Manti Te'o's girlfriend who died... (1 Viewer)

[Abraham]

I didn't do anything. What got deleted?

 

[ScottNorwood]

I didn't do anything. What got deleted?

His girlfriend

 

[ScottNorwood]

I know it's not even funny anymore at this point, but that was the perfect set up.

 

[Buck Bradcanon]

This is a pretty good take IMO. Its from one of the comments on a Deadspin article.http://deadspin.com/5976904/what-manti-teo-told-sports-illustrated-about-lennay-kekua

Barry, I think people are writing of the gay theory a little to easily... hear me out here.Obviously at some point here he lied and it was most likely out of embarrassment and the realization that there was an easier way to explain this off... no matter which of the theories we are looking at. But what if they just wanted a way to publicly say they loved each other without outing themselves? And all of the sudden, oh crap, Notre Dame came out of nowhere and Manti is now so famous that people are prying deeper into his private life. How do we get rid of this "GF" I have been telling everyone about? You know, the one that I see in Hawaii sometimes (not with my family) when "she" just so happens to be down there at the same time... Tuiososopo has reason to be down there right? He tells his family and friends about "her". How he's heading out to meet "her" since "she" is in town. He actually does meet "her" in 2009 at Stanford after a game (Tuiasosopo was on the USC field at one point as well). And keeps that event pretty vague, "we locked eyes". Then decides a couple years down the road that they are sick of not being able to be publicly in love because of where they come from and decide to risk it a little and create an online persona in which they can flirt. Tuiasosopo gets in a car crash right? (yes a month before "her" but still...) So he is bumbed about it and talks a bit about it. All of the sudden his celebrity blows up with all of his great play and Notre Dame exploding when no one expects them to and a select few people start to pry. They freak out thinking the only way to get them to stop prying and possibly trying to reach her is to kill her off. His grandma dies and it all gets lumped together and all he can do at this point is go deeper into the lie because the culture he grew up in (football, mormon, catholic school) has taught him that this is one of the worst things he can do. He realizes he made really dumb mistakes that didnt have to go this far... or someone called him on heisman day and says, "we know" and finally he just says, enough is enough, I will say I was duped. Problem is, the pics Tuiasosopo used lead back to him and he is now outed as well. Just a thought, I am sure someone can poke some holes in this as well.

 

[17seconds]

I think that there are some very clear signs that Te'o was intentionally lying -- not being a naive victim of a hoax -- throughout the entire scheme.[...]

I've heard college athletes give dumb responses like that even with nothing amiss. It's already known that he never met her in person, or at most met a fake woman in person. It's perfectly within reason that he embellished facts to make the relationship seem closer than it was. He was probably embarrassed he didn't have a "real" girlfriend.

 

[Idiot Boxer]

I didn't do anything. What got deleted?

His girlfriend

Softball

 

[Buckfast 1]

This is a pretty good take IMO. Its from one of the comments on a Deadspin article.http://deadspin.com/5976904/what-manti-teo-told-sports-illustrated-about-lennay-kekua

Barry, I think people are writing of the gay theory a little to easily... hear me out here.Obviously at some point here he lied and it was most likely out of embarrassment and the realization that there was an easier way to explain this off... no matter which of the theories we are looking at. But what if they just wanted a way to publicly say they loved each other without outing themselves? And all of the sudden, oh crap, Notre Dame came out of nowhere and Manti is now so famous that people are prying deeper into his private life. How do we get rid of this "GF" I have been telling everyone about? You know, the one that I see in Hawaii sometimes (not with my family) when "she" just so happens to be down there at the same time... Tuiososopo has reason to be down there right? He tells his family and friends about "her". How he's heading out to meet "her" since "she" is in town. He actually does meet "her" in 2009 at Stanford after a game (Tuiasosopo was on the USC field at one point as well). And keeps that event pretty vague, "we locked eyes". Then decides a couple years down the road that they are sick of not being able to be publicly in love because of where they come from and decide to risk it a little and create an online persona in which they can flirt. Tuiasosopo gets in a car crash right? (yes a month before "her" but still...) So he is bumbed about it and talks a bit about it. All of the sudden his celebrity blows up with all of his great play and Notre Dame exploding when no one expects them to and a select few people start to pry. They freak out thinking the only way to get them to stop prying and possibly trying to reach her is to kill her off. His grandma dies and it all gets lumped together and all he can do at this point is go deeper into the lie because the culture he grew up in (football, mormon, catholic school) has taught him that this is one of the worst things he can do. He realizes he made really dumb mistakes that didnt have to go this far... or someone called him on heisman day and says, "we know" and finally he just says, enough is enough, I will say I was duped. Problem is, the pics Tuiasosopo used lead back to him and he is now outed as well. Just a thought, I am sure someone can poke some holes in this as well.

