Notre Dame has come out solidly behind Manti Te'o, as seen in their news conference on Wednesday. They want to make sure no one says anything against him, though, based on an insider report issued Thursday.
At the very least, the school wants a unified front, and a singular message, until Manti Te'o holds his own press conference, which is scheduled for today.
On Thursday, one person connected to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish athletic program covertly spoke to TMZ. The source said that university officials have warned staffers that if they speak to the media about the scandal without permission from the University, they will "never work for Notre Dame again."
The story broke yesterday: Notre Dame linebacker and Heisman finalist Manti Te'o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, who he claimed inspired him to greater feats, never existed.
Supposedly, she died from leukemia just hours after Te'o's grandmother died, on Sept. 12. He then went out on Sept. 15 and -- inspired by both of them -- made a season-high 12 tackles, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery in a 20-3 victory against the Michigan State Spartans.
What really happened? The details are still vague and confusing. There had been prior stories that mentioned meetings between the couple, calling it a storybook romance.
How could that be, though, if the couple never met, as Deadspin confirmed.
Notre Dame has said that Te'o will address the media over the scandal later today.
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