INDIANAPOLIS — His dead girlfriend was fake, but the unprecedented horde of media that Manti Te’o faced Saturday was very real.
The beleaguered Notre Dame linebacker handled it better than he did Alabama’s offensive line in the BCS title game — deftly, although not always comfortably — fielding questions in a non-controlled setting for the first time since the bizarre hoax about his love life surfaced in mid-January.
“Wow, that’s a lot of cameras,” Te’o said as he stood in front of an estimated 200 reporters — topping Tim Tebow three years ago for the largest media audience at an NFL scouting combine — during a break in his workouts at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Te’o didn’t exactly clear up confusion about how he purportedly was fooled into a lengthy online relationship that turned out to be fake, but he held up relatively well under the 15-minute grilling broadcast live by the NFL Network.
Calling the whole episode “embarrassing,” Te’o stuck to his story that he was the victim of an elaborate ruse by an acquaintance, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who took advantage of his naivete.
“I cared for somebody, and that’s what I was taught to do from an early age,” said Te’o, who was visibly nervous at times. “When somebody needs help, you help them out. Unfortunately, that didn’t end up the way I thought it would.”
Te’o’s media appearance was voluntary, but his open and candid performance no doubt went a long way toward impressing scouts and coaches eager to see how he would hold up under such a stressful situation.
The intensity of the questions wasn’t a surprise, considering Te’o said every team in various ways has asked him in interviews this week to explain the situation.
“They want to be able to trust their player,” Te’o said. “You don’t want to invest in somebody who you can’t trust. With everybody here, they’re just trying to get know you as a person and as a football player. I understand where they’re coming from.”
Te’o’s openness both in the press conference and in his team interviews — he said he has met formally with the Packers and Texans, with 18 more clubs to follow — impressed some executives.
“He stood his ground and wasn’t gun shy,” Houston coach Gary Kubiak said. “He showed a lot of poise. He had it under control. He’s ready to move forward.”
With the press conference out of the way, most teams appear ready to turn their focus on Te’o’s ability as a player.
Te’o was considered first-round material by many draft analysts until a woeful performance in Notre Dame’s loss to Alabama was compounded by questions about his trustworthiness when the “catfishing” hoax was exposed soon afterward.
Giants general manager Jerry Reese said Te’o still is on his team’s radar, adding he thinks the incident has been blown out of proportion — especially in light of fellow draft prospects with much more serious (and even criminal) incidents in their background.
“We’re more interested in what kind of football player he is more than anything else,” Reese said. “I think that these things get blown out of proportion a little bit. But we’ll investigate it, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Reese added the Giants, who need linebackers, plan to be among the teams that formally interview Te’o.
“We’ll bring him in, and we’ll let him explain that situation for us,” Reese said. “But again, I think there’s people with a lot more issues than this issue.”
Teams apparently won’t have to worry about Te’o’s love life — real or imagined — getting in the way at the moment.
Asked by The Post if he is currently dating anyone in real life, Te’o wasted no time clearing that up.
“No, not right now,” he said.