 |
| And like that, poof. He was gone. (Twitter.com) |
It was Twitter that ultimately turned Manti Te'o from just another talented college football linebacker into a digital-age version of Icarus. So it's not all that stunning that Te'o would give his account the Lennay Kekua treatment and make it disappear.
Te'o did just that on Sunday afternoon, shutting down his Twitter account.
According to Darren Rovell of ESPN, a source says Te'o will "be off for an indefinite period of time to prepare for the NFL Draft."
It's a wise move by Te'o, really. He deleted his Twitter account during the Super Bowl and no one really noticed until, well, Wednesday.
He can't possibly tweet anything of real value at this point. Anything he says or does will be scrutinized heavily and, because the Internet is a hateful place, mocked ruthlessly.
The real questions will come at the combine, where Te'o will be grilled by teams interested in potentially drafting him and by reporters should he choose to participate in drills. (My guess: he won't. We'll see.)
Te'o's 2013 NFL Draft stock's taken a hit over the last month: he had the fake-girlfriend-catfish scandal and the disaster of a game against Alabama in the BCS Championship Game.
Whereas he was once hyped-up enough to land in the top part of the draft, both Rob Rang and Dane Brugler of NFLDraftScout.com have Te'o landing to the Ravens at No. 32 overall.
The logic there, of course, involves replacing Ray Lewis. But the bigger concern could be how Ravens veterans treat Te'o if he ended up in Baltimore.
