Most of the time, it began as whispers or sidelong glances about something his contemporaries or fans considered questionable. Later that grew into a chorus that so-called athlete is effeminate.
For the likes of Manti Te’o it was a way for perplexed football fans to rationalize why the former Notre Dame linebacker would lie about carrying on a two-year relationship with a woman he had never seen and who, it turns out, never existed. Instead the woman’s voice was actually perpetrated by a confused con man
