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http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-the-most-heartbreaking-and-inspirational-story-of-the-college-football-season-is-a-hoax

This has got to be one of the weirdest things I've seen in a while. Cynical me believes a) he was in on it along w/ Mr. Tuiasosopo, and b) he did it to garner Heisman votes.

His one mistake: he's not a democratic politician. Only they get the news to aid and abet their lies forever.

Whoops. Have no idea why this is posted here. Meant to post it in the OTB.

It was a bad lie that got out of hand.  Hard to understand how things could get this far but his character will certainly take a beating at a minimum. His NFL contract needs to include therapy.

This may be the weirdest story I've ever seen in sports.  (Anyone ever see the movie Catfish?)

Anyway, who thinks that he got duped?  And who thinks he's complicit?  And am I alone in wondering why the star athlete at a major university is "dating" a girl online he's never met?

Thanks for this link. This is the most in depth article I have read on the subject. Based on what I see here, I expect Te'o was in on this somehow. Regardless, I see his draft stock falling even further now.

There was another thread on this in another forum. The first reports I saw had me wondering how he got duped so easily. The article in the other thread makes me think he wasn't duped but actually helped the ruse along.

I'm a bit of a cynic myself, and I would drop a dollar on Te'o being "in the know" about his phantom sick girlfriend...


Edited out your personal bias for accuracy's sake... ;)

I'm leaning the opposite way. This type of thing is happening to a lot of people these days. It's surprising that people can be this gullible, but truth is that these people can be very convincing and pray on people that are overly trusting. He's a young kid, I can easily see him being duped. I think the thought that he cooked this whole thing up to garner votes doesn't really sound like something this guy would do.

That's just my opinion I could be wrong.

^^^ He fed the press stories about meeting her in person but no one has been able to find any records regarding her name and the online pictures of her are a different person. How would you explain him meeting her but not recognizing the picture is someone different. He was in on the plan, I'm sure of it.

I find it strangely odd when someone pretends to be someone else online, to the point of posting pictures of someone else and claiming it to be you.  That seems to be a sick and borderline-perverted illness that should be treated by a medical professional.

Its one thing to do it as a prank, short-term, but another altogether to perpetrate it for months or even years.

^^^ Good thing no one around here does anything like that.

I was listening to Mike Golic on the Mike & Mike show this morning and he said that Te'o is pretty reserved. Mike Golic's son goes to ND and is on the football team so he knows Te'o personally. Rarely did he go out with the "guys". Sounds like he didn't do a whole lot of "dating" either. Golic said that it didn't seem unusual that no one had ever met his girlfriend. I think the kid just got duped. Yes, we would all like to believe that a football player at a major university would be far too wise and worldly to be duped like this, but that just isn't the case. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that he couldn't have been complicit, I'm just saying that it's certainly possible that he was duped. You're talking about a young Mormon kid here. I think it's easily possible.

You have no idea how convincing these people can be. She probably told him they met after that game and he couldn't remember it, so he believed it happened. Perhaps he did meet some girl after that game and had told this person about that meeting, but it wasn't this person, he could have easily been convinced it was this person. Again, I don't want to pretend that I know what happened because I don't, I'm just saying that just because he was saying that he met her doesn't mean that he wasn't duped. These people are con artists. They know exactly which buttons to press and they have an answer for everything and they worm their way into your life and make you believe shit that isn't real. It's sick.

who on the board is doing that? 

Brian. He's portraying himself as a lowly engineer when in actuality he is really actor Ryan Gosling. The gig is up Brian!!

Damn it, who told you?  Was it my alternate personality?

I always thought of Brian as the Goose, rather than the Gosling...

His family said the girl visited him and met them, in Hawaii.  If this girl doesn't exist, who is the girl that met his family, and where is she?  And why did he delete his tweets (before this story broke) to the supposed sister of this dead imaginary girl?

The guy is a liar and a fraud.