I think that theory makes the most sense of any. Some people have questioned why Te'o would have to make up a "girlfriend" when he could just deny that he was dating anyone or act uninterested in women because of his faith. Yet, if Te'o were actually having a secret gay relationship where he was speaking with his lover on an everyday basis, then he would likely feel compelled to make something up so that he could explain who he was interacting with during those conversations.Te'o and Tuiasosopo were clearly close. On Twitter, Te'o promoted Tuiasosopo's album and they talked about hanging out before USC-ND game. The Deadspin article indicates that Tuiasosopo attended the USC-ND game. Friends of Tuiasosopo have said that he had several pictures of him and Te'o hanging out together on his now deleted Instagram account. Yet, no one seems to know exactly how know each other. I just think that it is much more likely that they had a secret relationship than the alternative theory that Tuiasosopo was his friend, yet was secretly engaged in an elaborate punking of Te'o with the help of a female associate posing as Lennay.

 

[17seconds]

This is a pretty good take IMO. Its from one of the comments on a Deadspin article.http://deadspin.com/5976904/what-manti-teo-told-sports-illustrated-about-lennay-kekua

Barry, I think people are writing of the gay theory a little to easily... hear me out here.Obviously at some point here he lied and it was most likely out of embarrassment and the realization that there was an easier way to explain this off... no matter which of the theories we are looking at. But what if they just wanted a way to publicly say they loved each other without outing themselves? And all of the sudden, oh crap, Notre Dame came out of nowhere and Manti is now so famous that people are prying deeper into his private life. How do we get rid of this "GF" I have been telling everyone about? You know, the one that I see in Hawaii sometimes (not with my family) when "she" just so happens to be down there at the same time... Tuiososopo has reason to be down there right? He tells his family and friends about "her". How he's heading out to meet "her" since "she" is in town. He actually does meet "her" in 2009 at Stanford after a game (Tuiasosopo was on the USC field at one point as well). And keeps that event pretty vague, "we locked eyes". Then decides a couple years down the road that they are sick of not being able to be publicly in love because of where they come from and decide to risk it a little and create an online persona in which they can flirt. Tuiasosopo gets in a car crash right? (yes a month before "her" but still...) So he is bumbed about it and talks a bit about it. All of the sudden his celebrity blows up with all of his great play and Notre Dame exploding when no one expects them to and a select few people start to pry. They freak out thinking the only way to get them to stop prying and possibly trying to reach her is to kill her off. His grandma dies and it all gets lumped together and all he can do at this point is go deeper into the lie because the culture he grew up in (football, mormon, catholic school) has taught him that this is one of the worst things he can do. He realizes he made really dumb mistakes that didnt have to go this far... or someone called him on heisman day and says, "we know" and finally he just says, enough is enough, I will say I was duped. Problem is, the pics Tuiasosopo used lead back to him and he is now outed as well. Just a thought, I am sure someone can poke some holes in this as well.

Let's say that's all true.What does that mean for ND? Their AD just backed up Teo's innocence 100% after concluding an internal investigation. After the whole Penn State thing last year where the football program's overwhelming hubris was on public display, why in the hell would ND put their reputation at risk over a player that is out of the program?

 

[Buckfast 1]

I think that there are some very clear signs that Te'o was intentionally lying -- not being a naive victim of a hoax -- throughout the entire scheme.[...]

I've heard college athletes give dumb responses like that even with nothing amiss. It's already known that he never met her in person, or at most met a fake woman in person. It's perfectly within reason that he embellished facts to make the relationship seem closer than it was. He was probably embarrassed he didn't have a "real" girlfriend.

Even if you have never met your girlfriend in person but talked to her for hours every night, I feel like you would be able to tell an interviewer what she was like, what her life-threatening injuries were, where she worked, when she graduated from college, and what her majors were without Te'os stumbling, uncertainty, and/or complete lack of knowledge. We're not talking about embellishing minute details to make the relationship closer than it actually was, we are talking about basic background facts that you would know from the first 10 minutes of conversation with someone -- even a person who was simply making things up pretending to be someone else.

 

[Daywalker]

This is a pretty good take IMO. Its from one of the comments on a Deadspin article.http://deadspin.com/5976904/what-manti-teo-told-sports-illustrated-about-lennay-kekua

