Manti Te'O Dead Girlfriend a Hoax!

[Olympic Fan]

Utterly ridiculous. Seriously, could he have possibly thought that would sway the Heisman his way? Is that what the press is intimating?
What the he-twosticks is wrong with him...and his father?!
Sick, sick, sick.
Stupid losers.

When Joe Theismann arrived at Notre Dame as a relatively unknown freshman, his last name was prpnounced "THEES-man"

Notre Dame sports information director Roger Valdiseri told him that his name would be pronounced "Theisman" -- to rhyme with Heisman -- for obvious reasons.

They're ALWAYS thinking Heisman in South Bend.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

The idea that any adult under the age of 30 could be duped by a hoax like this when every young person has camera phones, Skype, voice-chat, etc is completely absurd. If he wasn't 100% complicit with this ruse, he's one of the least intelligent people on the planet.

I feel bad for him, in that he clearly is missing some sort of moral compass, but to paint him as a victim is simply laughable. There's simply no plausible deniability. This isn't some Nigerian prince trying to get checking account information from your grandmother, here. This is a kid who was put on the national stage and who decided to make the most of his 15 minutes.

I hope he enjoyed it. I find it disgusting and pathetic.

/First post in off-topic!

[BD80]

Where was the ND SID during all of this?

ND football is a multiMILLION (billion?) $ enterprise, and is very much a profit making business. It is a subsidiary of the ND sports department, and the University of Notre Dame (tail wagging dog?). What corporation with so much on the line in terms of reputation and $ would fail to do ANY background check on this "girlfriend?"

For God's sake (literally, the Pope requested it) Sports Illustrated ran a COVER STORY on the kid, a featured his relationship with this alleged "girlfriend!" - Talk about the SI cover curse!

Didn't ANYBODY in ND's Sports Information Department ever think to get some background on the girl, vet her (or her family after her "tragic death") for questions from the media? As lazy as the media was in missing the story (I guess the Bleacher report has some explaining to do - as the last vestige of "investigative reporting" remaining in the sports world) - the ND Athletic Department had a duty to avoid this sort of scandal.

[moonpie23]

he COULD have been duped....for awhile....But you're correct, with skype, cell phones, facetime and google...it's highly improbable...

he could have discovered he was duped and just made the rest up as an easy out....

regardless, more will come out and it's gonna be very interesting...

[FerryFor50]

According to a Pat Forde article (like him or not), ND hired a private investigator to investigate this:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--...3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

Swarbrick says a private investigator hired by Notre Dame to look into the matter has evidence that Te'o was victimized by individuals who invented an online girl and engaged her in a relationship with the player. Due to privacy concerns, the school is not in a position to release that evidence, but hopefully Te'o will provide some documentation that corroborates what Swarbrick said.

Additionally, another ND recruit believed she existed:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highsc...113337393.html

While I think Teo fabricated some of what he said, it's not out of the ordinary for a naive kid to make that sort of thing up. That's where the whole "I have a girlfriend... she just doesn't live here!" lie comes from.

I think a hoax on Teo and then lies to cover his embarrassment was likely.

Full disclosure: I've been duped by girls on the internet into believing they looked like the pictures they sent. It happens, if you don't know any better.

[A-Tex Devil]

I think a hoax on Teo and then lies to cover his embarrassment was likely.

Full disclosure: I've been duped by girls on the internet into believing they looked like the pictures they sent. It happens, if you don't know any better.

I'll buy this. But it's still dumb. And I don't buy he wasn't in on it when she "died". There are too many statements leading up to that that suggest otherwise. The most damning is that he got his family (dad) involved in the lie.

The "Theisman" thing was mentioned above. Doug Gottlieb also talked about how ND did everything they could to cover up his screw ups in South Bend. I absolutely can't believe that Swarbrick stood by Te'o last night, and that's the only thing that gives even a hint of legitimacy to Te'o's story -- but I am afraid it's going to backfire.

