On Manti Te’o, Replacement Officials & Perspective

Sep 22, 2012; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish linebacker Manti TeOn the same day everyone in America from lowly bloggers (two thumbs pointed to my chest) to the President of the United States has a say about replacement officials, Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o was named the FWAA Bronko Nagurski Defensive Player of the Week. What does one have to do with the other?

Perspective.

The conclusion of Monday night’s Seattle Seahawks – Green Bay Packers game brought to a boiling point weeks of frustration over replacement officials in the NFL. Angry sentiment was not merely expressed on the perpetually cynical Twitter, but on the accurately self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports, ESPN, where reactions ranged from incredulous to apoplectic.

Now, I didn’t ride my high horse to the tallest soap box atop Mount Pious to deliver a sermon about public anger toward Roger Goodell and the NFL being better directed at domestic unemployment, sectarian violence in the Middle East and the world’s many other ills. Such finger wagging would be hypocritical, given my own Twitter account (@kensing45, thank you) has far more reference to missed football calls than it does riots in Libya. Furthermore, I’ve run the gamut of ridiculous emotions that come with following sports: angry, sadness, joy.

This is a college football blog, and I’m here to write about college football; specifically, arguably the best defensive player in the nation. Te’o could have entered last April’s NFL Draft, and likely been a first round selection. He returned to Notre Dame with a goal of leading the Fighting Irish back to national prominence. So far, so good: UND is 4-0 and generating legitimate BCS chatter from pundits far more knowledgable than I, like CollegeFootballNews.com columnist and Friend of the Blog Matt Zemek.

Individually, Te’o is more than the Nagurski Player of the Week or a frontrunner for the honor the FWAA bestows to the best defender at season’s end. He’s also generated Heisman Trophy buzz, an almost unheard of proposition for a linebacker. His best showing of the season thus far in Saturday’s defeat of Michigan — eight tackles and two interceptions — came almost a week after Te’o lost two people dear to his heart.

Te’o’s grandmother and girlfriend both passed earlier this month. This young man and team leader has twice played in games hyped as having lofty implications, but reality is there’s so much beyond whether the Fighting Irish win or lose. And yet, Te’o has taken the field with an intensity that someone with no outside knowledge of circumstance might assume nothing is more important to him than a victory.

In that sense, football is an outlet for emotion more than a catalyst of it. The game isn’t the end-all, be-all of existence; not for the players, and certainly not for spectators.