Inquisition not necessary: Manti Te'o mistakes are part of life, just magnified by lens of celebrity

There was a time that it seemed like great high school basketball centers came in groups of three.  One year in the late 70’s, the trio was Ralph Sampson, Sam Bowie, and St. Louis’ Steve Stipanovich.  Stipanovich eventually became the number two pick in the 1983 NBA Draft behind Sampson after attending the University of Missouri.

In December of 1980, about a month after Stipanovich turned twenty, he made the news for something besides hoops.  Stipanovich was shot in the shoulder and he told police that a masked intruder, wearing cowboy boots and a flannel shirt, broke into his apartment on Sunrise Drive in Columbia, Missouri, and shot him while screaming obscenities about basketball players.

The next day Stipanovich recanted the story and admitted that he shot himself by accident.

Stipanovich was the subsequent victim of visiting arena taunts, my recollection is that some student sections waved toy guns.  Imagine dealing with the security scrutiny for a bunch of students bearing toy arms in 2013 arena pre-game lines.  Stipo did something dumb, lied about, but doesn’t appear to have become a national pariah.  In fact, Stipanovich and his wife Terri are involved with the Mercy Ministries program in the St. Louis area, providing temporary home for young women recovering from abuse.  Doesn't sound like someone John Walsh is hunting down.

So, my feeling about Manti Te'o is that, no matter what the real story is, he did stupid things and made real mistakes, just like most people in their college years.  If you yourself never did anything stupid during those years, I bet you know people who did.  My only feeling about what I read in scribes’ columns, that "Manti Te'o has to do more, has to come clean, blah, blah."  The thing is, no, he doesn’t, and secondly, any resources spent on journalistic “getting to the bottom of it” will be such a waste of time.  When investigative reporting is more of an endangered species than the Tasmanian Wolf, that this story will be well researched just ain’t right.  Maybe finding out why Ray Lewis ditched his white suit, so we can determine if he is America’s most beloved murderer, and whether any time he rides in a limo, he hears The Tell-Tale Heart from under the floorboards.  That would be a better 30 for 30.

Manti Te'o is going through what a lot of people go through during college.  They make mistakes, either big or small, they tell tales to reduce embarrassment, and then feel the joy of their peers’ unending ridicule.  And whether you are a kid featured on CNNSI or the generic, faceless dorm floor geek of the week, most will learn some life lessons, including that sometimes self-effacement is the greater tool in adulthood. 

As far as draft stock and his bottom line, if Manti Te'o is a good linebacker, he will get work.  If not, he won’t.  Ray Lewis is beloved.  If he stunk on the field, he would not be.
 

As he has transformed from hero to jerk, I think of Michael Jordan’s dreams of going back to a time he could ride bikes to the mall and just hang out.  Unlike American Idolists or Honey Boo Boo’s, young athletes are just playing to make the team, and if they keep making it, they become celebrities.  How many people are telling this season’s high school hoops phenom Jabari Parker, “Maybe you should consider giving up basketball.  Your life will be spent signing autographs and never being able to spend carefree hours at the mall.”  Let’s ask him in 20 years if someone should have.