Manti Te'o GF Dying Was A Hoax

[Scott Wright]

Originally Posted by Mufasa

The evidence known so far would suggest that believing he was a naive victim is a bigger jump than the other two.

Explain.

So far the story Te'o has told is being backed up by Notre Dame after their own investigation that he started, an NFL player who was also duped, a Stanford player who is now in the NFL, teammates who said Te'o was always talking about his girlfriend and was seen talking to "her" on the phone for hours at a time. I am sure in the next couple of days there will be many more.

[metafour]

Originally Posted by Scott Wright

I still haven't heard a plausible explanation for why Te'o would do this.

There was very little if any upside but a huge downside if caught.

Plus he is the one who reported it to Notre Dame and got them to start their investigation.

Why?

I said it earlier but it bears repeating. Publicity was not a factor. Te'o was a big deal since his prep days as a five-star recruit. He famously returned for his senior season and was the star player for the most high-profile college football team in the country. Sympathy? His Grandma did die so there was no need to double-up there, he was already going to get sympathy.

There is just no reasonable explanation for why Te'o would risk extreme public scorn and humiliation to this degree. At least not that I've heard yet.

You serious? It has been hypothesized several times in this thread: he's ***. He's Mormon: homosexuality is a no-no. He attends Notre Dame, the most widely-known Catholic university: homosexuality is a no-no. He is an NFL bound football player: homosexuality is a giant taboo subject.

Make up a story about some long-distance girlfriend that no one will ever find, and you now no longer need to try and explain why a star football player has no physical contact with the female population at Notre Dame.

That is less believable to you than some Kaiser Soze-level hoax story in which someone(s) spent literally years, and hours at a time (talking on phone, Skype, etc) tricking Te'o with zero indication of money being involved? For what?

[SickwithIt1010]

Originally Posted by Scott Wright

Have you seen "Catfish"? These people go to great lengths.

I guess I just wonder why people are so unwilling to give Te'o the benefit of the doubt? Is there anything in his history that would lead you to believe he is capable of doing something like this, especially without a clear motive? I just don't understand, especially now that the evidence is already mounting to back up his claims.

None of this backs up his claims. The guy has been QUOTED saying that he has spent time with her. He met her in person several times....you keep falling back into the whole "it was just an online gf" crap. He has seen her, the guy is backtracking and it looks like ****. Hes just a guy fishing for publicity.

[SickwithIt1010]

Originally Posted by D-Unit

Te'o has to be the victim here. He's the one who approached ND about it right when he got the call. ...and he told them about it while he was at an ESPN awards ceremony in Orlando.

No wonder he played so bad against Alabama. His mind was somewhere else. He must have been going through hell in those weeks leading up to the game.

Oh please, you gotta be fist ******* me.

[D-Unit]

Originally Posted by SickwithIt1010

None of this backs up his claims. The guy has been QUOTED saying that he has spent time with her. He met her in person several times....you keep falling back into the whole "it was just an online gf" crap. He has seen her, the guy is backtracking and it looks like ****. Hes just a guy fishing for publicity.

You "can spend time with her" by talking on the phone with her and chatting online with her. Has there been something that said he spent time with her several times in person?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by D-Unit

No wonder he played so bad against Alabama. His mind was somewhere else. He must have been going through hell in those weeks leading up to the game.

Or, you know, Alabama was just way better than ND.

[SickwithIt1010]

Originally Posted by D-Unit

You "can spend time with her" by talking on the phone with her and chatting online with her. Has there been something that said he spent time with her several times in person?

The original article stated that she visited Hawaii to spend time with him several times,

[Monomach]

Originally Posted by Scott Wright

It's not a huge leap to think Te'o is a homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that) or mentally ill rather than just believe he was a naive victim? Occam's Razor...

Occam's Razor is on the side of Manti being in on it. That's why I brought it up when I responded to you earlier.

Manti being a victim requires multiple people willing to dedicate a bunch of time and money to ******* with Manti Te'o just for the fun of it.

Everything else just requires two friends lying with no financial or time burden.

[CollegeFan]

Scott have you ever had a thread take off faster than this one?? Might be the wackiest pre draft scandal of all time no? So many angles to it. Bet the Heisman Trust are High Fiving each other for picking Johnny Football no? =0 imagine he won?? lmao. Watching the Heat basketball game and they had a special update to say to tune in to Sportscenter after the game to get the latest details on it. This is great for Draft Chat lol =)

[Bengals78]

Originally Posted by Brent

Or, you know, Alabama was just way better than ND.

But not as good as A&M? Amirite?

[D-Unit]

Originally Posted by SickwithIt1010

Oh please, you gotta be fist ******* me.

Tricks like this can cause some people to commit suicide... much less weigh heavily on your mind, drain your energy, affect your game study, practice habits and cause you to play bad.