Because, per Swarbrick, he learned about the matter on 12/26 and informed ND officials on the day after.

I'm actually starting to come around to his side. He's a young kid, and appears to be very, very good in his personal life. People like that (if I've characterized him correctly) often assume (wrongly) that everyone is nice like them. They bend over backwards to believe and agree w/ people because they want the same for themselves, and they hate being misunderstood and not taken at their word. I say this because I am this way. Or was that way.

I find it odd the way ESPN is reporting on this. They seem to be taking Te'o's side, which they normally never do: ESPN is infamous (in my view) for turning on an athlete immediately when sensationalism calls for it. That said, ESPN, a few months ago, was a victim of a fraud itself, wasn't it? Anybody remember Sarah Phillips? http://deadspin.com/sarah-phillips/

Just like a good communist. Scrub the facts. :)

Kidding! Kidding! No flame wars, plz.

The article I read said that the girl was supposed to meet them in Hawaii, but she didn't show. This is typical behavior of these people.

I don't know why he deleted his tweets, but it's possible that he found out this was all a hoax before the story came out. I don't know the whole story, I only know what I've read. I'm sure there is a lot more to this story than we know.

Also, this:

(http://ll-media.tmz.com/2013/01/17/0117-manti-teoing-launch-3.jpg)

Untrue. He learned about it earlier than that. The apparent story is he received the call during the ESPN award show.

That's right. My bad. This is why I shouldn't trust my memory. 12/26 comes from this article, but, apparently it's not the date he found out about the hoax according to the story:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/arizona-cardinals-fullback-manti-te-os-fake-girlfriend-051106606--ncaaf.html

Nov. 28, 2009: Te'o and Kekua meet after Stanford's 45-38 victory over Notre Dame in Palo Alto, according to the South Bend Tribune: "Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te'o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes." Kekua, a Stanford student, swaps phone numbers with Te'o.

2010-2011: Te'o and Kekua are friends. "She was gifted in music, multi-lingual, had dreams grounded in reality and the talent to catch up to them" (South Bend Tribune). "They started out as just friends," Te'o's father, Brian, told the Tribune in October 2012. "Every once in a while, she would travel to Hawaii, and that happened to be the time Manti was home, so he would meet with her there."

Am I missing something? How could he not know?

Either he knew and his hiding something that will be a jaw dropper. Or he truly is the victim of someone else's very sinister plot. Either way, its devastating to him.

Make no mistake about it: Te'o is definitely a liar.

Now, you can take the extremely generous viewpoint and say that when Te'o claimed that he met her at a Stanford game in 2009, and met up with her in Hawaii, he was just trying to hide his "embarrassing" (?) Internet relationship.  But those are still lies, and without those lies, Te'o would easily be able to play the victim card today with full force.

Where is the quote from Te'o where he said that he met her in Hawaii? The only quote I have seen about Te'o meeting her in Hawaii is from his father. Perhaps Manti told his father he met her, but even if this is true it doesn't necessarily make him a fraud and a liar. Who HASN'T told someone a little white lie here or there especially their parents? Perhaps he just told him he was going to meet her and she didn't show and he never told his father that? There are a ton of possible explanations for his father thinking he had met her when he in fact hadn't.

I believe that Swarbrick said Manti was talking about an online meeting after the Stanford game. That doesn't explain the "looked into her eyes" story, but do we really know that came straight from Manti or was that embellished by the writer of the story?

These small inconsistincies don't make him a fraud in my eyes. I want to stress that I'm not saying he's not, if solid evidence comes out that he made the whole thing up or he admits it, then I'll believe that, but for now I have no reason to believe he's lieing about the fact that he was duped. Seems perfectly plausible to me.

The Deadspin piece leaves little doubt to the fact that he made this whole thing up and had help from a family friend.

If Manti did make this whole thing up, he has some serious mental health issues.

