Say It Ain't So, Te'o

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

The only other explanation I can think of is that he's gay and this was a cover for it. Still feels like there are much better ways to hide that if you don't want it coming out.

South Bend Tribune has started to delete articles about it. Will be interesting to see how many other news publications try to whitewash this.

Somehow, some way I am completely ignorant about this story. I mean I was thinking " What the hell is ESPN talking about a girlfriend not existing?" Upon reading up on the story, I then that this was just his way of being in the closet. Now? I'm sorry but I really don't believe he was this naive.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by chadritt

It will significantly change his interviews though and THAT could affect things. It will be interesting but I dont think he winds up falling too far.

Here is some friendly advice from this random internet guy.

Don't stay for the interview if Jeff Ireland is asking the questions.

[Flasch186]

Should this thread be merged with the online dating thread?

Edit: will I lose posts?

[Bisbo]

Here's something I can't reconcile with Manti's version: if the love of your life is in a hospital with serious injuries, don't you call the frickin' hospital, and get a "there's no patient here by that name" response?

[RainMaker]

I really hope no one believes that he is that naive.

[Julio Riddols]

Te'o, Te'o
dated girl and she never was real
Te, me say Te, me say Te, me say Te
Me say Te, me say Te'o
dated girl and she never was real

Played all year feeling cumbersome
(dated girl and she never was real)
Act bananas now the hoax is done
(dated girl and she never was real)

Come, now the media calling me bananas
(dated girl, but she never was real)
Come, now the media calling me bananas
(dated girl, but she never was real)

Cancer? gullible, naive, dumb!
(dated girl, but she never was real)
Cancer? gullible, naive, dumb!
(dated girl, but she never was real)

Te, me say Te'o
(dated girl, but she never was real)
Te, me say Te, me say Te me say Te
me say Te, me say Te me say Te
(dated girl, but she never was real)

[Ben E Lou]

This "scandal" might be the best thing to happen to the internet ever.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Next year in the NFL, the go to move after a TD will be posing with your arm around an imaginary girlfriend.

Te'o-ing replaces Tebowing.

[Bad-example]

First question in all 32 team combine interviews: T'e'o, tell us about Lennay...

[Suburban Rhythm]

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

This "scandal" might be the best thing to happen to the internet ever.

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

Exhibit "A"

[Logan]

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Logan

Pure, unadulterated, 24-Carat GOLD

[cartman]

[rjolley]

[Oilers9911]

Nosuch Dame.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Pure, unadulterated, 24-Carat GOLD

+1

[digamma]

And to think a fake girlfriend only cost Ronald Miller a thousand bucks.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by digamma

And to think a fake girlfriend only cost Ronald Miller a thousand bucks.

[DougW]

edit .. nevermind, already submitted.

[JPhillips]

Let me get this straight. According to Te'o his girlfriend was dying of cancer and he never once called or visited.

So he's the worlds biggest asshole, not a liar.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Let me get this straight. According to Te'o his girlfriend was dying of cancer and he never once called or visited.

So he's the worlds biggest asshole, not a liar.

I think he called her. If he was a victim of a hoax (which I don't think is true), then she could have given him her cellphone and told him to call her on that when she was at the hospital.

Whenver he would press to go see her, she would say "Don't come. Football is more important. Stay there, play. That's how you honor me, blah blah blah..."

If he was a victim, the only way to prove it, in my eyes, is to have whoever "played" his girlfriend, the woman on the phone, would really have to come forward and fess up to all of this and offer some proof - emails or something - that she was in cahoots with whoever else was involved in the hoax.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Let me get this straight. According to Te'o his girlfriend was dying of cancer and he never once called or visited.

So he's the worlds biggest asshole, not a liar.

Except for the times where he said he had met her.

Never video chatted with her either according to his latest claims either it would seem.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Except for the times where he said he had met her.

Never video chatted with her either according to his latest claims either it would seem.

Again, I totally feel like he's in on this all the way, but, if it was a hoax, I could understand him making up a story about how they met in real life or what not to avoid the stigma of having an on-line "girlfriend" who he never met in the flesh. So, he tells some people, his father apparently, and his father (or some other people) are the ones who tell the press about their "meeting".

At that point, Manti knows its not true, but it becomes embarassing to try to correct it once it's made public.

Do we know if he ever publically said that he had actually met her face-to-face?

[DougW]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Do we know if he ever publically said that he had actually met her face-to-face?

I think this is as close as we know of any public comment of having met her face to face. :

"I lost two, you know, women that I truly love," Te'o said after the game. "But I had my family around me, I had my football family around me, I had my girlfriend's football family around me. And at the end of the day families are forever. I'm going to see them again and it's going to be a very happy day when I do."

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Again, I totally feel like he's in on this all the way, but, if it was a hoax, I could understand him making up a story about how they met in real life or what not to avoid the stigma of having an on-line "girlfriend" who he never met in the flesh. So, he tells some people, his father apparently, and his father (or some other people) are the ones who tell the press about their "meeting".

At that point, Manti knows its not true, but it becomes embarassing to try to correct it once it's made public.

Do we know if he ever publically said that he had actually met her face-to-face?

Someone getting a hold of his cell phone records would go a long way towards proving things one way or another.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Again, I totally feel like he's in on this all the way, but, if it was a hoax, I could understand him making up a story about how they met in real life or what not to avoid the stigma of having an on-line "girlfriend" who he never met in the flesh. So, he tells some people, his father apparently, and his father (or some other people) are the ones who tell the press about their "meeting".