Barry, I think people are writing of the gay theory a little to easily... hear me out here.Obviously at some point here he lied and it was most likely out of embarrassment and the realization that there was an easier way to explain this off... no matter which of the theories we are looking at. But what if they just wanted a way to publicly say they loved each other without outing themselves? And all of the sudden, oh crap, Notre Dame came out of nowhere and Manti is now so famous that people are prying deeper into his private life. How do we get rid of this "GF" I have been telling everyone about? You know, the one that I see in Hawaii sometimes (not with my family) when "she" just so happens to be down there at the same time... Tuiososopo has reason to be down there right? He tells his family and friends about "her". How he's heading out to meet "her" since "she" is in town. He actually does meet "her" in 2009 at Stanford after a game (Tuiasosopo was on the USC field at one point as well). And keeps that event pretty vague, "we locked eyes". Then decides a couple years down the road that they are sick of not being able to be publicly in love because of where they come from and decide to risk it a little and create an online persona in which they can flirt. Tuiasosopo gets in a car crash right? (yes a month before "her" but still...) So he is bumbed about it and talks a bit about it. All of the sudden his celebrity blows up with all of his great play and Notre Dame exploding when no one expects them to and a select few people start to pry. They freak out thinking the only way to get them to stop prying and possibly trying to reach her is to kill her off. His grandma dies and it all gets lumped together and all he can do at this point is go deeper into the lie because the culture he grew up in (football, mormon, catholic school) has taught him that this is one of the worst things he can do. He realizes he made really dumb mistakes that didnt have to go this far... or someone called him on heisman day and says, "we know" and finally he just says, enough is enough, I will say I was duped. Problem is, the pics Tuiasosopo used lead back to him and he is now outed as well. Just a thought, I am sure someone can poke some holes in this as well.

Let's say that's all true.What does that mean for ND? Their AD just backed up Teo's innocence 100% after concluding an internal investigation. After the whole Penn State thing last year where the football program's overwhelming hubris was on public display, why in the hell would ND put their reputation at risk over a player that is out of the program?

Because they are not putting their reputation on the line. The issue is trivial in the grand scheme of things. ND is just backing up their guy. No upside in hanging him out to dry.

 

[-fish-]

This is a pretty good take IMO. Its from one of the comments on a Deadspin article.http://deadspin.com/5976904/what-manti-teo-told-sports-illustrated-about-lennay-kekua

Barry, I think people are writing of the gay theory a little to easily... hear me out here.Obviously at some point here he lied and it was most likely out of embarrassment and the realization that there was an easier way to explain this off... no matter which of the theories we are looking at. But what if they just wanted a way to publicly say they loved each other without outing themselves? And all of the sudden, oh crap, Notre Dame came out of nowhere and Manti is now so famous that people are prying deeper into his private life. How do we get rid of this "GF" I have been telling everyone about? You know, the one that I see in Hawaii sometimes (not with my family) when "she" just so happens to be down there at the same time... Tuiososopo has reason to be down there right? He tells his family and friends about "her". How he's heading out to meet "her" since "she" is in town. He actually does meet "her" in 2009 at Stanford after a game (Tuiasosopo was on the USC field at one point as well). And keeps that event pretty vague, "we locked eyes". Then decides a couple years down the road that they are sick of not being able to be publicly in love because of where they come from and decide to risk it a little and create an online persona in which they can flirt. Tuiasosopo gets in a car crash right? (yes a month before "her" but still...) So he is bumbed about it and talks a bit about it. All of the sudden his celebrity blows up with all of his great play and Notre Dame exploding when no one expects them to and a select few people start to pry. They freak out thinking the only way to get them to stop prying and possibly trying to reach her is to kill her off. His grandma dies and it all gets lumped together and all he can do at this point is go deeper into the lie because the culture he grew up in (football, mormon, catholic school) has taught him that this is one of the worst things he can do. He realizes he made really dumb mistakes that didnt have to go this far... or someone called him on heisman day and says, "we know" and finally he just says, enough is enough, I will say I was duped. Problem is, the pics Tuiasosopo used lead back to him and he is now outed as well. Just a thought, I am sure someone can poke some holes in this as well.

Let's say that's all true.What does that mean for ND? Their AD just backed up Teo's innocence 100% after concluding an internal investigation. After the whole Penn State thing last year where the football program's overwhelming hubris was on public display, why in the hell would ND put their reputation at risk over a player that is out of the program?

ND's stance is pretty defensible (even if it proves to be total BS). They take their player's word for it, call him a victim, and try to move on. What else are they going to do? Admit that they knew it was a hoax and they cut a deal with ESPN to not release the story until after the National Champtionship? Admit that they helped his Heisman campaign, even using a story they knew was false? If it comes out they knew about the whole thing, the damage is done. This way they can try to hope it looks like one of their players was just incredibly stupid and that they did what they could to help him out.

 

[mad sweeney]

A photo detailing a positive note about Te'o's strange love affair.