I guess I'm confused, or maybe I don't know the whole story. Why is every sports station talking about this, and how is it even news? So the kid had an imaginary girlfriend. Or he made her up. I would expect his friends to jab at him a little. But the athletic director holding a press conference? Who gives a shit! What am I missing?

Lying makes you a liar.  It's not that complicated.

"Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te'o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes."

Is this an online stare?  Did he extend his hand towards his... monitor?

It may be possible that his small, normally meaningless lies got caught up in a much bigger (outside) lie.  But the simple fact is that without the (possibly minor) lies about physically meeting her, he would be instantly absolved of blame in this story.  And I daresay that "my girlfriend/potential wife died of leukemia" is a significantly more media-worthy story than "my internet penpal died of leukemia," so he's not precisely blameless here.

Oh, I see. You're not saying he's any different from any other person on the planet, I thought you were.

The person who published this article is a liar. Perhaps he was lieing when he wrote that about Te'o?

He would be? Even though we know him to be a liar? So if he didn't lie about meeting the girl we must believe everything he says is true? That's not how the world works. Even if I were to prove that he NEVER said that he met the girl, many would still NOT believe he didn't lie about OTHER things. Just because we can't PROVE you lied about something doesn't mean that you were not lieing. Human's are GIFTED liars. Every last one of them. "No officer, I don't know why you pulled me over", "My dog ate my homework", "Honey you look great in that", "There's nothing wrong, why do you ask?", "No I wasn't looking at that girl's ass", "Sorry I'm late, traffic was bad", "I was just about to call you", "I've already mailed the payment" etc etc etc.

Completely agree with you there. I'm not trying to make this kid out to be a saint, I certainly don't believe that he is. I don't know whether or not he made the whole thing up, the only difference between what most think and what I think is that I'm willing to give the kid the benefit of the doubt until the whole truth comes out.

They just released some nude photos of her this morning.....


(http://www.manolith.com/files/2013/01/manti-teo-girlfriend-nude.png)


 ;D

If "every other person on the planet" lies in interviews with the media, sure.

I am wondering exactly what YOU were talking about when you originally protested me calling him a liar.  Were you, perhaps, insisting that he doesn't lie ALL the time?  Is Barry Bonds a liar?  Is Lance Armstrong a liar?

The guy lied about his relationship with his "girlfriend"; the same relationship that was a major media story.  Absent her leukemia, no one would care and it would be mostly irrelevant... but Te'o was actively participating in feeding the cancer angle.  Two days after (according to him!) he found out about the hoax, he went in front of ESPN's cameras (http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8856519/manti-teo-talked-girlfriend-knowing-hoax) and said, "I think I'll never forget the time when I found out that, you know, my girlfriend passed away and the first person to run to my aid was my defensive coordinator, Coach Diaco, and you know he said something very profound to me."

This is on camera, to a national audience.   And you protest this guy being labeled a liar?

With enough time for some facts to come in and really think about the possibilities, here's what I think is the most likely explanation.

First off, something is fishy.  Exact details I'm sure will come out.  Right now, the story means that either Te'o is complicit in some manner OR that this scam was incredibly involved, including at some point, actually having a girl meet him in different places.

Te'o did get duped, I think.  He was somehow involved in chatting with someone who isn't who he thought she was.  Then, and perhaps not even with explicit intent, he made little white lies about how close they really were.  Embellishments turned into little white lies.  Little white lies turned into  big ones, because the cancer story made it bigger.  And then, when she was fake -- it was too late.  He didn't want to undo all the things he said and have this break during the bowl game, so they all just sat on it.  Publicity is a part of it.


Related: I have a friend who killed himself in high-school.  The emotions were complex for me at the time.  I actually even felt guilty about it, because though it was a tragic event, there was no denying that it was exciting.  Not knowing what the details were as they leaked, the school campus was a frenzy, and because I was friends with him, it made me extra interesting for a few days.  I know I wasn't the only one, because so many people were falling over themselves to tell stories of the kid and how close they were.  I'm sure that there were some "fish stories" in there.