There is some weird stuff continuing to come out. The fake girl's twitter feed woke up yesterday and said there would be an announcement midday today. At least one NFL player has said he's "met" her. Wild. : popcorn.

[FerryFor50]

I'll buy this. But it's still dumb. And I don't buy he wasn't in on it when she "died". There are too many statements leading up to that that suggest otherwise. The most damning is that he got his family (dad) involved in the lie.

The "Theisman" thing was mentioned above. Doug Gottlieb also talked about how ND did everything they could to cover up his screw ups in South Bend. I absolutely can't believe that Swarbrick stood by Te'o last night, and that's the only thing that gives even a hint of legitimacy to Te'o's story -- but I am afraid it's going to backfire.

There is some weird stuff continuing to come out. The fake girl's twitter feed woke up yesterday and said there would be an announcement midday today. At least one NFL player has said he's "met" her. Wild. : popcorn.

Yea, crazy-ness.

There are some people speculating that Teo is covering up his sexual orientation with this. Who knows.

But as you mentioned, who does it really hurt, even if it turns out Teo made it all up himself?

I'm inclined to believe he got duped and because he's such a public figure, it's a snowball effect. Little lies turn into bigger ones...

[Udaman]

Well, Te'o says that along with the numerous girls in the Niagra Falls area, he and his girlfriend were doing the dirty deed.

[Udaman]

The only thing that would make this story better would be if we found out her real name was Fawn Lebowitz.

[A-Tex Devil]

The only thing that would make this story better would be if we found out her real name was Fawn Lebowitz.

I prefer: "Lennay Kekua is Polynesian for George Glass"

[InSpades]

http://outkickthecoverage.com/manti-...e-internet.php

He asks some interesting questions there... At the end of the day this is all very provable. There's phone records, credit card statements that can either backup the things he said or there are not. I'm guessing we'll never see them. They met after the ND @ Stanford game in 2009? What about the ND @ Stanford game in 2011? How do they not meet up there? Even if she's not still a student... how do you not make it back to campus for that game?

I'm also stunned that no one at Stanford realized something was strange when she actually didn't exist. No one looked her up after the story came out?

[roywhite]

The only thing that would make this story better would be if we found out her real name was Fawn Lebowitz.

Died in a tragic kiln accident, if I recall.

Poor Otter...he was inconsolable.
Well, nearly inconsolable; he did manage to rally and go out on the town with some kind friends.

[Starter]

Why did he say he met her in person?

Why did he say he spoke to her for hours each night?

Why did his dad say she came to visit them in Hawaii?

It may have initially been a hoax but you'll have a hard time convincing me he didn't run with it for some unknown reason. At the end of the day, though, who was really harmed? So let's have good laugh and move on to the next thing.

In terms of nobody getting hurt here... I mean, he had a whole stadium wearing leis and chanting his name to bolster him after the death of his girlfriend who never existed. If you were one of those people, or if you read one of Pete Thamel's stories and identified Te'o's vast tragedy with something in your own life, don't you feel just a bit outraged? (I realize his grandmother died too, but I feel like the real heartstring tugger here was the death of Kekua.) I mean, it depends. If Te'o was completely duped here somehow and merely lied about certain things to lend it legitimacy -- like those three things you mentioned -- then yeah, no big deal, it's still an insane story but it goes away. And if he's using this to cover the fact that he's homosexual, he'll get a pass a la Jim McGreevey, who was able to completely overshadow the corruption he was perpetuating as Governor of New Jersey by revealing the worst-kept secret in the state. Most people will probably just wish he had had the confidence to simply come out with it to begin with.

But then why was a dude he was friends with involved with the various Twitter accounts for the fake girlfriend? If it's found Te'o was complicit in this for any reason other than covering up his own confusion regarding his sexuality -- and it's hard to keep anything secret in the age of Twitter and Deadspin -- you have a kid who played this angle up big-time and benefited in a big way, both in terms of publicity and emotional connection to media and fans. I'm not quite so sure that it can be played off as no harm done.