I'm not even pro Manti. Just pointing out a factual possibility.

[Scott Wright]

Originally Posted by SickwithIt1010

The original article stated that she visited Hawaii to spend time with him several times,

Reagan Mauia also said he met a "Lennay Kekua"

“This was before her and Manti,” Mauia said Wednesday evening, via ESPN.com. “I don’t think Manti was even in the picture, but she and I became good friends. We would talk off and on, just checking up on each other kind of thing. I am close to her family. When she was going through the loss of her father, I was — I offered a comforting shoulder and just someone to bounce her emotions off. That was just from meeting her in Samoa.”

And why would former Stanford and now Buccaneers DT Matthew Masifilo say this:

Got to believe Te'o was the victim here. He would always ask us if we knew his mystery girl after we'd play them....

https://twitter.com/MMasifilo/status/291735118819766272

[Cigaro]

Originally Posted by Scott Wright

I still haven't heard a plausible explanation for why Te'o would do this.

There was very little if any upside but a huge downside if caught.

Plus he is the one who reported it to Notre Dame and got them to start their investigation.

Why?

I said it earlier but it bears repeating. Publicity was not a factor. Te'o was a big deal since his prep days as a five-star recruit. He famously returned for his senior season and was the star player for the most high-profile college football team in the country. Sympathy? His Grandma did die so there was no need to double-up there, he was already going to get sympathy.

There is just no reasonable explanation for why Te'o would risk public score and humiliation to this degree. At least not that I've heard yet.

I won't be surprised if Te'o went along with this for the past couple of weeks in hopes of avoiding the embarrassment and not creating a distraction for his team leading up to the BCS National Championship, but I think that is where it ends on his part. Can you imagine being duped like that? To fall in love with someone then be told they died then find out it was a hoax?

All of these things have been explained by others and myself in this very thread.

You say there is very little upside, but in truth it gives the media a great story to report on(the very title of the article that broke this called it the best story of the year) whenever they talk about Notre Dame. That means they're talking about him, and people are hearing about him. That unquestionably leads to more exposure and more hype.

You say he was a big deal. He was somewhat of a big deal. Yes, he was a 5-star player, so were many, many others. Yes people were talking about him prior to this season, but not remotely to the magnitude after this season. Te'o was known as a good player, but I wouldn't have called him a household name. It wouldn't surprise me if many casual football fans would have had no idea who he was. Personally, I remembered him from his recruiting days, but it wasn't until this season that I heard much about him as an actual player at Notre Dame.

You say his grandma's death negates the need for sympathy. That's simply untrue. Grandmothers are expected to die, and usually except for a little sympathy in the following game, little attention is given to the death of grandparents, precisely because its a natural and common thing. A 22 year old dying to leukemia is no where near the same level as a grandmother dying. Adding that in makes it a truly tragic story, a story tragic enough to follow him throughout the rest of the season. Your grandmother dying, that's unfortunate. Your girlfriend dying, that's tragic.

Scott, if you don't think Te'o received a level of attention because of his girlfriends death above and beyond the normal, just watch this;



When can you recall a special being devoted to Te'o before this tragedy? Not some breakdown of his on-the-field play, but a special devoted to Te'o the person? And did you notice who the special focused on? It wasn't the grandmother, she got but a few seconds mention.

Your grandmother dying isn't a story. Your girlfriend dying is. Te'o unquestionably gained much, much more attention after the girlfriend story broke than he would have had that never occurred, and that attention was unquestionably influential in establishing his personal hype machine.

[BloodBrother]

Originally Posted by SickwithIt1010

None of this backs up his claims. The guy has been QUOTED saying that he has spent time with her. He met her in person several times....you keep falling back into the whole "it was just an online gf" crap. He has seen her, the guy is backtracking and it looks like ****. Hes just a guy fishing for publicity.

I guess the theory is that he made that up to hide his embarrassment about the fact that he had a online relationship

[TitanHope]

Originally Posted by Scott Wright

It's not a huge leap to think Te'o is a homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that) or mentally ill rather than just believe he was a naive victim? Occam's Razor...

Kinda odd to accuse those who don't believe Te'o wasn't a victim of making huge leaps, all the while claiming he's the victim of a years long conspiracy to trick him into thinking he was in a relationship with a girl who doesn't even exist, all the while the perpetrators reap little to no reward other than entertainment at Te'o's expense while Te'o himself reaps benefits in publicity.

If we go through Occam's Razor, then one has to believe Te'o is lying. He's the one who benefited most from this fiasco, which means he had the most motivation to create it or continue it. A person's character references doesn't override those key arguments, and in order to defend Te'o, you have to create conspiracy theories all the while knocking Te'o's intellectual capacity, as only a monumental fool would fall for this. Not only that, but it's apparent Te'o certainly embellished about their relationship.

