Seven months ago two wide-eyed, small-town college athletes sat in a room overlooking the neon of New York’s Times Square and marveled at the fast-paced world that was engulfing them by the minute.
Their names are Johnny Manziel and Manti Te’o. Perhaps you’ve heard of them.
Actually, it has been hard not to, given the considerable headlines and commentary they have generated since sharing the stage at the 78th Heisman Trophy Award presentation.
Manziel, a Texas A&M quarterback from Kerrville, Texas (population 22,347), won the prized bronze statue, symbolic of being the top player in college football, the first freshman to do so. Te’o, a senior Notre Dame linebacker from Laie (6,000), finished second, the highest vote-getter among primarily defensive players.
Since that day their fame has only tangentially been about football exploits, having, instead, everything to do with the perils of being in the public eye and dealing with the crush of celebrity.
How they have handled the trials and tribulations that have accompanied it has been instructive.
A month after the Heisman show, Te’o became Internet and talk-show fodder from revelations of the hoax surrounding his non-existent girlfriend, Lennay Kekua.
Through it all — and it is hard to imagine how many times he was forced to bite his lip and grin — Te’o has taken the abuse without lashing back. He’s issued apologies and even been able to poke fun at himself, like the time he showed up at a magazine promotional event celebrating the publication’s list of the Top 100 hottest women after it named Kekua No. 69.
Remarkably, Te’o has been able to move on while still focusing on making his NFL debut with the San Diego Chargers.
But while Te’o has shown signs of weathering the storm, the quarterback who has registered himself as “Johnny Football” seemingly walks under a perpetual dark cloud of his own making. The No. 1-ranked Alabama defense did not frustrate Manziel, but living under the microscope of his celebrity status definitely has.
The maturity that Te’o has displayed hasn’t yet found the otherwise likeable and immensely talented 20-year-old Manziel. If it isn’t old court cases surfacing, it is too honest, in the heat-of-the-moment tweets about his suffocating celebrity and counting the days until he can leave College Station, Texas, in the rearview mirror.
Then there are the curious absences that led to his departure from the Manning Passing Academy. According to organizers, he was “missing” and “late for practice assignments.” The kind of stuff that does not project well to the high school quarterbacks he was ostensibly mentoring. Instances that prompted the New York Daily News to label him “Johnny Hangover,” despite claims of illness.
Back in December, after they had come to know each other on the postseason awards circuit, Te’o said the two learned they had much in common. “We don’t really like the spotlight, but we understand that it comes with the territory.”
If they didn’t fully grasp it back then, they do now.
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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
