Deadspin is saying Te'o's girlfriend's death was a hoax created for publicity

Alasippi

Suspended
Aug 31, 2007
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Ocean Springs, MS
I haven't followed this story on purpose because, when it broke, I was in total disbelief and quite bewildered to tell you the truth.
I'm personally growing very weary of the never ending scandals in sports. It's a downright shame.
I'm going to sit back and wait for the final results before I even comment because the back and forth speculation is going to be rampant for quite some time and right now I don't think anybody has a clue as to what the total facts are.
I'll just say this. With the picture that has been painted of Manti Teo over the past season it would be an extreme disappointment to me if it's eventually proven that he willfully participated in such a scam.
It would be like Tim Tebow declaring that he's really an atheist.
I honestly hope that in this case, that Teo was indeed a victim and not an instigator.
We'll just have to wait and find out and that's what I'm gonna do.
sip
 

B1GTide

TideFans Legend
Apr 13, 2012
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I read about this this morning and thought it was creepy. Then one of my co-workers told me his Brokeback Mountain theory and it really got creepy.
His teammates say that he has dated several girls (real girls) while at Notre Dame. This is part of the reason that they didn't believe "Lennay" was his girlfriend - he had other girls around. Of course it is really hard to believe anything that you read about this right now.
 

TideFan in AU

Hall of Fame
I haven't followed this story on purpose because, when it broke, I was in total disbelief and quite bewildered to tell you the truth.
I'm personally growing very weary of the never ending scandals in sports. It's a downright shame.
I'm going to sit back and wait for the final results before I even comment because the back and forth speculation is going to be rampant for quite some time and right now I don't think anybody has a clue as to what the total facts are.
I'll just say this. With the picture that has been painted of Manti Teo over the past season it would be an extreme disappointment to me if it's eventually proven that he willfully participated in such a scam.
It would be like Tim Tebow declaring that he's really an atheist.
I honestly hope that in this case, that Teo was indeed a victim and not an instigator.
We'll just have to wait and find out and that's what I'm gonna do.
sip
I actually truly feel the same way. I really want to believe he wasn't behind this, but I believe he really was. We'll see...
 

B1GTide

TideFans Legend
Apr 13, 2012
45,500
46,843
187
I haven't followed this story on purpose because, when it broke, I was in total disbelief and quite bewildered to tell you the truth.
I'm personally growing very weary of the never ending scandals in sports. It's a downright shame.
I'm going to sit back and wait for the final results before I even comment because the back and forth speculation is going to be rampant for quite some time and right now I don't think anybody has a clue as to what the total facts are.
I'll just say this. With the picture that has been painted of Manti Teo over the past season it would be an extreme disappointment to me if it's eventually proven that he willfully participated in such a scam.
It would be like Tim Tebow declaring that he's really an atheist.
I honestly hope that in this case, that Teo was indeed a victim and not an instigator.
We'll just have to wait and find out and that's what I'm gonna do.
sip
Even if he started as a victim, at some point he decided to invest himself in this world that he knew didn't really exist. I have no idea why he did, but he did. Had he chosen to never exaggerate his relationship with this girl, we would all agree that he was duped and he would have our sympathy.

He embraced the lies when it suited him - he made the lies a part of HIS story. That part is all on him.
 
Even if he started as a victim, at some point he decided to invest himself in this world that he knew didn't really exist. I have no idea why he did, but he did. Had he chosen to never exaggerate his relationship with this girl, we would all agree that he was duped and he would have our sympathy.

He embraced the lies when it suited him - he made the lies a part of HIS story. That part is all on him.
He has some culpability. Stewart Mandel had this comment:

Truth is likely in the middle. He thought it was real, but once story blew up, he kept embellishing it, b/c the truth was too embarrassing.
 

BamaFossil

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Jun 3, 2008
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About an hour ago I was watching ESPN talking heads offering up the pablum that perhaps Teo's poor showing in the NC game was brought about by distractions associated with the hoax.

After a week or so, those same talking heads will be claiming the NC score should have an asterisk by it because "everyone knows" ND wouldn't have lost by such a wide margin if their star defender hadn't been "victimized" by a malicious hoax... :rolleyes:
 

TideFan in AU

Hall of Fame
Yep, love Fringe but, I'm a new fan. I just started watching the show about a month ago thanks to Amazon Prime streaming. I'm a few episodes into season 4 right now and, I have been DVRing season 5 but haven't watch them yet obviously.
I won't spoil it for you, but this finale season has been crazy! I caught the pilot back in '08, and I have been hooked since. It is the only series of any show that I've never missed watching an episode. The trailer finale looks like its going to be awesome!


Ok - back on topic!!! ;)
 

Alasippi

Suspended
Aug 31, 2007
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Ocean Springs, MS
Even if he started as a victim, at some point he decided to invest himself in this world that he knew didn't really exist. I have no idea why he did, but he did. Had he chosen to never exaggerate his relationship with this girl, we would all agree that he was duped and he would have our sympathy.

He embraced the lies when it suited him - he made the lies a part of HIS story. That part is all on him.
If it turns out that you're correct then I will agree ten fold. I also know that if he got totally duped that it probably paralyzed him with fear of what would happen to his reputation if the truth came out and therefore he made some mistakes in judgement. Unless it's proven that he was the instigator of this entire thing then he was in a really difficult situation. That's why I said that I'm waiting to see what really happened before really offering an opinion.
 

Boo Radley

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Dec 13, 2003
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WSBT-TV, a South Bend (Mishawaka) CBS affiliate, had an interview with Te'o two days after he allegedly discovered that he was punked, and yet he still referred to losing his girlfriend to cancer.

Te'o was contacted by an alleged perpetrator of the hoax on Dec. 6, while in Florida for the ESPN College Football Awards show, and that a female caller whom Te'o recognized as that of the person he believed to be Kekua told him that she was "still alive."

However, in a Dec. 8 interview with a group of reporters (including WSBT's David McCoy) before the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York City -- two days, Swarbrick said, after Te'o received that phone call -- Te'o was asked a question about his community service work. He responded, in part, with the following quote:

"I don't like cancer at all. I lost both my grandparents and my girlfriend to cancer."
http://www.wsbt.com/sports/wsbt-20130116,0,3448711.story
 

Jon

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Feb 22, 2002
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How is it that Manti's tweets are on this account?
apparently there is a glitch within twitter if you take over an old account and re-tweet old posts they show the original tweet date looking as if they have been there all along. Read this somewhere today, I forget where
 

B1GTide

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Apr 13, 2012
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If it turns out that you're correct then I will agree ten fold. I also know that if he got totally duped that it probably paralyzed him with fear of what would happen to his reputation if the truth came out and therefore he made some mistakes in judgement. Unless it's proven that he was the instigator of this entire thing then he was in a really difficult situation. That's why I said that I'm waiting to see what really happened before really offering an opinion.
Just asking, not assuming, but it sounds like you are ready to give him a pass if he was duped at the beginning and never knew "Lennay" to be ficticious until early December. You realize that even if this is true, he led America to believe that he had met this girl (minimum), right? That is not possible, as she does not exist. He lied - there is no getting around that. And he continued to lie as more questions were asked.

I won't crucify him for lying, but I won't give him a "victim" pass either.
 

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