 

[Limp Ditka]

This is a pretty good take IMO. Its from one of the comments on a Deadspin article.http://deadspin.com/5976904/what-manti-teo-told-sports-illustrated-about-lennay-kekua

Barry, I think people are writing of the gay theory a little to easily... hear me out here.Obviously at some point here he lied and it was most likely out of embarrassment and the realization that there was an easier way to explain this off... no matter which of the theories we are looking at. But what if they just wanted a way to publicly say they loved each other without outing themselves? And all of the sudden, oh crap, Notre Dame came out of nowhere and Manti is now so famous that people are prying deeper into his private life. How do we get rid of this "GF" I have been telling everyone about? You know, the one that I see in Hawaii sometimes (not with my family) when "she" just so happens to be down there at the same time... Tuiososopo has reason to be down there right? He tells his family and friends about "her". How he's heading out to meet "her" since "she" is in town. He actually does meet "her" in 2009 at Stanford after a game (Tuiasosopo was on the USC field at one point as well). And keeps that event pretty vague, "we locked eyes". Then decides a couple years down the road that they are sick of not being able to be publicly in love because of where they come from and decide to risk it a little and create an online persona in which they can flirt. Tuiasosopo gets in a car crash right? (yes a month before "her" but still...) So he is bumbed about it and talks a bit about it. All of the sudden his celebrity blows up with all of his great play and Notre Dame exploding when no one expects them to and a select few people start to pry. They freak out thinking the only way to get them to stop prying and possibly trying to reach her is to kill her off. His grandma dies and it all gets lumped together and all he can do at this point is go deeper into the lie because the culture he grew up in (football, mormon, catholic school) has taught him that this is one of the worst things he can do. He realizes he made really dumb mistakes that didnt have to go this far... or someone called him on heisman day and says, "we know" and finally he just says, enough is enough, I will say I was duped. Problem is, the pics Tuiasosopo used lead back to him and he is now outed as well. Just a thought, I am sure someone can poke some holes in this as well.

Let's say that's all true.What does that mean for ND? Their AD just backed up Teo's innocence 100% after concluding an internal investigation. After the whole Penn State thing last year where the football program's overwhelming hubris was on public display, why in the hell would ND put their reputation at risk over a player that is out of the program?

They have nothing to lose here. There's no real victim(s) in this.

 

[Buckfast 1]

This is a pretty good take IMO. Its from one of the comments on a Deadspin article.http://deadspin.com/5976904/what-manti-teo-told-sports-illustrated-about-lennay-kekua

Barry, I think people are writing of the gay theory a little to easily... hear me out here.Obviously at some point here he lied and it was most likely out of embarrassment and the realization that there was an easier way to explain this off... no matter which of the theories we are looking at. But what if they just wanted a way to publicly say they loved each other without outing themselves? And all of the sudden, oh crap, Notre Dame came out of nowhere and Manti is now so famous that people are prying deeper into his private life. How do we get rid of this "GF" I have been telling everyone about? You know, the one that I see in Hawaii sometimes (not with my family) when "she" just so happens to be down there at the same time... Tuiososopo has reason to be down there right? He tells his family and friends about "her". How he's heading out to meet "her" since "she" is in town. He actually does meet "her" in 2009 at Stanford after a game (Tuiasosopo was on the USC field at one point as well). And keeps that event pretty vague, "we locked eyes". Then decides a couple years down the road that they are sick of not being able to be publicly in love because of where they come from and decide to risk it a little and create an online persona in which they can flirt. Tuiasosopo gets in a car crash right? (yes a month before "her" but still...) So he is bumbed about it and talks a bit about it. All of the sudden his celebrity blows up with all of his great play and Notre Dame exploding when no one expects them to and a select few people start to pry. They freak out thinking the only way to get them to stop prying and possibly trying to reach her is to kill her off. His grandma dies and it all gets lumped together and all he can do at this point is go deeper into the lie because the culture he grew up in (football, mormon, catholic school) has taught him that this is one of the worst things he can do. He realizes he made really dumb mistakes that didnt have to go this far... or someone called him on heisman day and says, "we know" and finally he just says, enough is enough, I will say I was duped. Problem is, the pics Tuiasosopo used lead back to him and he is now outed as well. Just a thought, I am sure someone can poke some holes in this as well.

Let's say that's all true.What does that mean for ND? Their AD just backed up Teo's innocence 100% after concluding an internal investigation. After the whole Penn State thing last year where the football program's overwhelming hubris was on public display, why in the hell would ND put their reputation at risk over a player that is out of the program?

Yeah, I don't think that ND backing their guy means much of anything about the underlying truth of Te'o comments in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Apple Jack]

I think that there are some very clear signs that Te'o was intentionally lying -- not being a naive victim of a hoax -- throughout the entire scheme.[...]

I've heard college athletes give dumb responses like that even with nothing amiss. It's already known that he never met her in person, or at most met a fake woman in person. It's perfectly within reason that he embellished facts to make the relationship seem closer than it was. He was probably embarrassed he didn't have a "real" girlfriend.

Do you have any idea how quickly somebody like him could get a girlfriend if he wanted one simply to have one? The truth of the matter is a lot of guys go out of their way to avoid relationships in college. I don't buy that for a second.

