NFL Network Analyst Jamie Dukes Implies That Manti Te’o Used HGH (Video)

Former Notre Dame middle linebacker Manti Te’o is embroiled in another controversy, albeit this time it’s not his fault nor his doing. NFL Network analyst and former player Jamie Dukes was on NFL AM a few days ago when the subject of Te’o's pro day came up in conversation. Te’o had a terrible NFL Combine, but rebounded well at his pro day, and probably got himself back into the first round of the draft. Te’o shaved a tenth of a second off his combine numbers in the 40 yard dash, and ran a respectable 4.71.  Te’o attributed his improved showing to being back on the Notre Dame campus, and just going out there and running. “Don’t think — you’ve been doing it your whole life. Just go out there and run,” Te’o told the NFL Network in an interview that was replayed on the network’s “NFL AM” program on Wednesday morning. “We tend to think too much, and psyche ourselves out, thinking that bad things will happen. I just went out there and said, ‘Hey — just run. Run as fast as you can. Whatever the time says, that’s what it says.’” Dukes is not buying that excuse, and addressed while on NFL AM.  Dukes implied that Te’o may have dabbled in a little bit of HGH use to improve his performance. “Here’s the deal,” Dukes said, while comparative pictures of Te’o at the combine and his pro day were shown on the screen. “Since nobody else will say this, I’m just gonna show you this. I don’t know who the guy was at the combine — the pudgy body/soft body guy who couldn’t run. All of a sudden, I see this yoked-up behemoth of a guy. Nobody’s gonna say anything, and I’m not accusing anybody, but we just had a huge HGH conversation … I’m not saying he’s on anything. I’m not saying, I’m just saying. I think somebody saw what I saw, and that didn’t look right. That just didn’t look right to me. I just want to be on record as saying — it’s a little off.” Of course it brings up the question of who’s clean and who’s not, but I’m not sure it was necessary for Dukes to use Te’o as his springboard for change. I think it’s just the continuous piling on that Te’o has had to experience, and at this point people feel like Te’o is a target that you can take a shot at, and have no repercussions for it. H/T Yahoo Sports