INDIANAPOLIS – The Falcons, who played last season with five linebackers, plan to interview Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o at the NFL scouting combine, general manager Thomas Dimitroff said Friday.

Te’o, the player who was involved in an intricate internet dating hoax,  is considered one of the top inside linebackers in the draft and likely will not be available with the Falcons pick with the 30^th overall pick.

“What I’ll say about the Manti Te’o situation is that it’s about us and our responsibility as team builders to break down the situation and determine what truly is the truth,” Dimitroff said. “Let’s do our research on him. Let’s not all over react and start throwing darts at him.”

Te’o is scheduled to speak to the media on Saturday. He will be heavily scrutinized like Ohio State’s Maurice Clarett, Florida’s Tim Tebow and Auburn’s Cam Newton were when they spoke at the combine.

“In this situation, this player is a good football player,” Dimitroff said. “He’ll potentially have a long future in this business. It’s up to us to determine what is right for us as a team.”

Dimitroff has given his instructions on how to conduct the interview.

“I discussed this with our guys,” Dimitroff said. “He’ll be interviewed by someone from our team. We have a massive congregation here. We have our scouts and our coaches here. We’ll get an opportunity to talk with him and break down the situation. . . .It’s up to us to drill down and get to the specifics.”

The Falcons will not request his phone records.

“I think that would be out of the ordinary,” Dimitroff said.

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