I imagine that Te'o started like this and the positive feedback was so great, it just kept ballooning on himself until there was no backing out.

There is a clip somewhere of Te'o being interviewed after a game on the date in which his girlfriend died. I have been sadder spilling my beer. He isn't even upset. Pretty obvious why that is now.

Ok, so then if he lied to his dad about meeting this girl, that wasn't a lie in an interview with media. This is what I was getting at when I said that we all tell little white lies and you came back with "If you lie, you are a liar". Now you seem to be amending that statement to "If you lie to the media, you are a liar". Ok, let's stick with this premise then going forward otherwise we ALL are liars.

So if his dad said his son told him that he met the girl, that doesn't make Te'o a liar because HE didn't say it to the media, his dad said it and he was only repeating what his son told him. That's what I was trying to get at.

If that's true then that's pretty damning, I hadn't actually read that before. I made it clear from the beginning that I wasn't sure if he made the story up or not, only that I was leaning toward him being the victim. If it comes out that he was in on this, then I will have no problem with anyone calling him a liar. Even if he was lieing just because he was embarrased about the situation, I'll have no problem with you calling him a liar although I will still see him as more of a victim than a liar.

How about...If you lie, you're a liar, and if you lie to the media, then you're a highly publicized liar.


I think you should stick yourself in your own premise. Most people do tell little white lies, and most go undetected by the people they are being told to. Not "everyone" lies though... I certainly did when I was young, but I learned a long time ago that if you master the English language, you can pretty much say anything you want to say without fear of offending someone (if you don't want to offend) or without resorting to lying.

First of all: he lied to the media about meeting her at Stanford (to the South Bend Tribune), which I mentioned in the same sentence as the lie about meeting her in Hawaii, so I don't understand the point you are trying to nitpick.  He only lied once about meeting her, not twice?

Second, if he tells his dad that he met her in Hawaii, and his dad goes around telling that to the media, and he does nothing to correct that, he's a party to that media lie.  His dad is repeating his words on his behalf.  Stop splitting hairs.

Not sure if you read the article, but not only did he give an interview with ESPN's Chris Fowler talking about his fake dead girlfriend, but:

- Dec. 8: During an interview with ESPN Radio, he said that that he hoped his grandmother and his girlfriend were proud of him
- Dec. 8: During an interview with WSBT (South Bend local TV), he said, "I mean, I don't like cancer at all. I lost both my grandparents and my girlfriend to cancer. So I've really tried to go to children's hospitals and see, you know, children."
- Dec. 9: During an interview with the LA Times at the Lott Impact Awards, he said (about the fake dead girlfriend), "She made me promise, when it happened, that I would stay and play."

He's definitely a liar and looking more and more like a fraud.

ESPN is breaking a story right now from a source saying she spoke with the guy responsible (I'm too lazy to look up his name spelling right now, he's the one named in the articles) and he said Te'o was completely in the dark. Take it how you want, a guy coming clean or a guy covering for his friend.

I don't buy it. Some lie more than others, but everyone lies. Studies have determined that men on average lie 6 times a day.

So it's not a lie if the person doesn't know you are lying? That's still a lie to me.

Did he? I'm still not sure. ND officials said that Te'o was referring to online when he said that. Was that a lie or did the media get the story wrong? I don't know. If it was a lie and he just didn't want to admit that he never actually met her in person then it's more a lie of omission than anything else and I'm certainly not going to brand him a liar because of that. Now if he is making the whole thing up, then that's a full blown lie in that case and I have no problem you calling him a liar if that is in fact the truth, but I'm not convinced of that yet.

I don't think that's splitting hairs, I think that's being more cautious in branding him a liar. We don't know for sure whether or not Te'o EVER told his dad that he met her in Hawaii, all we know for sure is that his dad said that Te'o told him that. ND officials said that his dad was embellishing what Te'o told him. Dad's do that ya know. Perhaps his dad is the bigger liar in the family?