 

[17seconds]

It's that Swarbrick was so emotional at the press conference. So he either believes very strongly in what he is saying or he was acting.That wasn't a measured press conference attempting damage control.

 

[Joe Summer]

ND's stance is pretty defensible (even if it proves to be total BS). They take their player's word for it, call him a victim, and try to move on.

But they supposedly hired a private investigator to check out Te'o's claims. If Te'o ends up admitting that he was involved with the hoax, then it pretty much proves that Notre Dame lied about doing their own investigation.

 

[17seconds]

I think that there are some very clear signs that Te'o was intentionally lying -- not being a naive victim of a hoax -- throughout the entire scheme.[...]

I've heard college athletes give dumb responses like that even with nothing amiss. It's already known that he never met her in person, or at most met a fake woman in person. It's perfectly within reason that he embellished facts to make the relationship seem closer than it was. He was probably embarrassed he didn't have a "real" girlfriend.

Even if you have never met your girlfriend in person but talked to her for hours every night, I feel like you would be able to tell an interviewer what she was like, what her life-threatening injuries were, where she worked, when she graduated from college, and what her majors were without Te'os stumbling, uncertainty, and/or complete lack of knowledge. We're not talking about embellishing minute details to make the relationship closer than it actually was, we are talking about basic background facts that you would know from the first 10 minutes of conversation with someone -- even a person who was simply making things up pretending to be someone else.

I've been with my wife for 10 years and if people ask her what my college major was she'll say "computer.... something"

 

[mad sweeney]

It's that Swarbrick was so emotional at the press conference. So he either believes very strongly in what he is saying or he was acting.That wasn't a measured press conference attempting damage control.

I didn't see/hear the entire thing but it wasn't like the reporters there were digging for info or challenging the story. Most of what I heard seemed, literally at times, as nothing more than a guided question to let him fill out more of the story. I don't know what to believe in this, although the gay relationship with RT seems most likely, but that press conference wasn't much.

 

[gump]

I've been surprised at how some of the ND students and teammates have spoken about him...although I guess a lot of college athletes have a vain side we don't see.

 

[17seconds]

My argument is simply that I don't think Teo created and participated in the hoax from the start. It's definitely possible the hoax was revealed to him and he was too scared to tell anyone and played along for some time.I'm just putting a lot of stock in the Swarbrick presser because that's a guy who has more info than any of us, could easily throw Teo under the bus, and he did the exact opposite. He could feel empathy toward Teo regardless of whether Teo never knew or knew later and kept it going because he was embarrassed.

 

[Buckfast 1]

It's that Swarbrick was so emotional at the press conference. So he either believes very strongly in what he is saying or he was acting.That wasn't a measured press conference attempting damage control.

I think that Notre Dame's AD's emotional composure is about the least relevant thing to unearthing the truth of this story. I'm sure that the AD probably doesn't know the whole truth himself at this point, but is emotional that this media firestorm is causing great embarassment to ND's top player and face of the team. His emotions tell us nothing about the underlying truth of what happened.

 

[-fish-]

ND's stance is pretty defensible (even if it proves to be total BS). They take their player's word for it, call him a victim, and try to move on.

But they supposedly hired a private investigator to check out Te'o's claims. If Te'o ends up admitting that he was involved with the hoax, then it pretty much proves that Notre Dame lied about doing their own investigation.

don't know why you ignored the rest of the post, which pretty much says the same thing.

 

[Wilbur Wood]

Per the ND message boards, Manti had other girl friends in the past. One female student described him as a "player" in that regard.Don't buy the gay angle anyway, as this has to be the dumbest thing in the world for someone trying to stay in the closet. A mormon doesn't usually chase a lot of women anyway before marriage.

 

[pantagrapher]

This is a pretty good take IMO. Its from one of the comments on a Deadspin article.http://deadspin.com/5976904/what-manti-teo-told-sports-illustrated-about-lennay-kekua

Barry, I think people are writing of the gay theory a little to easily... hear me out here.Obviously at some point here he lied and it was most likely out of embarrassment and the realization that there was an easier way to explain this off... no matter which of the theories we are looking at. But what if they just wanted a way to publicly say they loved each other without outing themselves? And all of the sudden, oh crap, Notre Dame came out of nowhere and Manti is now so famous that people are prying deeper into his private life. How do we get rid of this "GF" I have been telling everyone about? You know, the one that I see in Hawaii sometimes (not with my family) when "she" just so happens to be down there at the same time... Tuiososopo has reason to be down there right? He tells his family and friends about "her". How he's heading out to meet "her" since "she" is in town. He actually does meet "her" in 2009 at Stanford after a game (Tuiasosopo was on the USC field at one point as well). And keeps that event pretty vague, "we locked eyes". Then decides a couple years down the road that they are sick of not being able to be publicly in love because of where they come from and decide to risk it a little and create an online persona in which they can flirt. Tuiasosopo gets in a car crash right? (yes a month before "her" but still...) So he is bumbed about it and talks a bit about it. All of the sudden his celebrity blows up with all of his great play and Notre Dame exploding when no one expects them to and a select few people start to pry. They freak out thinking the only way to get them to stop prying and possibly trying to reach her is to kill her off. His grandma dies and it all gets lumped together and all he can do at this point is go deeper into the lie because the culture he grew up in (football, mormon, catholic school) has taught him that this is one of the worst things he can do. He realizes he made really dumb mistakes that didnt have to go this far... or someone called him on heisman day and says, "we know" and finally he just says, enough is enough, I will say I was duped. Problem is, the pics Tuiasosopo used lead back to him and he is now outed as well. Just a thought, I am sure someone can poke some holes in this as well.

