Manti Te'o and His Imaginary Girlfriend

[SCFinfan]

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.

[SCFinfan]

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

[CF DolFan]

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.

[Dave Gray]

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?

[Phishfan]

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.

[Phishfan]

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.

[Sunstroke]

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...

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

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

[Pappy13]

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...

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.

[Phishfan]

^^^ 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.

[Brian Fein]

^^^ 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.

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.

[Phishfan]

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

[Pappy13]

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?

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.

[Pappy13]

^^^ 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.

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.

[TonyB0D]

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

who on the board is doing that? 

[CF DolFan]

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!!