Here's a link (http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8857057/friend-says-ronaiah-tuiasosopo-confessed-manti-teo-girlfriend-hoax) to the story in case you want to read it.

This is starting to have all the earmarks of a typical sensationalized news story. First the media makes Te'o out to be much MORE than he should have ever been made out to be and then when they find out it's all a big hoax they make Te'o out to be a bigger villian then they should have. The media has made this whole thing into a circus because they never have taken the time to actually investigate it thoroughly. They just wanted to get the story out as quickly as possible. Bottom line is you can't always believe everything you read, error on the side of caution.

He claimed that he shook her hand.  How does one do that online?

The entire idea that he met her "online" at a Stanford away game is ridiculous.  He met her "online" when he happened to be visiting the school she goes to?

Furthermore, I'd like to see this official statement from ND you are referencing.  The official statement from ND I've seen doesn't reference their supposed meetups at all; it is only in Te'o's press release (issued after the story broke) that he now claims he "met her online."

We know that his dad told the media that Te'o said he met her, and Te'o never disputed that quote.

Please cite.

I have no idea where that statement came from, as I said nothing of the sort. When someone twists another person's words around to create new meaning, that's a very special sort of lie.

Perhaps. Perhaps the story took on a life of it's own through the media and Te'o didn't do much to really stop it until he realized it was all a hoax.

I can't find the article now, but I'm pretty sure that I read it on Yahoo yesterday. It was one of the articles where the ND athletic director was relaying what Te'o had told him. ND has been investigating this since around Dec 26th.

Update: Here is the link (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--sources--manti-te-o-s-representatives-passed-on-chance-to-release-story-about-fictional-girlfriend-175521027.html)

That obviously ran counter to public comments Te'o had made, including a South Bend Tribune story that ran earlier in the season. Te'o's father, Brian, also was quoted several times in the media about his son meeting Lennay.

"That's pretty much Brian Te'o," a source said. "He's a great guy, but he loves to add color."

I'm sorry, that's what I thought you were saying when you said this...

"I learned a long time ago that if you master the English language, you can pretty much say anything you want to say without fear of offending someone (if you don't want to offend) or without resorting to lying"

I must have misconstrued what you meant. Sorry, no harm intended.

New news:

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8857057/friend-says-ronaiah-tuiasosopo-confessed-manti-teo-girlfriend-hoax

Apparently, there is now some story that Tuiasosopo has confessed to a third party regarding what he did. It's not much, but it's something.

He Skyped with his parents all the time but never with his own girlfriend? If he was duped, how did he call his girlfriend in the hospital for 8 hours just to hear her breath?

I'm sorry, but I don't know how anyone can think he wasn't in on this and just made it up. If he was duped, his intelligence is so low he would not have completed high school, let alone college.

An anonymous source is not "ND officials."

That, or he was truly in love. Sometimes love will blind someone. Not an excuse, just another possibility.

But he Skyped with his parents, why not his girlfriend?

All I know is, he lied about meeting her and everything else points to him being a liar, so he loses the benefit of the doubt. I hear from a few places that he is gay and this was just a cover. If so, I feel sorry for him not being able to come out due to religious and social stigmas, but fake break up with her. Don't fake kill her with cancer AFTER a car accident just as your Grandmother dies. That's just begging for pity and Heisman votes.

I don't know what will hurt his draft stock more: being mentally disturbed or being gay? Nothing wrong with the second, but the NFL isn't the most tolerant of places.

Where have you heard he's gay?

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--manti-te-o-speaks-for-first-time-since-revelation-of-girlfriend-hoax---043012320.html

Jeremy Schaap's interview w/ Manti is starting to confirm what I've come around to believe: yeah, he lied about meeting her because he realized how weird it would be to say that to reporters. But, as it was, he really cared about her, and was just too naive to realize what was happening to him.

