We learned earlier Monday that the San Diego Chargers have decided to shield Manti Te'o from the media until the team's June 11-13 minicamp.
The "organizational decision" was easy to read, even if it was a little perplexing. Te'o's "catfish" scandal feels like ancient history at this point, but the Chargers want to go the extra mile to help protect their second-round investment.
Brooks: Why Te'o will shine in S.D.
Forget all about the fake girlfriend and bad BCS title game. Manti Te'o is poised for big things in 2013, Bucky Brooks writes. **More ...**
Bill Johnston, the Chargers' director of public relations, discussed the team's decision Monday on XTRA Sports 1360 in San Diego.
"Right now, anything that he does ... makes news," Johnston said (via ProFootballTalk.com). "Right now, the news that people are talking about with him is really not the news that we want him to be talking about. Really, he's a rookie, he's a second-round draft pick, yet everybody wants to talk to him. Well, why? Well, it all goes back to that stuff that happened back in the winter, and back when he was at Notre Dame.
"To us, that's not what we want him talking about. We want him focused on becoming a Charger, on becoming a better player. Learning our system. Getting comfortable here. We want him talking football, talking Chargers, and that's all we want him focused on right now. So we're doing what we think is in his best interests to stay focused and become the best player he can."
This is exactly the type of decision that get made when PR guys huddle up in a conference room and talk "big picture." We get it -- and it's not as if Te'o's absence from the spotlight will have a negative impact -- but it seems like a superfluous measure of prevention for a controversy that's already exited the nation's collective consciousness.
Follow Dan Hanzus on Twitter @DanHanzus.
