Some Thoughts on Notre Dame

Derek DeNote

Too many people are focusing on Manti Te’o and his fake girlfriend. I’d like to take this time and honor those that actually passed away and were forgotten after a week. So, this blog goes out to Declan Sullivan and Lizzy Seeberg.

Declan Sullivan, a student at the University of Notre Dame, was brought to his death by the negligence of the Notre Dame football staff. This event happened when I was still the biggest Notre Dame fan in my age group, but I can actually trace this back to the beginning of the end of the one-sided love affair. As many of you know, I was state champion manager (a proud one at that), and I would’ve done anything for that team. So, as you can imagine, my heart truly went out to Declan and the Sullivan family when I learned of his death. I followed this team pretty closely, and by pretty closely, I mean this season I missed watching only my 2^nd in 10 years. This was Brian Kelly’s inaugural season and I honestly thought he should be ousted for his negligence. As a manger, I can attest you do what you’re told. There’s no way in hell Declan Sullivan wanted to be up there, but he did what he was told because he loved the program. I’m sure Notre Dame paid the Sullivan’s a hefty amount of money for their negligence, but it’s kind of ironic that less than two years later their negligence has them as the butt of the jokes.

Lizzy Seeberg was a student at Saint Mary’s College, down the road from the University of Notre Dame. She claimed to be sexually assaulted by one of the Notre Dame football players (I recently learned who this player was and let’s put it this way, he was a contributor on the team that just played a National Championship) and after the university dismissed her claim, she committed suicide. I’m all about protecting one of your own and my dad always taught me “Never speak outside the family,” a quote from the Godfather, but when it comes to sexual violations, there should be absolutely no tolerance. Contrasting stories were written, so we’ll never know the truth behind the whole situation. But, more should’ve been done and you’re lying to yourself if you don’t think more could’ve been done. I mean Joe Fauria was “asked to leave” after committing a university standards violation. Wanna know what that violations was? It is rumored that as he was going to class he slapped the rector’s ass as to signal good game and the priest filed a sexual harassment suit…damn Notre Dame acted pretty promptly in that situation to demonstrate they had no tolerance for sexual assault.

Two students lost their lives do to the negligence of a university that eventually went on to believe a catfish scheme. My hope is that the public becomes as educated on the cases of Declan Sullivan and Lizzy Seeberg as they are about Lennay Kekua. Speaking of whom…..

Lennay Kekua: The Woman, The Myth, The Legend

I read the Deadspin article minutes after the whole thing broke, and the entire time I was reading the article I just kept thinking, “what you talkin about, Willis?” The two possible answers to this phenomenon are either Te’o is a sick individual or is just extremely gullible. I’m sure you’ve read all the articles pertaining to the situation (what else could you have been doing during Syllabus week?!) so I’m not going bore you facts, instead I am going to bore you with what I think is wrong with this story.

Manti Te'o's girlfriend posing for
a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower.

• Every story has this starting in 2009 after the Stanford game, when Te’o was a freshman. If you had a creepy weird obsession with Notre Dame during this time you would know this was, 1) a sad day for Notre Dame (it signaled the end of the Weis era), and 2) a sad day for Notre Dame because they were absolutely torched by Toby Gerhart, who made the Notre Dame linebacking core look like it consisted of Mike Kiely, Hoov Nation, and myself. In case, you don’t understand how bad that is, Gerhart rushed for over 200 yards and 3 scores. Somehow after this great showing by the Notre Dame defense, the predators decided, “Hey! Lets prey on Manti Te’o. He’ll definitely become famous!” Swarbrick has said that the predators’ end game was to get the story on ESPN and NBC, but why choose Te’o? Yes, I know Te’o was a top tier recruit, in fact a 5 star and the best defensive player coming out. But not so fast my friend (as my favorite Jack Daniels-drinking analyst would say. Since we’re talking about Corso I think now is about as great a time to bring up when I visited Notre Dame this year for the Stanford game. While on set during a commercial break, Corso pulled out a flask and threw down a big gulp of what appeared Jack Daniels…needless to say Corso is the man and when he retires College Gameday will not be the same. Okay back to the fishy story…)! Notre Dame has brought in many top tier players before and they haven’t made it (too many for me to be okay with) , so what made them think this guy was going to be any different. Simply put, something doesn’t make sense here. Either these guys should be psychics for knowing Te’o was going to blossom into this Heisman candidate and resurrect the Notre Dame football program or Swarbrick is lying when he says that their end goal was to have this story break on ESPN or NBC.

Manti Te'o's girlfriend posing for
a picture in front of the Colosseum.

• Te’o’s delay to answer questions. I know, it’s probably extremely embarrassing to get catfished, knowing that you could have had sexual intercourse with any girl in the Midwest, but still it was a necessity to come out right away to address the issue. Why wait an extra day? I don’t know… maybe to get coached about how to answer the questions? Shouldn’t you have been prepared for this since you knew it was all a hoax on December 6^th? And you apparently were going to make the statement Thursday about it anyway, or, wait… was that just Notre Dame trying to cover their asses (once again) since they knew about the whole situation since the 26^th and failed to notify anyone? I’d completely agree with you if you said this wasn’t Notre Dame’s business, but they made it their business by launching their own investigation.

Manti Te'o's girlfriend posing for
a picture in front of Big Ben.

• Why were there no cameras? Do you have something to hide? After having watched way too much Criminal Minds for anyone’s own good and a decent amount of Lie to Me, as well (Whatever happened to that show? It would’ve been pure gold if it had been on USA), I understand that you can read people’s body language, but why did Te’o not want people reading his body language? Is he trying to hide something? If Te’o came out right away and did an interview with cameras, I’d be much more likely to believe him and have full confidence in him. I realize that my lowly opinion literally means nothing, but I’m sure if I feel this way, so do some NFL organizations. I’ve seen some mock drafts, having him in the late first round or early second, which is a damn shame for the kid because he would’ve been a sure fire top 10. I don’t feel bad for whatever team is getting him, because they are getting a kid that can play football.

I delayed this article for the sole purpose of hearing what Te’o had to say, but all that left me with was more questions. I do believe the poor kid was duped, but I also believe that all the truth has not surfaced.