He was asked why he didn't visit her in the hospital as she was dying. He said, and I paraphrase "I don't know, it never dawned on me. I was in school". So, scumbag at worst, liar at best.

Damn, you hate the kid.

He got duped.  Rather than admit he got duped, he lied so he wouldn't look stupid.  It backfired. 

I don't think he really set out to deceive anyone, or get unjustified sympothy.  He just didn't want to admit he got duped so he killed her off so people would stop asking questions.

If he was in a position of high responsiblity or running for political office this would concern me.  Being his primary skill involves knocking people carrying an inflated pigskin to the ground, I don't see this as an issue. 

Character is always an issue for a leader in pretty much anything ... isn't it?

Yeah.  But this guys key skill is knocking people to the ground. 

If "character" was the always the key issue for football players, Tim Tebow would be a better QB than Micheal Vick. 

If skills were anywhere close who would you want on your team? That's what he is looking at too. This situation has added question where there weren't any previously.

I don't buy this theory for a second. If he was invovled at all (other than making it more than it was) it would most definitely have to be for publicity. Why would anyone make up a dead girlfriend while getting publicity already for a dead grandmother? A simple break up over a long distance relationship not working would have been much simpler and quieter.

I never claimed he was bright!

Plus based on what I have read:  He might not have made up her death, but was told she was dead and repeated it only to find out afterwards she never lived. 

Is this true?

Fact 1: Te'o learns that girlfriend is fake.
Fact 2: Te'o comments on her death to the media AFTER he learns she was fake.

That's up for debate. According to Te'o he got a call from the person that he thought was his dead girlfriend saying that she wasn't dead and he wasn't sure what to believe at that point thinking it may have been the dead woman's sister. He did make some comments a couple days later about her being dead, but he said that he wasn't sure the whole thing was a hoax until later. Once he was certain that it was all a hoax, he didn't make any more comments regarding her death to the media in fact before the story broke there was an instance where the media asked him about her death and he didn't mention anything about the girl, just mentioned that his team mates and coaches had been very supportive. This was after he had already informed ND that he believed he was the victim of a hoax. There was a period of about 10 days where he wasn't certain whether any of it was real or not, but he was talking to this person on the phone asking her a lot of questions.

That's my understanding of what Te'o has said. Whether or not you believe him is up to you.

^ Based on your story, I do not believe him.

I find it unreasonable that if he received a phone call claiming she was still alive (from a number he recognized and a voice he recognized as hers) <-- this I've seen reported, that he would still openly discuss this to the media unless he had dishonest motives.

This is especially true "a couple of days later", once he'd had time to realize what was going on.

The theory crafting going around is that at that point he was starting to figure out it was all a hoax but was extremely embarrassed at that point to admit the truth. He didn't decide to tell ND it was all a hoax until the 26th which was about 3 weeks after he got that first phonecall from his "deceased girlfriend".

If you want to call Te'o dishonest for not immediately admitting he was the victim of a hoax, I have no problem with that, but that's a long way from him making the whole thing up to garner more votes. I don't know if his motives were dishonest, but what he said was dishonest. I think his motives at that point were trying to avoid embarrassment.

He is either really ignorant and naive or incredibly dishonest.  I'm not sure which one is better.

I think you're being completely too generous.

It's a long way off between "not immediately admitting" and "continuing to perpetuate".  If Te'o just brushed off the questions during that time, I'd be willing to cut him some slack.  But from the sounds of it, he continued to talk about her.  Now, I don't know that he kept talking to GET votes, but I wouldn't doubt that he kept talking because if he fessed up, he would lose votes.

That exact discussion took place this weekend on the radio. My personal opinion is that it would be worse for him if he was incredibly dishonest as I'm not really that shocked a 22 year old Mormon kid got duped. Also, if he did just get duped, I imagine that he's grown up a LOT in the last couple of weeks and I doubt he'll be that naive again. There's no question that whomever drafts this kid is gonna need to wise him up to the ways of the world because there's nobody that's a bigger target then the players of the NFL.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Guilty as charged, but that's me. I don't like to judge people especially when I don't know them that well. I've done a few things myself I'm not proud of, luckily I was never worthy of a news story.