At that point, Manti knows its not true, but it becomes embarassing to try to correct it once it's made public.

That's a fair point. My wife's cousin met her husband through a legit online dating sight. They both told their parents that they met through mutual friends. They've been married ~10 years and to this day have been too embarrassed to tell the truth.

FWIW, I'm on the fence. Neither story (he was a part of the hoax vs. he was duped) makes any sense whatsoever. Either way, he comes off as incredibly stupid and naive.

[Fonzie]

Regardless of the truth behind this story, the mind boggles when trying to envision how this guy, as a rookie, is going to navigate an NFL locker room.

Boggles.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by DougW

I think this is as close as we know of any public comment of having met her face to face. :

"I lost two, you know, women that I truly love," Te'o said after the game. "But I had my family around me, I had my football family around me, I had my girlfriend's football family around me. And at the end of the day families are forever. I'm going to see them again and it's going to be a very happy day when I do."

I believe there are quotes out there from him of how he met her after the Stanford game in 2009.

I was originally believing he was involved in the "hoax" aspect, but seeing the tweets between others made me think he really could have been duped. At the very least though, he clearly lied to keep the story going or at least in order to make it seem real, so he has that at a minimum in terms of culpability. The most glaring of which is that he got a call from the "dead girl" on 12/6 but then told a Chicago Tribune reporter on 12/8 that he hates cancer because it took his grandmother and girlfriend.

It's also possible that the people involved could have purposely started sending those tweets out in order to create a cover for him, for when it eventually got exposed.

[Logan]

I owe an apology to cartman who posted the Usual Suspects gif last night, but I had missed it.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

That's a fair point. My wife's cousin met her husband through a legit online dating sight. They both told their parents that they met through mutual friends. They've been married ~10 years and to this day have been too embarrassed to tell the truth.

I did the same thing back in the day. It was in 2001, so it was really before meeting people on-line was as common and accepted as it is today. I was on Match.com for a while, met a girl who I dated for a few months and told everyone I met her through a mutual friend.

[Wasabiak]

Give this a listen if you have not already. Interview with Jim Rome (not certain on the date, but a Jim Rome tweet about it was dated Oct. 17):

hxxp://theoriginalwinger.com/2012-10-17-listen-to-this-manti-teos-interview-on-the-jim-rome-radio-show-mteo_5-via-jimrome

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I did the same thing back in the day. It was in 2001, so it was really before meeting people on-line was as common and accepted as it is today. I was on Match.com for a while, met a girl who I dated for a few months and told everyone I met her through a mutual friend.

Yeah, this would have been about that same time, and I think it was Match.com. ZOMFG ARE YOU MARRIED TO MY WIFE'S COUSIN??????

[Logan]

So first word came out that ESPN/Jeremy Schaap had a one on one with Te'o set for tonight, but according to Twitter, it's been "scrapped".

[Chief Rum]

Best Tweet I heard about regarding this, from another site:

"Manti didn't do a bad job tackling in the national championship game, he was just hugging his GF."

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Yeah, this would have been about that same time, and I think it was Match.com. ZOMFG ARE YOU MARRIED TO MY WIFE'S COUSIN??????

CUZ!!!

[Passacaglia]

So this part of the article in the OP sounds to me like he was duped:

That photo hadn't appeared on the internet—at least, not to Reba's knowledge. She had taken it in December 2012 and sent it directly to an old high school acquaintance. The two hadn't talked since graduation, but the classmate, whom Reba remembered fondly, contacted her on Facebook with a somewhat convoluted request: His cousin had been in a serious car accident, and he had seen her photos before and thought she was pretty. Would she be so kind as to take a picture of herself holding up a sign reading "MSMK," to put in a slideshow to support the cousin's recovery? (He didn't explain what MSMK meant, and Reba still doesn't know.) Baffled but trusting, Reba made the sign and sent along the photo.

[bhlloy]

Isn't dec 2012 well after all this went down though? I'm not saying Manti wasnt duped as I think thats the most likely scenario but I'm not sure this really means all that much.

The one thing I don't understand is if people have met this chick, and there are photos of her all over the place, and the real life person has nothing at all to so with it - well that doesn't add up. Somebody is blatently lying somewhere.

[Passacaglia]

This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her. To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating. It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother's death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life. I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been. In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was. Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I'm looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft.

Sure, that doesn't make you sound slimy..

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by NorvTurnerOverdrive

leukemia is bone cancer. i should know my canadian girlfriend had it. sadly she was eaten by a shark on the way to her transplant. #missyou

I still think this wins the thread.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Logan

I owe an apology to cartman who posted the Usual Suspects gif last night, but I had missed it.

No apology necessary - all LSUFreek gif's are worth posting more than once.

[spleen1015]

What does MSMK stand for?

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I still think this wins the thread.

agreed. the hashtag is a beautiful end piece

[Easy Mac]

I'm not sure why, but this pic has made me laugh more than any of the other Te'o related jpegs or gifs. I think its the look on the dog's face.

[molson]

That dog's face has charmed millions in many different contexts.

[Easy Mac]

I think its because the dog looks like a deranged Bostonian ship captain.

[Scoobz0202]

there has to be some way for this to count in the Fullmer Cup

[molson]

And the angle kind of makes him look like a muppet, in that you can't see any dog features other than the face.

And, the dog is super-fired up and excited, just because someone put something by his ear, even though he doesn't have any comprehension of what the thing is. All he knows is that SOMETHING is happening, and a person is involved, so he's super fired up. That's very dog-like. Dogs rule.

[mckerney]

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by mckerney

The best thing