Let's say that's all true.What does that mean for ND? Their AD just backed up Teo's innocence 100% after concluding an internal investigation. After the whole Penn State thing last year where the football program's overwhelming hubris was on public display, why in the hell would ND put their reputation at risk over a player that is out of the program?

I explained the reason earlier. Te'o tries to draw out the ND investigation as far as he can, but when the school hires a PI and there starts to be talk of the authorities getting involved, he admits to a select few in the athletic department that he made the story up and that he's gay but cannot come out. What's the AD to do at that point? The answer seems clear to me: he has to protect this kid—a kid who's made a stupid mistake but who hasn't done anything criminal. The threat to the kid's career and his personal life can be very real at that point, just a couple months away from the NFL draft. So the AD says listen: I'm going to go out there and take hell for you if this blows up, but then I'm passing this off to you and it's your responsibility at that point. And that's what he did. It was clear to me he did not believe the story he was putting forth. And when the questions got tough, he said that Te'o will have to answer those. If this ends up being the case, I'd stand behind the AD and completely support his decision to protect a troubled player's personal life over outing him.

 

[-fish-]

My argument is simply that I don't think Teo created and participated in the hoax from the start. It's definitely possible the hoax was revealed to him and he was too scared to tell anyone and played along for some time.I'm just putting a lot of stock in the Swarbrick presser because that's a guy who has more info than any of us, could easily throw Teo under the bus, and he did the exact opposite. He could feel empathy toward Teo regardless of whether Teo never knew or knew later and kept it going because he was embarrassed.

what if Swarbrick is upset because he and his school look like idiots?

 

[17seconds]

It's that Swarbrick was so emotional at the press conference. So he either believes very strongly in what he is saying or he was acting.That wasn't a measured press conference attempting damage control.

I think that Notre Dame's AD's emotional composure is about the least relevant thing to unearthing the truth of this story. I'm sure that the AD probably doesn't know the whole truth himself at this point, but is emotional that this media firestorm is causing great embarassment to ND's top player and face of the team. His emotions tell us nothing about the underlying truth of what happened.

Well then he's foolish because he put his own skin in the game with how he handled it. If the facts don't match what he said, then he's wrapped up in it now. It would have been very easy for him to do that presser as an emotionally detached investigator concerned about the university, looking for facts.

 

[MaxThreshold]

I mean, c'mon, who "makes up" girlfriends except gay guys trying to hide their homosexuality.

The Gay evidence:

1) He makes up a girlfriend (shouldn't a star LB at Notre Dame have all kinds of women throwing themselves at him?)

2) He's religious (not saying all religious people are gay. Simply that #1 coupled with #2 is overwhelming evidence IMO).

BTW: I'm not trying to offend anyone.

 

[pantagrapher]

I mean, c'mon, who "makes up" girlfriends except gay guys trying to hide their homosexuality.

The Gay evidence:

1) He makes up a girlfriend

2) He's religious (not saying all religious people are gay. Simply that #1 coupled with #2 is overwhelming evidence IMO).

I confess I thought the accusation was slightly offensive when I first heard it for the very reasons your alluding to here.

 

[Time Kibitzer]

Per the ND message boards, Manti had other girl friends in the past. One female student described him as a "player" in that regard.Don't buy the gay angle anyway, as this has to be the dumbest thing in the world for someone trying to stay in the closet. A mormon doesn't usually chase a lot of women anyway before marriage.

A "female student" on a ND message board described Te'o as a "player"? Well, I guess that's the gay angle done with.

 

[17seconds]

mormons go to notre dame?

 

[MaxThreshold]

Per the ND message boards, Manti had other girl friends in the past. One female student described him as a "player" in that regard.Don't buy the gay angle anyway, as this has to be the dumbest thing in the world for someone trying to stay in the closet. A mormon doesn't usually chase a lot of women anyway before marriage.

A "female student" on a ND message board described Te'o as a "player"? Well, I guess that's the gay angle done with.

