Say It Ain't So, Te'o

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by mckerney

This is truly awesome

[mauchow]

Lmao

[molson]

Announcement forthcoming from unverified dead girlfriend on twitter:

L K (LennayKay) on Twitter

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by molson

Announcement forthcoming from unverified dead girlfriend on twitter:

L K (LennayKay) on Twitter

I just spat my soda all over my keyboard. Thanks Molson

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

I do wonder, now, if Rudy Ruettiger was really a 45-year-old former marine who played a little semi-pro ball and was sad about missing out on a college experience.

There is no such thing as an ex-Marine.

[Passacaglia]

Yeah. Pharoah kills them when they're done.

[JonInMiddleGA]

That @LennayKay account isn't what you think it is - SBNation.com

[bhlloy]

Considering the latest tweet I think that's pretty apparent

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Considering the latest tweet I think that's pretty apparent

Yeah, I tried to copy & paste that latest one, but that didn't work so well. Actually though, my first thought was that whomever pulled the prank was now snarking at Te'o.

For those who haven't seen the Tweet he's referring it,it's something to the effect that Alabama has learned that Te'o doesn't really exist.

[molson]

Maybe none of us really exist. This is just the beginning of our collective awareness of that.

[bhlloy]

I'm pretty stunned that given the publicity around this story twitter didn't shut that account down or at least moderate what was posted from it. I guess no publicity is bad publicity for them

[cmp]

That twitter account wasn't even created until yesterday. Has nothing to do with the original account.

[DanGarion]

Funny regardless of it being the real account or not.

[Racer]

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.

I too am wondering if he's gay.

Let's say he's a pathological liar and heterosexual and was part of this hoax the entire time.

Why would he make up something like this? He was the MAN at Notre Dame. Women love guys who are famous and are or will be rich. Why would he make himself unavailable to all that hot woman that would want to date him at Notre Dame and St. Mary's? I mean he could have been picking up women on the side but so far nothing like that has come out (though I wouldn't really expect it to yet).

It seems more likely that his parents are homophobic and put tremendous pressure on him to date. Combined with the fact that the Catholic church is relatively homophobic he and a friend may have decided to make up the story that he had a girlfriend to get his parents off his back and hide that he was gay. Then maybe it snowballed from there.

If you're a pathological liar, I think you find something else to lie about to make your story more inspirational.

Of course all of this is total speculation on my part.

I think the other two possibilities are that

1.) He actually is a pathological liar and for some reason decided to lie about this.

or

2). He caught on to the rouse a while back (long before December 6th) but was embarrassed to tell people he had a fake girlfriend and just went along with it and added to the rouse.


I just don't see anyway he didn't realize she was fake until December 6th. If you're Monti Te'o you don't put up with the "games" of her not showing up to these supposed planned meetings when you've never even actually met her when you can easily land some other hottie with a good personality.

[DougW]

[DanGarion]

[DougW]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

.....

Awesome !

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Racer

I too am wondering if he's gay.

Combined with the fact that the Catholic church is relatively homophobic he and a friend may have decided to make up the story that he had a girlfriend to get his parents off his back and hide that he was gay. Then maybe it snowballed from there.

Doesn't really matter since he is Mormom, but then again the LDS church is probably even more homophobic.

[Danny]

Being gay and using this as a cover actually makes the most sense to me, not that any of the scenarios make a ton of sense.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by Racer

It seems more likely that his parents are homophobic and put tremendous pressure on him to date. Combined with the fact that the Catholic church is relatively homophobic he and a friend may have decided to make up the story that he had a girlfriend to get his parents off his back and hide that he was gay. Then maybe it snowballed from there.

I see what you did there...

[Chief Rum]

The thing that gets me isn't that he would have a fake GF, but that at some point, he or the hoax perpetrators (if not him, although I really doubt that) decided to have her "die". What was the point of that? Not like he wouldn't have had enough sympathy with his grandma dying.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Doesn't really matter since he is Mormom, but then again the LDS church is probably even more homophobic.

Probably?... you are being sarcastic right? This is the same church that nearly singlehandedly supported California Prop 8 a couple years back.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Probably?... you are being sarcastic right? This is the same church that nearly singlehandedly supported California Prop 8 a couple years back.

Yes very sarcastic

I should have added to the orignal post that I definitely do not think he is gay either. I can see how that would enter peoples minds, but I think he was truly guilty of being too trusting initially.

How things unfolded after September remain to be seen, but I am willing to give him the benefit of a doubt for now.

[RainMaker]

Lot of people from the school I guess are saying that he had girlfriends and such so he's probably not gay.

[Danny]

Yeah, but he only took them back to his place to gossip about his teammates wieners

[gstelmack]

CNN's latest has interviews where Te'o discussed the girlfriend AFTER he and Notre Dame claim he learned it was a hoax. They are saying Dec 6, but he discussed the story in interviews on 12/8 and 12/11.

Te'o discussed girlfriend after knowing it was hoax - College Football - SI.com

[korme]

They are saying Dec 26

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by korme

They are saying Dec 26

No, that's when he notified the school; i.e. three weeks after he found out himself.