[Mal]

But as you mentioned, who does it really hurt, even if it turns out Teo made it all up himself?

I agree with this generally. No one appears to have lost any money, or been kidnapped or worse, and for Te'o it's incredibly embarrassing and humiliating personally, whatever the final determination might be as to involvement or just incredible naivete.

However, the story still has huge legs for two interconnected reasons, so I think we're going to be hearing about it for awhile. First is the utter failure of the sports media to act as actual journalists, rather than hagiographers and hype enablers, and being even the slightest bit suspicious about a girl who'd never been spotted in public, never made it to a game, etc. Apparently last night, Gene Wojciechowski or someone at ESPN said they'd had their suspicions aroused when they couldn't find an obit or media reports on the car crash. They asked Te'o about it and based on the fact he said something like "Her family doesn't want to be bothered during this difficult time" he let the trail dry up out of respect. So, this person was snookered by an athlete, which looks bad enough. But more importantly they let their personal feelings, need for access, and the illusion that they were friends with the athlete override their bs-detector and their professional integrity, and not even after waiting a week for the sensitive issue of a dead person to subside did they ever look into this again. Or, apparently, alert research staff, editors, producers, or anyone else about this seeming oddity.

The second is that with their narrative focus and human interest angle and glorification of the mythical good guys framing devices, that credulous media doing what it does best whipped up a mountain of good feelings and sympathy for Te'o, and support for Notre Dame, this season. Notre Dame fans should be up in arms, everyone else should be annoyed that the occasionally obnoxious overcoverage of the program was ratcheted up and shoved down our throats this year, all based on a fantasy that could easily have been disproved if anyone had cared to vet the narrative.

[A-Tex Devil]

In terms of nobody getting hurt here... I mean, he had a whole stadium wearing leis and chanting his name to bolster him after the death of his girlfriend who never existed. If you were one of those people, or if you read one of Pete Thamel's stories and identified Te'o's vast tragedy with something in your own life, don't you feel just a bit outraged? (I realize his grandmother died too, but I feel like the real heartstring tugger here was the death of Kekua.) I mean, it depends. If Te'o was completely duped here somehow and merely lied about certain things to lend it legitimacy -- like those three things you mentioned -- then yeah, no big deal, it's still an insane story but it goes away. And if he's using this to cover the fact that he's homosexual, he'll get a pass a la Jim McGreevey, who was able to completely overshadow the corruption he was perpetuating as Governor of New Jersey by revealing the worst-kept secret in the state. Most people will probably just wish he had had the confidence to simply come out with it to begin with.

But then why was a dude he was friends with involved with the various Twitter accounts for the fake girlfriend? If it's found Te'o was complicit in this for any reason other than covering up his own confusion regarding his sexuality -- and it's hard to keep anything secret in the age of Twitter and Deadspin -- you have a kid who played this angle up big-time and benefited in a big way, both in terms of publicity and emotional connection to media and fans. I'm not quite so sure that it can be played off as no harm done.

I guess there are a lot bigger things to be "outraged" about, but outrage certainly does sell in this country. If I was one of those folks in the stadium, I guess I'd be mad, but hopefully, I have other things to focus on pretty quickly after that initial anger.

The more that comes out, the more it looks like he was duped, caught on, and since he's still a young guy, who grew up somewhat sheltered, was naive enough to think he could see it through to completion in a way that would not embarrass him, and maybe even raise his profile -- only to have it now backfire horribly. I am not a Notre Dame fan, and I didn't donate to a leukemia charity in Kekua's name upon learning of her "death," so this is just a funny little story to me -- especially since it is actually *not* that tragic anymore.

Te'o is going to have the hardest time in NFL locker rooms. So he better strap on a Peyton Manning size sense of humor and be ready to take some ribbing. If he can get through the initial negative PR that is sure to come (and luckily Lance is about to put this on the back page), apologize sincerely to the extent his lies hurt anyone (and fully duped or not, he did lie), I think he can turn this around. It will take a lot of thick-skin, and can be helped by some self-deprecating humor once the initial "outrage" has subsided.

