Sports

Te’o, ‘Honey Badger’ drafted as USC’s Barkley still waits

TAKEN! Manti Te’o had to wait until the second round, but the Chargers made a trade with the Cardinals to obtain the linebacker with the 38th overall pick. Arizona later took Tyrann Mathieu (inset) with the 69th pick. (
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Manti Te’o and the Honey Badger were able to save face last night, but the embarrassment is still mounting for Matt Barkley.

Pegged as the likely No. 1 overall pick this time last year, the USC quarterback’s steep plummet continued when Barkley went unchosen though the second and third rounds of the NFL Draft.

Not only did supposed co-equal Geno Smith of West Virginia get gobbled up by the Jets in the second round, but Barkley — dogged by concerns about his shoulder strength — was even passed over in favor of rail-thin North Carolina State project Mike Glennon, taken in the third round (73rd overall) by the Buccaneers.

Barkley wasn’t the only quarterback to plummet, just the most touted. Syracuse’s Ryan Nassib, who some had pegged as a late first-rounder, also is still waiting to hear his name called during the final four rounds today.

The night was much brighter for Te’o and Tyrann “Honey Badger” Mathieu, the troubled former LSU cornerback and Heisman Trophy finalist trying to overcome drug woes and put his football career back together again.

Te’o avoided an NFL plunge as embarrassing as his fake-girlfriend controversy when the Chargers traded up early in the second round to take him 38th overall.

Mathieu had to wait a little while longer, but the league threw him a lifejacket when the Cardinals took him in the third round (69th overall). Arizona made even more sense because Cardinals Pro Bowl corner Patrick Peterson has been helping his former LSU teammate with both his drug and football rehab programs.

Much of the attention, though, centered on Te’o.

Sensing the high likelihood of awkwardness, Te’o had declined an invitation from the league to attend in person at Radio City Music Hall. But thanks to the Chargers’ new braintrust, he shouldn’t have been worried.

Not only did Te’o end up being the third linebacker chosen overall and as the first inside linebacker taken, but he also avoided the steepest drop of this year’s draft.

Te’o, who chose to watch the proceedings instead from his home in Hawaii, told reporters in San Diego last night that he had still expected to go in the first round.

“When it didn’t happen, all that did is give me more motivation to get better,” Te’o said.

Te’o had been projected for the middle of the first round until the bizarre tale of his fake dead girlfriend Lennay Kekua surfaced in January.

Te’o insisted he was the victim of a hoax, but the incident still made him a national laughingstock and, according to scouts, scared away more than a few NFL teams.

And if the “catfishing” story didn’t worry them, Te’o gave teams plenty of other reasons since the start of the year to stay away.

After struggling mightily against Alabama in the BCS national championship game, Te’o turned down an invitation to play in the Senior Bowl — a crucial scouting opportunity in the eyes of NFL teams — and then ran the 40-yard dash at the scouting combine in a thoroughly underwhelming 4.8 seconds.

But Te’o, with the help of super agent Tom Condon and the powerful IMG management group, put together an image-rehabilitation project that resulted in what many scouts and team executives say was an impressive series of individual interviews and visits.

That rehab effort paid off handsomely last night.

The pick was something of a gamble by the Chargers’ new tandem of GM Tom Telesco and coach Mike McCoy, considering first-year people in those positions are usually reluctant to take on controversy right away.

“I’m just excited to play football,” Te’o said last night. “I can’t control what people say.”