Did this really cost him millions of dollars?
IIRC, some people had him as a 1st rounder, but it wasn't clear cut unanimous. And when he got to the NFL, it's not like his play blew the doors off the league. His 40 time of 4.82 probably cost him more than anything else. In the pro's, he seemed to struggle staying healthy.
With full benefit of hindsight, early 2nd feels about right, or even a tad high.
I think the idea is that his confidence was so shot by this whole thing that he could never play "fast" anymore and it had him thinking versus reacting. So the 40 time didn't help, but his top tangible of "Leadership and natural Instincts" were severely damaged. There was one quote on the show that was something like "after hearing this story, what teammate is gonna look at him as a leader anymore?". So true.
Yep. I think it easily cost him millions. He was a Heisman finalist, projected mid-rounder, etc. The documentary really did a nice job of showing how his confidence got shot, how his combine/draft process was a ****show with all the bad media publicity, and how teams - who I think did become aware that he was innocent in the whole thing - thought less of him though.
Te'o seemed like the type of player whose best attribute was his leadership. In that sense, he's got added value - despite maybe the mediocre combine numbers - for his leadership and on-field ability to be in the right places, etc. Kind of like, maybe, a Draymond Green, Nick Foles, Gary Carter, Ray Lewis, Tom Brady, Derek Jeter type players where they exceed their physical stats. That was gone though for him because he was looked at as gullible and his confidence, as mentioned, was shot.