Edited to add --- I am not sure I am even that upset with the media. Why do we need to dig into to something like this in the first place? I am surprised, as mentioned above, Stanford didn't pipe up just out of sheer confusion. But except at really big games (Kate Webb), does the media even really care about these guys' WAGs?

[Matches]

I guess there are a lot bigger things to be "outraged" about, but outrage certainly does sell in this country. If I was one of those folks in the stadium, I guess I'd be mad, but hopefully, I have other things to focus on pretty quickly after that initial anger.

Yea I think outrage is probably the wrong word. Of course some people are outraged because someone is always outraged about something. I don't think one has to be angry at Te'o to just think he's a huge goofball.

And either way here, he IS a huge goofball. Skype is free. How do you go three years without seeing someone's face?

[Starter]

I guess there are a lot bigger things to be "outraged" about, but outrage certainly does sell in this country. If I was one of those folks in the stadium, I guess I'd be mad, but hopefully, I have other things to focus on pretty quickly after that initial anger.

The more that comes out, the more it looks like he was duped, caught on, and since he's still a young guy, who grew up somewhat sheltered, was naive enough to think he could see it through to completion in a way that would not embarrass him, and maybe even raise his profile -- only to have it now backfire horribly. I am not a Notre Dame fan, and I didn't donate to a leukemia charity in Kekua's name upon learning of her "death," so this is just a funny little story to me -- especially since it is actually *not* that tragic anymore.

Te'o is going to have the hardest time in NFL locker rooms. So he better strap on a Peyton Manning size sense of humor and be ready to take some ribbing. If he can get through the initial negative PR that is sure to come (and luckily Lance is about to put this on the back page), apologize sincerely to the extent his lies hurt anyone (and fully duped or not, he did lie), I think he can turn this around. It will take a lot of thick-skin, and can be helped by some self-deprecating humor once the initial "outrage" has subsided.

Edited to add --- I am not sure I am even that upset with the media. Why do we need to dig into to something like this in the first place? I am surprised, as mentioned above, Stanford didn't pipe up just out of sheer confusion. But except at really big games (Kate Webb), does the media even really care about these guys' WAGs?

I mean, it's a matter of semantics, but I guess you can always just put that outrage in the context of sports, which is relatively meaningless to begin with. There are a lot of people on this board whose night is nonsensically ruined if Amile Jefferson doesn't play 10 minutes against a bad team. (Before anyone calls me a hypocrite, I'll admit I was not exactly thrilled when the season opened without Quinn Cook as a starter. But for the most part, I have a lot more to care about and deal with besides sports games.) But if you really bought into this sob story, and it turns out Te'o was playing you for a fool for publicity -- we don't know anything yet for sure, though I'd imagine Deadspin will eventually tell us -- then I'd say you're not going to feel that great about your experience here regardless of the words you use to describe it. I mean, this kid was giving postgame interviews about how his fake dead girlfriend's family was rallying around him. If this is anything other than an amazing lapse for Te'o, he'll be about as popular as Steve Bartman was in Chicago.

But yeah, I mean, in the grand scheme it all pales in comparison in terms of importance and potential outrage to the Lizzy Seeberg situation at the same school.

[Mike Corey]

Te'o had scheduled a one-on-one interview with Jeremy Schaap today. That has reportedly been nixed.

[Tom B.]

...and luckily Lance is about to put this on the back page...

The amazing thing to me is how quickly and dramatically the Te'o story has relegated Lance to the back page. Maybe the airing of the Oprah interview will re-orient things, but for now at least, Te'o is completely sucking the wind out of the Lance story -- a story that, 48 hours ago, looked like it was going to dominate sports coverage for the week.

[Turtleboy]

haha.

This will make for a great sequel to Rudy. "A cinderella story where more than 'the slipper' go missing"

Better the slipper than the slippee.