She might be covering for him. My money is still on him being gayer than the front row at a Barbara Streisand concert. But then again, what do I know? I thought Romney would win.

 

[17seconds]

My money is still on him being gayer than the front row at a Barbara Streisand concert. But then again, what do I know? I thought Romney would win.

Just because gay guys make up girlfriends doesn't mean a guy with a made-up girlfriend is gay.He also could have made up a girlfriend, be gay, and made up the girlfriend for some other reason besides being gay.

 

[MaxThreshold]

My money is still on him being gayer than the front row at a Barbara Streisand concert. But then again, what do I know? I thought Romney would win.

Just because gay guys make up girlfriends doesn't mean a guy with a made-up girlfriend is gay.He also could have made up a girlfriend, be gay, and made up the girlfriend for some other reason besides being gay.

I guess. But what reason other than being gay would someone make up a girlfriend?

 

[ScottNorwood]

I mean, c'mon, who "makes up" girlfriends except gay guys trying to hide their homosexuality.

The Gay evidence:

1) He makes up a girlfriend (shouldn't a star LB at Notre Dame have all kinds of women throwing themselves at him?)

2) He's religious (not saying all religious people are gay. Simply that #1 coupled with #2 is overwhelming evidence IMO).

BTW: I'm not trying to offend anyone.

Well I'll come out and say it. All religious people are gay.

 

[Raider Nation]

Bob Holtzman on outside the lines said most students he talked to on campus today thought his gf was made up and some players and students thought he loved every bit of attention he got. Holtzman said Te'o would point up at the tv's every time he was on.

In print:

With each passing hour that Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o remains silent regarding the hoax he claims via a written statement was perpetrated on him, the initial impressions formed by members of the public harden.

And even more information is surfacing to persuade those who are undecided to make up their minds.

The latest comes from Bob Holtzman of ESPN, who reported on College Football Live (via Rotoworld.com) that Te’o's teammates at Notre Dame sensed that something was amiss regarding the claims of a girlfriend who died in September.

“I talked to a former Notre Dame teammate of Te’o's today, who told me that most players always thought that this wasn’t really Te’o's girlfriend,” Holtzman said. “And that they always suspected that this didn’t really add up with the story. [The teammate] also told me that Te’o loved the attention and that even though the story may not have been what it seemed to be, that he was more than happy to play along with it.”

This report suggests that, while the relationship may have begun as a hoax, Te’o played along with it, given that it helped create attention and, ultimately, sympathy.

Anyone who is inclined to be sympathetic to Te’o now needs to hear from him, so that they can justify feeling that way. He needs to talk, and he needs to do it as soon as possible.

I just find the bolded IMPOSSIBLE to believe!

 

[Raider Nation]

How is Rud's scam to take Bigboy's money coming along?

 

[Maude]

I explained the reason earlier. Te'o tries to draw out the ND investigation as far as he can, but when the school hires a PI and there starts to be talk of the authorities getting involved, he admits to a select few in the athletic department that he made the story up and that he's gay but cannot come out. What's the AD to do at that point? The answer seems clear to me: he has to protect this kid—a kid who's made a stupid mistake but who hasn't done anything criminal. The threat to the kid's career and his personal life can be very real at that point, just a couple months away from the NFL draft. So the AD says listen: I'm going to go out there and take hell for you if this blows up, but then I'm passing this off to you and it's your responsibility at that point. And that's what he did. It was clear to me he did not believe the story he was putting forth. And when the questions got tough, he said that Te'o will have to answer those. If this ends up being the case, I'd stand behind the AD and completely support his decision to protect a troubled player's personal life over outing him.

This is exactly where I am too, but you have put it into much better words than I ever could have. And I just love the drama, suspense, and mystery of the whole thing. Truth is by far stranger than fiction in this case.

 

[Furious Styles]

He's a ######

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

How is Rud's scam to take Bigboy's money coming along?

I wasn't the one making guarantees in here.

 

[jplvr]

I've been utterly fascinated with this story since it broke yesterday.On September 23rd, 2012 Te'o claims to Thamel he met the girl in person at a game.On December 6th, 2012, he claims he first learned this was a hoax.On December 26th, 2012, Notre Dame claims they first learned of this.A fund was created for leukemia in the name of the supposed girlfriend on January 9, 2013, and Notre Dame officially supported the campaign:

The revelation of the hoax has been far-reaching, a Notre Dame graduate who launched a campaign to raise money for a cancer research group in memory of Te’o's girlfriend says he is “shell-shocked” to learn the woman didn’t exist.Dan Tudesco, a 2006 graduate who now works in public relations in New York, set up an online account at fundraising website indiegogo.com on Jan. 9 to solicit $5,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Inc. The initial pitch said donations would go to the society in memory of Lennay Kekua and in honor of Te’o, “two individuals who have been an inspiration to us through an iconic season.”Tudesco said he and three friends got the fundraising idea after a seeing a video that went viral of Te’o holding his head in dismay during the Irish’s 42-14 loss to Alabama in the national championship game on Jan. 7.The goal was to turn the loss—and the player’s sudden popularity—into something positive.“I think we were all kind of disappointed in the result of the game ... and the Manti story was very inspirational,” Tudesco told The Associated Press on Thursday.Notre Dame took notice of Tudesco’s tweets about the fund drive and sent a university videographer to shoot an interview with him. The video was posted on the Notre Dame athletics YouTube channel Tuesday.Tudesco said he didn’t believe Notre Dame was aware of the hoax when it promoted his fundraiser.“It would surprise me that Notre Dame would want to promote this if they knew something like this was going on,” Tudesco said.However, Notre Dame officials said Wednesday that they became aware of the hoax on Dec. 26, nearly two weeks before the championship game. University spokesman Dennis Brown didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking comment Thursday.http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8854472/teammate-manti-teo-says-player-played-girlfriend-angle

This girl, who Te'o claims to have known for 4 years (Thamel article) and "dated" for at least a year had no Facebook page, limited photographs, and we're now to believe Mantei did not Skype, Facetime, or meet this girl in person in 4 years. Even if we're to assume that he lied about initially meeting her in person 4 years ago as he claims in the latest Thamel article because of embarrassment, you cannot convince me someone is stupid enough to believe all of this in this day and age.He also told Thamel he spoke to her over the phone from April 28th to "mid May" when she couldn't even respond. He claims they spoke for 8 hours a night when she was sick with leukemia. These are easily verified claims. Furthermore, if you're wondering why he never tried to visit her in the hospital or even tried sending flowers, according to their rebuttals yesterday, the hoaxers created false addresses for Te'o to send flowers. Fine, he didn't ignore every suggestion by the family and the girl to go try to meet the love of his life on her deathbed, but surely he sent flowers to the fake address they provided, right? Why not release proof of that? If I sent flowers to a girl across country in the past year, I could prove that point in about 5 minutes or less. If Te'o was prepared to release all this information on his own on Monday as they claim, how is such proof not readily available?I think Te'o was complicit in all of this. He was friends with Tuiasosopo, who knew the girl from the pictures and solicited pics from her. This is definitely the weirdest story I've ever seen. It's strange from every angle you look at it.Heck, let's just assume Te'o as duped. According to him, he's known this girl for 4 years. Let's just overlook his claim to Thamel they met, in person, at a prior game. Assuming all of this was conducted online, and assuming the hoaxers created false addresses for him to send flowers. Let's assume he paid for flowers to be sent by untracable, cash payments. You're telling me this guy never once tried to call the hospital directly to talk to or check up on her? He never tried visiting on his own? He never tried sending flowers or presents to this hospital directly? This supposed girl he professed to love was on her death bed 3 times since he had known her and flatlined more than once while they were a couple and none of this ever happened? What moron is dumb enough to believe any of that?

 

[-fish-]

He's a ######

yeah, but just being from notre dame shouldn't matter.

 

[cstu]

He's a ######

No wonder a guy feels he has to go to such lengths to prove he's not gay.

 

[John Bender]

My link

 

[Furious Styles]

He's a ######

No wonder a guy feels he has to go to such lengths to prove he's not gay.

Yeah, this whole thing is my fault.

 

[jplvr]

I mean, basically, if you assume Te'o was duped, he participated in a 4 year long association which led to a 1 year long relationship, and supposedly he never even tried to visit this girl in the hospital who was on her death bed twice... while they were supposedly a romantic couple. Even if you believe his story, he sounds like the biggest d*****bag on the planet.She was supposedly in the car accident on April 28th. She flatlined more than once between then and "mid-May." She was in treatment for the leukemia which led to her death during the summer. All of this supposedly happened during the offseason for football and he supposedly just stuck to talking on the phone and tweeting this person he considered to be his steady girlfriend. Not buying it.

 

[AhrnCityPahnder]

The transcript is just, wow.

SI: Wow, did she get out?

TE'O: She didn't get out. She went from there. Remember she got in the accident and she was in a coma. We lost her, actually, twice. She flatlined twice. They revived her twice. It was just a trippy situation. It was a day I was flying home from South Bend to go home for summer break. It was May. Mid-May. That was the day where they said, "Bro, we're going to pull it. We're going to pull the plug."

I wish Jack Kevorkian were still alive, so he could shout this everytime he did his work.

 

[Mr. Pickles]

Werder‏@Edwerderespn One NFL personnel scout on Manti Te'o scandal and draft impact: "If a team needs an LB, they can watch the tape and forgive him.''

Not against Alabama they can't.

 

[Otis]

Is there anything new?

 

[ScottNorwood]

Is there anything new?

Desert Rose also doesn't exist