Regardless of whether or not he was duped, the moment he received a call from the girl who he thought was dead, he immediately should have stopped referencing her death as inspiration.  The "I thought it might be her sister" excuse (which I have never seen outside of this thread) is incredibly weak, to the point of being an obvious lie.

With effort, you can explain away the lies about meeting her as embarrassment (?) over his internet relationship.  But you cannot explain away the lies about being inspired by her death, after speaking to her (alive) on the phone.

Sure you can. By realizing that she was/may be alive. He realized that he had nothing to play for. How can you play at a high level when the girl you never met is still alive?

I agree, but put yourself in his shoes for a moment. You either have to admit to yourself that you have been duped into believing your whole relationship with this person was a total fabrication from the start OR the person to whom you are speaking with now is NOT the same person. I can see there being a little bit of denial going on that first day or 2. You WANT to believe this CAN'T be the same person that I've thought was my girlfreind. Who told me she had cancer. Who told me she was in love with me. Whom I thought I was in love with. I CAN'T have been this naive, could I? This HAS to be a hoax and she REALLY must be dead. Then slowly over a day or 2 you realize that NONE of it is in fact the truth and you have been duped completely. From day 1. That's GOT to be pretty hard thing to admit to yourself and also coming to the realization that this is all going to come out and you're going to have to admit to the media that you have been duped and a lot of what you said just wasn't true. You're going to look like a COMPLETE fool. This is going to be one of the most painful things you've ever had to go through and in the mean time they're still sticking a microphone in your face and you're not ready to admit that it was all a hoax, but how do you tell people that? If you just stop talking about this girl people are gonna wonder what's going on. They are gonna start asking questions. Painful questions. You want to come clean, but how without looking like a complete idiot?

There's no question that he made a bunch of mistakes, but they were mistakes that a young and naive person makes, not the mistakes that a cold and calculating liar makes. That's what makes me believe his story. If he really did make up the whole thing he didn't think it all the way through because he didn't leave himself any wiggle room to get out of those lies should someone start checking out his story.

...except that that isn't what happened.  When he was asked about her later (after telling ND), he just sidestepped the question with the standard cliches that every athlete uses, and not a single media outlet questioned him about it.  It wasn't even suspicious!

It is easy to simply avoid mentioning her without tipping anyone off, and he showed how easy it was when he did it.

Pappy13, I am forced to wonder if you are equally understanding about other college players that lie for various reasons.  Can we also sit here and rationalize young, naive Reggie Bush lying about his payouts because he was just trying to take care of his family, and that's a painful decision to make?

I'm understanding when I think the player deserves some understanding. Each circumstance is different. I think being taken advantage of and being duped into believing that someone that you cared for has died makes you the victim, not the villian. You're welcome to your own opinion.

People act as if he would not have been in the running for Heisman consideration without this story. This guy legitimately won multiple awards and has been in the conversations about his play as a LB since his freshman year when the awards came around.
This hoax is meaningless to how well he plays LB. Are NFL QB's going to run elaborate hoaxes to dupe this guy?

Exactly.  Folks say that this hoax has caused him to fall out of being a top draft prospect.  I won't be the bit disappointed if his draft stock falls to #29.

His draft stock was falling before this story broke. He looked absolutely overmatched in the championship game.

That's going to hurt his draft stock more than this story.

after actually listening to him speak, dude's definitely gay.

Valid reason for having an imaginary girl friend. 

My understanding is that that is the standard Hawaiian accent, and that he sounds no different than thousands of other (straight) Hawaiian men.  Take that for what it's worth.

I don't get a gay vibe from Te'o.

