Sure, everybody has that occasional “bad day” where nothing seems to go right and embarrassment is inevitable, but Manti Te’o seems to be having a bad few months.

It started out when Te’o lost out on the most prestigious college football award, the Heisman Trophy, to Johnny Manziel, after being favored to win throughout the entire season. Following that, Te’o’s college team, Notre Dame, lost the  BCS National Championship game, and personally, the linebacker was a “non-factor” against Alabama’s tough offensive line. As if it couldn’t get any worse for Manti Te’o’, he became the laughingstock of sports news when his online relationship with a proclaimed “dead” woman turned out to be a hoax by another man.  This situation caused many to question his sexuality, as well as his judgment.

After the story came out, many speculated Te’o created the story in order to gain Heisman publicity and sympathy from voters. Others thought it was a way for Te’o to hide his true sexuality in order to avoid constant scrutiny from teammates. While Te’o has gone on countless talk shows to refute allegations of homosexuality and prior knowledge to the hoax, events are still unfolding. Even if this is all there is to the story, as Te’o affirmed at the NFL Draft Combine, the situation has no doubt been embarrassing for him.

The damage done to Te’o’s reputation may already be irreversible. If he had prior knowledge of the hoax, it is possible that it could cost him a spot on an NFL roster. On the other hand, if he did not have any prior knowledge, his naivety can cause NFL teams to question drafting him.   What’s more, constant disparagement by players in the locker room directed towards Te’o will be unavoidable. While Te’o is a world-class  linebacker,  NFL teams look for more in players than just pure talent. Why else would they have an interview portion at the NFL combine? Teams want more than just a player; they want a professional both on and off the field. Te’o’s story is an interesting one, because for him, the problem lies beyond the media circus and extends to locker room.

Perhaps one of the most overlooked yet influential aspects in all of sports is the locker room, the place where a team’s camaraderie, chemistry, and culture play such a big part. Locker rooms are where you can befriend teammates, where leaders are born, and where you can really see who takes the game seriously.  Locker rooms are notorious for being a place for fun and for guys to “get loose” during a practice or before and after a game. And, locker rooms are also why teams hesitate to draft Manti Te’o. It is a given that Te’o will be the target of jokes and ridicule from other players in the locker room regarding his embarrassing story. He is a perfect target, a rookie who had an online relationship with a man, believing him to be a woman. While Te’o should have no problem taking the occasional jokes regarding his online relationship, his situation has sparked debate over how and when to draw the line between playful trash-talk and verbal abuse.   While both of those can be interpreted as hurtful, the second instance could actually destroy a person’s confidence. One joke that crosses the line could tear Manti Te’o apart. Whichever team drafts him will certainly have to take this into account, to prevent anything from exacerbating the situation further.

While Te’o is responsible for making the fateful decision to talk to a stranger online, it will be interesting to see how the ramifications play out in next year’s NFL season. Perhaps all he really needs to do is laugh the jokes off  until everything blows over, although that will not be as easy as it sounds.

“Locker room talk” is not unique to the NFL. The significance of the locker room is evident in every professional, college, and even high school team. The major difference is the maturity level of the various athletes. Hurtful comments from one high school athlete to another in the locker room could ultimately be the tipping point in determining play from abuse. No matter how good an athlete you are, being taunted in the locker room, day in and day out, is something nobody wants to endure. I decided to ask a few high school athletes about where they would draw the line between “horseplay” and hurtful comments. According to Ravi Bakhai, “you draw the line when people start saying very personal stuff about you that is embarrassing.  Everyone has that one thing about them that you shouldn’t make fun of.” Carson Poltorack had some other insight to offer, saying, “People are going to fool around with their teammates; it is a fact. It goes on everywhere and most of the time it’s alright because there is no harm done. Everybody laughs and you move on. It gets one sided when the teammate realizes they’re the only one laughing. That’s when it goes too far. Sometimes this line is difficult to see for a teammate, so if you’re messing around with someone, make sure they’re OK with it.”

While Manti Te’o is not the only one who will endure some heavy “locker room talk” next year, he will definitely receive some of the worst cases yet. Trash talking in the locker room is part of team culture, but it must be handled the right way. Players need to be mindful not to cross the line and be able to sense when it’s OK to make a joke. If players are able to develop this kind of maturity, we should see Manti Te’o endure and ultimately have a successful NFL career.