One of NFL Network’s most recent additions is also one of the last people you’d expect to work in sports media.
Manti Te’o, a star linebacker at Notre Dame who became a national punchline in 2013 after being catfished and learning that his online girlfriend was an impersonator, is now working as a host of the network’s “Good Morning Football.”
While it might be too convenient to frame Te’o’s newest gig within a redemption arc narrative, it does seem reasonable to conclude that he feels comfortable enough with being a public figure to be making his full-time job talking sports on national TV.
That’s encouraging after all that he’s been through.
Back in December of 2012, Te’o’s football star was at its apex after his Fighting Irish finished an undefeated 12-0 season. He also became a subject of nationwide sympathy when he informed the media that his grandmother and girlfriend had died on the same day and then led Notre Dame to a 20-3 victory that very week.
That sympathy urned to confusion, followed quickly by scorn and ridicule, though, when a Deadspin investigation revealed that Te’o’s “girlfriend,” Lennay Kekua, was the creation of an online impersonator.
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The hoaxer, Naya Tuiasosopo, has since come out as a transgender woman. But because all of this occurred at a time before Tuiasosopo transitioned and was still identifying as a man, the national focus of the story quickly turned to salacious questions about Te’o’s sexuality.
“Girlfriend in Canada” jokes abounded throughout the football landscape. Outsports was flooded with reader comments asking if Te’o was gay. NFL pundit Mike Florio called speculation about Te’o’s sexuality the “elephant in the room.”
Te’o’s sexuality was speculated about in the same terms the media uses to describe a player’s concussion history. The early 2010s were not nearly as enlightened as we would have liked to think they were.
In the wake of the media firestorm, Te’o’s football career was tarnished. The onetime Sports Illustrated cover star fell all the way to the 38th pick during the second round of the 2013 NFL draft.
Te’o had a workmanlike pro football career for the Chargers, Saints and Bears but didn’t reach the heights once projected for him during his time at Notre Dame. It was easy to see that he never completely recovered from becoming the centerpiece of a media firestorm.
“Now I go to the NFL and I’m questioning everything. Every day was just trying to figure out how to get rid of this anxiety, this numbness, this tingling. I’m trying to figure out all these ways to reprogram myself,” he remembered.
Exultant moments like this were few and far between during Te’o’s NFL career.
Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
A few years after finishing his on-field career, Te’o started to take back control of his story by participating in the 2022 Netflix documentary “The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist.” Last season, he was invited to address the current Fighting Irish football team and greeted by a raucous Notre Dame Stadium ovation that moved him to tears.
Now Te’o’s joined the media and is on the air throughout the year breaking down football for a nationwide audience. He’s quick with a smile, brimming with energy, and enthusiastically participates in both intricate strategy analysis and lighthearted trivia throwdowns with his co-hosts.
"The New York Jets special teams is very special."
Manti Te'o has been impressed with the performance of the special teams unit for the Jets 🙌 pic.twitter.com/7btMDScMhf
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) November 13, 2025
“I think a lot of it has to do with not only my passion for the game but the team that I’m with, the ‘Good Morning Football’ crew. It’s been fun. I’m looking forward to getting better at it and connecting to more people,” Te’o told KOHN News.
Hopefully this means he’s made his peace with the game and, even more importantly, his life’s journey.
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