Notre Dame Football: Manti Te'o Reminds Folks That Aaron Lynch Is a Person

Last week, the Irish lost their standout freshman defensive end, Aaron Lynch. Lynch is reportedly transferring, and his departure strikes a tremendous blow to the Irish's defense for 2012.

As we've seen repeatedly around college football, people don't take news like this too well. Between the comments sections of articles about Lynch, to his Facebook and Twitter profiles, folks have taken to bashing the kid for his decision.

Really just not what fans should be doing. To be honest, it is quickly becoming the worst part of sports. With the access that Twitter, Facebook and the 24-hour news cycle gives has come a violently gross push by folks to insert themselves into the situation. Name-calling, finger-pointing and the like, all from behind a digital wall, have truly made the sporting waters quite ugly to navigate at times.

Luckily, there are guys like Manti Te'o around. Te'o was not just Lynch's teammate; the pair had formed a brotherhood of sorts. Te'o the mentor, older brother looking out for Lynch, the super-talented new kid on the block. Now, as Lynch plans to leave Te'o and Notre Dame, the All-American linebacker spoke with Matt Fortura of ESPN about the situation.

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"It hurt, because like I said, I cared about Aaron the kid, not the player," Te'o said. "Everybody else cares about what he does and it's obvious, because the poor kid is getting heat. That's not fair. That's not fair for a 19-year-old to be hounded by people online on his Facebook and stuff like that. So as an older brother I look at that and I'm just there for him — 'Hey, don't read that stuff. Just you do what you've got to do. And your family here at Notre Dame will always love you no matter what.' And he knows that, and like I said, I'm going to miss the kid." 

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Novel concept, right? Sadly, it would seem that decency and acting civil in dealing with people would be a given. Unfortunately, it is not. The hateful rhetoric spewed at Lynch is more par for the course in today's sporting world. As Te'o points out, Lynch is a 19-year-old who was having a tough time; he made a choice that he felt was best for him.

This is less about Notre Dame's fans; every fanbase has these type of people who run off disgusting comments. This is more about fans in general and the need for this type of behavior to stop. Yes, it stinks that your team is going to lose a player, but to berate the player and verbally assault him is crossing the line.

As fans, people have to do better. Let everyone know that type of behavior is not OK.