-26 in Indianapolis.

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Wednesday that he expected Te’o to speak today. "At the end of the day, this is Manti’s story to tell. Which he is going to do," Swarbrick said.

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