Te'o could be telling the truth, but at this point, it's far more easier to believe he's been caught in a lie rather than is the victim of some deranged joke.

[CashmoneyDrew]

Apparently ESPN has known about this for 10 days?

[SickwithIt1010]

Originally Posted by D-Unit

Tricks like this can cause some people to commit suicide... much less weigh heavily on your mind, drain your energy, affect your game study, practice habits and cause you to play bad.

I'm not even pro Manti. Just pointing out a factual possibility.

Hes not the victim, if he played poorly its because he knew he was going to get caught is all Im saying. This is the section of the article I was talking about.

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."

http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-te...ason-is-a-hoax

[D-Unit]

Originally Posted by Brent

Or, you know, Alabama was just way better than ND.

Not taking everything away from them, but I'm sure there was some degree of a negative effect.

[SickwithIt1010]

Originally Posted by CashmoneyDrew

Apparently ESPN has known about this for 10 days?

ESPN can't do anything to make ND look bad ya know?

[Mufasa]

Originally Posted by Scott Wright

Explain.

So far the story Te'o has told is being backed up by Notre Dame after their own investigation that he started, an NFL player who was also duped, a Stanford player who is now in the NFL, teammates who said Te'o was always talking about his girlfriend and was seen talking to "her" on the phone for hours at a time. I am sure in the next couple of days there will be many more.

To keep the lie going and suspicions about his homosexuality down. The post directly below yours by metafour helps explain pretty well. If the star player on one of the top ranked teams in the nation was never seen with a girlfriend or wasn't out banging sloots after each win, teammates and everyone else would start to wonder what was up. A long distance relationship puts all those questions to rest. He could have easily been talking to his boyfriend all those hours and just substituting feminine pronouns. Plus I doubt his teammates were standing there watching him talk and listening in on his conversation for hours. They probably just saw him on his phone a lot when they passed him.

Only insane people are in a long distance relationship with someone they've never met in person for 3 freakin years. It's not like he was deployed in Iraq or something, you'd think that within three years they'd have been able to meet in person at least once. And again, it is 2013 (was 2010-2012 I suppose), we all have access to the internet and webcams. If it was truly impossible to meet for real, which again is complete ********, any normal person would have wanted to at least see who they're so madly in love with over videochat.

[SickwithIt1010]

Originally Posted by Scott Wright

Reagan Mauia also said he met a "Lennay Kekua"



And why would former Stanford and now Buccaneers DT Matthew Masifilo say this:

Are all the islanders coming to the rescue to try and save this guys image or something?

[SolidGold]

Originally Posted by CashmoneyDrew

Apparently ESPN has known about this for 10 days?

Well they were doing their best to hype him up to win the heisman so they were probably covering their tracks...just goes to show you ESPN has ZERO integrity in reporting and always has an agenda. Just a bunch of asshole talking heads bickering like old maids rather than giving sports highlights and stats.

[TACKLE]

Originally Posted by Scott Wright

So you are prepared to make those huge leaps rather than just believe that a guy we all felt was of impeccable character was merely too naive / trusting and the victim of a hoax?

Kind of a sad statement for society...

The media portrayed him to have "impeccable character" because the way he handled the fake death of his fake girlfriend. What his coach thinks of him and what the media portrays him to be has little to nothing to do with the person he is inside.

The 'sad statement' is that you think Te'o being ***/uncomfortable with his virginity and creating a cover is a huge leap compared to a massive, 3 year long, life-ruining hoax conspiracy. I don't know what actually happened, I'm not claiming I do. None of us know anything for sure but all we can do is try to make the most logical assertion we can off the information we have. But the way you're putting your blinders on to anything that doesn't fit your blatantly biased narrative is causing you to make some cringe-worthy posts.

[D-Unit]

Originally Posted by SickwithIt1010

Hes not the victim, if he played poorly its because he knew he was going to get caught is all Im saying. This is the section of the article I was talking about.



http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-te...ason-is-a-hoax

Being caught would weigh heavily on his mind too. I don't think that game was indicative of the best Manti could've brought to table.

[Scott Wright]

Originally Posted by TitanHope

Kinda odd to accuse those who don't believe Te'o wasn't a victim of making huge leaps, all the while claiming he's the victim of a years long conspiracy to trick him into thinking he was in a relationship with a girl who doesn't even exist, all the while the perpetrators reap little to no reward other than entertainment at Te'o's expense while Te'o himself reaps benefits in publicity.

But there is plenty of reason to believe Te'o. From everything we know about him this would be a major, major divergence for a person who up until now has always been considered to be of impeccable character. Also, we know people go out and make fake online persona's, get into relationships and mislead people. It happens a lot. So much so that they've made movies and television shows about it. We also have many reports backing up his story, from former teammates, former opponents and others who even claim to have met the person pretending to be "Lennay Kekua". Yet to hear a logical motive for why Te'o would risk everything to do this.