Apparently, it was a woman he was talking to, not a man.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8880021/ronaiah-tuiasosopo-cousin-was-voice-talking-manti-teo-report

I figured as much. Unless some sort of voice-altering technology was being used on the fly, I don't see how they could've gotten the voice to sound this female.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sns-listen-lennay-kekuas-voicemails,0,1025019.htmlstory

The whole defense was over-matched

^^^ Not to make excuses for ND, because Bama certainly came to play, but when a team has over a month between games they are gonna be a bit rusty.  I think it takes away from the contest when they have such a large gap until this game is played.  I wish they would move the top 2 or 3 big games back to New Years Day at least.

Does anyone here still believe that he was complicit in the whole thing and did it to garner votes/popularity?

Not a chance. The popularity/Heisman vote angle is weak to me. Either he was duped. Which does happen. Or he's still trying to hide something.

Not really. His play would've done it alone.

I am not convinced of his innocence just yet. He did admit to lying about meeting her, and he didn't go to her funeral OR even look upset the day she died. Is it enough to convict him in court? Definitely not, but it's just too shady for me to believe he wasn't in on it somehow. The other alternative, is that he is one of the dumbest people alive. Neither bodes well for his draft stock.

I think originally, he was just milking it excessively, calling her his "girlfriend" and making up meetings to try to play it all up (but unaware that she didn't actually exist).  After he got the call on Dec. 6, that's when he switched from mostly-innocent victim to actively perpetuating the deception.  He was complicit from Dec. 6 until he told Notre Dame on Dec. 26.

From the phone records, looks like they talked for hours on end, multiple times over many, many months.

My guess is he was into her, and while he thought it was weird they'd never met, etc, was too into her/emotionally attached to let go. So, he went the middle route and lied about meeting her so that he wouldn't look weird to a TV audience (maybe his advisors/handlers TOLD him to lie?) but everything else was pretty much true to life.

Remember, this kid is probably pretty sheltered his whole life, and fairly good. He appears that way anyway. Good, sheltered people are often naive because they think that everyone thinks like them/is like them, at least partially. He probably gave the voice on the phone the benefit of the doubt for way longer than any one of us would. But that doesn't mean he's dumb. Just means he's young and sheltered.

Would that we were all such innocent lambs.

This right here hurt his draft stock more than this story ever could:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/manti-te-o-runs-slow-4-81-40-192229205--nfl.html

So he is smaller and slower than he is supposed to be as well as naive at best ... who would care about that? I jest but it seems pretty likely that he will fall in the draft. The best thing for him is that a lot of greats including HOFers have fallen in the draft and recovered just nicely.

ESPN was just now talking about him and Bill Polian said the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life. He said, "No player has ever been drafted because of a workout he did at the combine." I'm not even sure what his reasoning is. If the combine had no effect on a player's draft position, why even bother doing it. Think before you speak Bill.

Maybe Bill's imaginary girlfriend happens to be a Raider fan. Because obviously 40 times meant nothing in their WR picks.

I think you may be reading his words wrong... He didn't say that no player has ever improved his draft stock because of a combine workout.

That would mean that there was never a player in which a team before the combine thought a player wasn't worth drafting at all and at best should be called in for tryout for an UDFA position, but because of his combine workout they decided he was worth using a 7th round pick on. 

^^^ I'm saying that every prospect invited to the combine is "expected" to be drafted, regardless of what round they're expected to be drafted in.

Some improve their draft standing due to their combine performance, and others see their draft prospects weakened by the combine.

^^^ More players are invited to this year's combine than there are draft slots. How can you say they are all expected to be drafted. Polian's comment was still stupid no matter the spin. We all know there have been workout warriors past, present, and future. To say none of them jumped from UDFA to draftee is shortsighted.

He ran a 4.69 at his Pro Day.  Gained back a little ground, but his draft stock is still hurt.

Actually his sentence would make sense if you add one word....

"No player has ever been drafted solely because of a workout he did at the combine."

The greens are faster in South Bend...
Women, not so much.