Manti Te'O Dead Girlfriend a Hoax!

[weezie]

Geez O Peezy Pete!!!!
Can we stick a fork in this story yet?!
So darned tiresome and un-im-por-tant. ABC news needs to cut the garbage and Katie Couric promotions already.
Gaaaaah.

[greybeard]

I should have posted the Studio 360 podcast, "Stories of Neuroscience and Memory"" on this thread. The stories are true, the authors all have considerable expertise with respect issues such as memory distortions, suppression, and loss. Each has a personal illuminating story as to what neuroscience can tell us and what it can't. One story deals with minor head trauma that shows asymptomatic but actually cause havoc with memory. Another deals with distortion that occurs to all of us everytime we bring up a memory of an event, and another with the suppression of events that are emotionally traumatic. Do they bear on this tragi farce of a story? Who knows. For those interested, the podcast is linked on the thread regarding it that I started.

[matt1]

Per an ESPN report, the "woman" Te'o believed to be Kekua turned out to be a man (Tusilopo or however you spell it). He disguised his voice, possibly.

So either, he is really stupid or gay.

Now, ESPN is rescinding this report, claiming that it was actually the voice of R.T.'s cousin (a woman).

[freshmanjs]

good stuff from schmoyoho...

[tommy]

Now, ESPN is rescinding this report, claiming that it was actually the voice of R.T.'s cousin (a woman).

But now Tuiasosopo tells Dr. Phil that in fact it was he on the phone for all those hours with Te'o and that he had fallen "deeply in love with" Te'o in a romantic way.

Sorry, but I have a really hard time believing that those kinds of feelings could be completely one-sided when the "relationship" went on for all that time, all those thousands of hours on the phone, etc. Te'o never knew it was a man on the phone? How could that be? He never reciprocated those feelings at all?

I don't care if Te'o is straight, gay, bisexual, or anything else under the sun that doesn't hurt other people. I just really feel like this is a moment in our cultural history right now -- between Te'o and the Kwame Harris and Chris Culliver stories this week -- where maybe some positive change could come. Te'o could be the guy, the first guy, to be openly gay and be part of a professional sports locker room. It's overdue. It won't be easy. It's going to have to be a player clearly good enough to be on that team, maybe even a star. Te'o could be the guy to do it.

I don't presume to tell Te'o when is the right time to come out (assuming he's gay in the first place, of course) and of course nobody should hold it against him if he doesn't want the burdens that would come with it, but I'm just saying this seems like a real opportunity right here to make some real cultural progress.

[JasonEvans]

Te'o could be the guy, the first guy, to be openly gay and be part of a professional sports locker room. It's overdue. It won't be easy. It's going to have to be a player clearly good enough to be on that team, maybe even a star. Te'o could be the guy to do it.

I don't presume to tell Te'o when is the right time to come out (assuming he's gay in the first place, of course) and of course nobody should hold it against him if he doesn't want the burdens that would come with it, but I'm just saying this seems like a real opportunity right here to make some real cultural progress.

I wish it was not this way, but I suspect that if he admitted to being gay it would cause some teams to not want him to be on their team, thereby hurting his draft stock. He's already fallen from being a top ten pick to mid-20s and possibly even 30s. He is also going to be joining a new team, entering a new locker room. Doing that when you have just come out could be really difficult.

The way for this to happen is for an already established player, one who is already known in his locker room and by his fans, to come out. I am certain there are dozens of gay athletes in professional sports who could do this. We just need to find one who has the courage to be first and then it will never be a big deal ever again.

-Jason "it will happen in the next few years, I bet. Societies barriers and prejudices against homosexuality are most certainly falling" Evans

[tommy]

I wish it was not this way, but I suspect that if he admitted to being gay it would cause some teams to not want him to be on their team, thereby hurting his draft stock. He's already fallen from being a top ten pick to mid-20s and possibly even 30s. He is also going to be joining a new team, entering a new locker room. Doing that when you have just come out could be really difficult.

The way for this to happen is for an already established player, one who is already known in his locker room and by his fans, to come out. I am certain there are dozens of gay athletes in professional sports who could do this. We just need to find one who has the courage to be first and then it will never be a big deal ever again.

-Jason "it will happen in the next few years, I bet. Societies barriers and prejudices against homosexuality are most certainly falling" Evans

Jason, I agree with you that the ideal way for this to happen would be for an already-established player to do it. And of course professional locker rooms have many, many closeted players within them. The thing is that there's never going to be a perfect time, so sometimes you've got to just strike while the iron is hot. It's hot right now. You're right, some teams would back off of Te'o. Some might not. Some team -- some team owner or at least GM and coach -- would have to have the courage to say "we as an organization accept this man. He's the best player on the board, regardless of his sexual preference, and if somebody in our locker room doesn't like it, too bad. They can go get a job somewhere else."

Yes, it would take an incredible amount of courage from Te'o to do it, and the willingness to probably sacrifice some cash (meaning draft position) in exchange for being a Jackie Robinson of sorts, but man, how many people get the opportunity in their lives to really be at the forefront of a huge societal and cultural change like Te'o could be? Not many.

[Mal]

Jason, I agree with you that the ideal way for this to happen would be for an already-established player to do it.

Interesting thoughts. I agree with Jason on this, and think it's unlikely the first person with the courage to be openly out in American professional team sports will be a 21-year-old. Unless what we see first is some kid who happens to be a star athlete who feels at ease with their orientation as a high schooler and makes the jump right then and there, and then eventually makes the pros.

I also think it's likely that there will be an individual sport star to pave the way for team sport players first, for a couple reasons. First, tennis, golf, skiing, cycling, and other Olympic sports are more international (in each case, read: involve Europe as well as the U.S.) and my sense is that it would be easier to be openly gay on the ATP tour while spending most of the year in France, Germany, Australia, etc. There are, if I'm not mistaken, at least a couple openly gay female tennis players on circuit today, including Amelie Mauresmo, who won a Slam, so it's not a stretch to think a male star could be out in the near future and open the door for team sport players. Second, there's no team clubhouse, and the athlete (and his/her team) wouldn't have to deal with all the chemistry issues that would come with teammates, some homophobic and some who'd be supportive, absorbing it and the mass of media attention that would come with it. It could create a huge distraction that I would guess is part of what holds back any current candidates for this symbolic position. I would think it'd be a lot easier, even on the uber-conservative PGA Tour, for instance, to be out than it would be in MLB, which for some reason I think would be the most accepting environment within the major team sports. If some player or another isn't comfortable with another's orientation, they can just avoid each other. Most of those guys seem like they barely acknowledge one another most of the time, anyway.

I also think Tommy's point that the "iron is hot" right now isn't quite correct. I don't think the pendulum's swinging back the other direction soon, or that there's a window of acceptance open now that will shut at some point in the near future. Not to get too PPB, but if anything, it will become easier and easier to be the first openly gay pro athlete in American team sports as time passes, most likely. When it happens, it happens. It's not, in my view, going to be quite the equivalent of Jackie Robinson, who, we should note, predated the Civil Rights movement and in many respects paved the way for it. If some third baseman or wide receiver had come out in the late '80's or something, it might be more analogous to Robinson.

[Wander]

-Jason "it will happen in the next few years, I bet. Societies barriers and prejudices against homosexuality are most certainly falling" Evans

True, but sports and political culture can sometimes lag waaay behind other places in society. For example, look at employment of black head coaches in football, or the number of college basketball coaches who don't foul while up by three points at the end of a game.