Teams pass over Te’o in first round of the NFL draft

NEW YORK » Manti Te’o must wait one more day to find out his NFL future after a tumultuous four months.

The Notre Dame linebacker was not taken in the first round of the NFL draft Thursday, passed over 32 times, including three times by the Minnesota Vikings, a team looking for an inside linebacker.

"I’m a little disappointed," he told the NFL Network.

And so fans — and even people who don’t normally care about football — will buzz for another 24 hours about the fake-girlfriend hoax and its repercussions on his football career.

But what likely dropped Te’o out of the first round had little to do with the tabloid-ready story of the woman who supposedly died during the season, only for Te’o to acknowledge in January that he had been the victim of a hoax.

Before those revelations, Te’o struggled in the national championship game against Ala­bama and its offense full of future NFL draft picks — leaving clubs to wonder how he would fare against similar talent in the pros.

Then he ran a 4.82-second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine in February, considered slow for a linebacker. He did better at Notre Dame’s pro day in March, running 4.71, but NFL teams already had plenty of football reasons to doubt his worthiness as a first-round pick.

The regular-season dominance by the 6-foot-1, 240-pound All-American now seems so long ago. He led one of the top defenses in the country for an undefeated team. His seven interceptions were more than any other linebacker in 2012, and he finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel.

He finished his career with 437 career tackles and as the most decorated college football player, winning seven of the major awards, such as the Maxwell, Walter Camp, Bednarik, Nagurski and Butkus awards.

Te’o was ranked as the 17th-best player by Mel Kiper Jr., who publishes an NFL Draft Report and is a longtime draft analyst for ESPN.

One of the teams that needed an inside linebacker was the Vikings. But Minnesota, which entered the day with two first-round picks and acquired a third first-rounder Thursday, passed on Te’o all three times.

The Vikings instead selected defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd (23rd), cornerback Xavier Rhodes (25th) and wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson (29th).

Many had Te’o as the top-rated inside linebacker, ahead of Alec Ogletree, who was selected by the St. Louis Rams as the 30th pick.

Now Te’o must wait a day for his name to be called as the draft continues today with the second and third rounds, starting at 12:30 p.m. Hawaii time.

The fourth through seventh rounds will close out the draft Saturday.