“I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been. In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious.
“If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was. Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I’m looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft.”
The statement is fantastic and was done within the 24 hours. I would have preferred to see him say this out loud so we could see the emotions on his face, but it is heartfelt. He is currently the victim of many online jokes, but that's to be expected. What he still needs to explain, along with the University, is the "meetings" he apparently had with this girlfriend. There are still unanswered questions that are going to need explaining in the coming days. That will truly determine whether he can move past this.********************************************************
''ESPN must be having a fantastic week."
That's what I said today following the Manti Te'o news that has been posted all over social media. Just this week alone, two big star athletes have fallen from grace.
The "fall from grace" story is one I'm sadly all too familiar with. Athletes are most commonly put in this category; few have ever recovered.
Here's how the fall from grace works. A person rises to the top, sometimes though not always, in the face of adversity. He or she is admired by almost everyone. Few can say they do not respect this figure. But, one mistake gets out or happens. And in a second reality sets in and almost everyone doesn't like you.
In movies that feature the fall from grace, the main character almost always recovers by apologizing and saying some witty dialogue to lead to a happily ever after. But, in real life, PR can only do so much- we call it the image restoration theory. The theory tries to restore someone or something after a major crisis. But, if done incorrectly, you may never climb out of the fall from grace, or have that image restored.
I witnessed the fall from grace first hand when I attended Penn State University. I witnessed the fall of the greatest college football coach of all-time, Joe Paterno. A moral mistake cost him his job, and he died just two months later. Though he started to climb out of the fall after his sudden death, he fell back in due to the Freeh Report. Many Penn Staters still admire him, but outside, many do not.
Two fall from graces happened within a span of 48 hours this week: Lance Armstrong and Manti Te'o. Armstrong's fall has been on a steady decline over the last year while Te'o's happened just a few hours ago.
The public is mixed when it comes to Lance Armstrong. There are many who believe that even though he did use performance enhancers at one point, it should not cloud what he's done. But, there are still those who are disappointed in him, for doing it to coming clean too late.
So, what's the verdict on Lance Armstrong?
Personally, I could care less that he used performance enhancers. Most people who had cancer could still not win 6 Tour de Frances, with or without the drugs. My issue (and this is part of my PR professional opinion as well) is the time it took for him to come clean.
He was first accused of doping in 2005 and it only grew stronger throughout the years. By then, he had not been using the drugs and he most likely ignored the calls because he didn't want to take away from his success since. But, the longer you wait, the worse it becomes. He had a chance after the USDA ruling found him guilty and his titles were stripped. But, he still said he was innocent until just this week. Why wait so long?
I've said before you have 24 hours to respond to a crisis. Armstrong should have, a long time ago, even before the ruling, admitted to using at one point. I personally hate using this example but look at Alex Rodriguez. He admitted to using drugs at one point in his early career and was not punished and was still able to play baseball. Granted, it's a different sport and the drug was legal. But, his credibility has not been lost. Armstrong still would have had issues to deal with, but he probably could have still regained respect. It will be hard for him to climb out of the fall at this point, after his career is over and now that he's left the charity foundation he started.
So, what about Manti Te'o- can he survive? It's still too early to tell. Not much is known about this whole "girlfriend hoax" story. Notre Dame has said that Manti himself was the victim; that this was an online relationship. Unfortunately, the presentation of the hoax has not been presented well at all by the university. People did not realize that this was never a real relationship outside a computer. The facts are confusing and do not make much sense. Manti Te'o definitely can survive this fall if within 24 hours, he responds with the whole truth in as sympathetic of a way as possible.
The real fall will probably be with Notre Dame, which is undergoing scrutiny for hiring a firm to investigate the Manti Te'o story but not the alleged rapes by football players that resulted in a female student's death. The story is still developing and it's hard to tell what will happen in the days to come.
My advice to Manti would be to release a statement that he reads himself admitting to the hoax and telling the story truthfully while tearing up, occasionally. If what Notre Dame is saying is indeed true, he will be okay.
But, you need to be aware of the "fall from grace." Joe Paterno may never climb out of it, same with Lance Armstrong. Hey, how's Tiger Woods doing these days?
The Fall from grace is not something you ever want to be a part of. Image Restoration is very difficult to achieve when you have such little time to do it. My school, Penn State, has been actively working on the image restoration theory since the scandal fallout more than a year ago. Although it's starting to finally work, there are still bugs needed to be fixed.
My final advice: Get the best PR guru out there immediately- you will need him or her stat.
