Te'o: 'Girlfriend' scam won't hurt me

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BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Manti Te'o says he has stopped using social media and doesn't think his relationship with a fake Internet "girlfriend' will hurt his chances in the NFL draft.

Te'o says social media has been "a distraction for me, so I needed to get rid of it," USA Today reported Tuesday.

The former Notre Dame quarterback, speaking at a workout camp in Florida, says he doesn't think the media controversy will have much effect during next month's draft.

"I have to just go out there and perform and all that other stuff is behind me," he said. "What I did on the field is what I did on the field."

"I didn't break any rules," he added. "I didn't hurt anybody. I just wasn't very forthcoming, as forthcoming as I should have been but in that, I didn't do anything wrong."

Regardless of what Te'o feels about his past, NFL Network analyst Charles Davis says the controversy may still affect his future.

Teams are "going to smoke him over pretty well," Davis said, "to see how he holds up."

Te'o says he's not going to let the hoopla over a non-existent girlfriend change him.

"My trust in people is the same. I'm just more cautious. "