Notre Dame said Te'o found out that Kekua was not a real person through a phone call he received at an awards ceremony in Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 6. He told Notre Dame coaches about the situation on Dec. 26.

Here's another article that uses the same two dates (just to avoid thoughts of an SI typo)
http://www.csnchicago.com/ncaa/notre...061&feedID=630

[Desnudo]

I'm 80% convinced he's a psychopathic homosexual responsible for a number of truck stop slayings across the country.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Well this bit looks kinda bad for ND

Dan Tudesco, a 2006 graduate who now works in public relations in New York, set up an online account at fundraising website indiegogo.com on Jan. 9 to solicit $5,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Inc. The initial pitch said donations would go to the society in memory of Lennay Kekua and in honor of Te'o, "two individuals who have been an inspiration to us through an iconic season."

Tudesco said he and three friends got the fundraising idea after seeing a video that went viral of Te'o holding his head in dismay during the Irish's 42-14 loss to Alabama in the national championship game.

The goal was to turn the loss -- and the player's sudden popularity -- into something positive.

"I think we were all kind of disappointed in the result of the game ... and the Manti story was very inspirational," Tudesco told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Notre Dame took notice of Tudesco's tweets about the fund drive and sent a university videographer to shoot an interview with him. The video was posted on the Notre Dame athletics YouTube channel Tuesday.

Tudesco said he didn't believe Notre Dame was aware of the hoax when it promoted his fundraiser.

"It would surprise me that Notre Dame would want to promote this if they knew something like this was going on," Tudesco said.

However, Notre Dame officials said Wednesday that they became aware of the hoax on Dec. 26, nearly two weeks before the championship game. University spokesman Dennis Brown didn't immediately respond to a request seeking comment Thursday.

[Ben E Lou]

Yeah, that looks very bad.

[mckerney]

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Yeah, that looks very bad.

" We, uh, kept the information on Te'o to a select few within the athletic department out of respect of Manti's privacy...and the people responsible for sending the camera crew had not been informed when they made the decision..."

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Lot of people from the school I guess are saying that he had girlfriends and such so he's probably not gay.

I certainly hope he wasn't cheating on his dead fake girlfriend.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by mckerney

1:30 in the video... WTF WTF WTF

[Solecismic]

At this point, I'm fairly convinced that Te'o was in on this from the start, and when it became apparent too many people knew, he went to the school and he and Swarbrick had a meeting to discuss potential ass-covering. At best, Swarbrick felt there was a chance the story wouldn't become public, so he didn't put a stop to the charity video thing.

However, there are so many contradictions that I think Swarbrick has to go now, simply because he appears to be dumber than Te'o. It was a lame and clumsy cover-up effort and continuing this course is going to hurt the school's reputation.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Radii

1:30 in the video... WTF WTF WTF

Well at this point would you really be surprised if Te'o was taking part in butt chugging with leprechauns?

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

At this point, I'm fairly convinced that Te'o was in on this from the start, and when it became apparent too many people knew

Too many people knew...what?

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Logan

Too many people knew...what?

Deadspin's story wasn't written in five minutes. They had to be asking people questions, leaving messages. The story indicates the Tuiososopo guy was probably bragging to people. Sounds like a lot of people knew the girlfriend death story wasn't real.

[LloydLungs]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

However, there are so many contradictions that I think Swarbrick has to go now, simply because he appears to be dumber than Te'o.

I'm tending to agree with your overall take but it seems to me Swarbrick's not going to have to do anything drastic like that. I'm getting the sense most people are content to tentatively buy into the "Te'o as innocent victim" story, and really I don't have much faith in the media to figure it out, even an embarrassed media looking to redeem itself.

[Logan]

It was written in a week, according to Burke.

[molson]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Well this bit looks kinda bad for ND

Haha, I just want this story to keep going forever and to take down a bunch of people.

Though realistically speaking, I can buy that whoever is sending out videographers for fluff pieces isn't part of the small circle with knowledge of the "hoax". It's a big organization. Though, it's funny they're all scrambling around now trying to decide how to respond.

[JonInMiddleGA]

The 15 Best Manti Te’o Memes: Volume II - Gamedayr : Gamedayr

[tucking fypo]

[Matthean]

Create a Fake Girlfriend on Facebook for Just $39.99

[MizzouRah]

Yeah baby

[Flasch186]

You know. Maybe someone ought to invent something that connects to the internet and you can like see and talk to someone live and see their actual lips move and all....

hang on, gotta answer this facetime call.

[Flasch186]

Then I thought.... I wonder what Brent Musburger thinks of her?

[RainMaker]

Worth mentioning that Notre Dame put together an emotional press conference and spent money on a private investigator over something as dumb as an imaginary girlfriend. They did not do this when a 19 year old student reported that she had been sexually assaulted by a football player, been intimidated via text not to come forward, and then killed herself.

This is where the priorities of Notre Dame football is. That's why Jon's post about the charity and videographer is not surprising in the least.

[fpres]

This will make a great 30 for 30 film a couple of years from now.