Deadspin: Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend story was a hoax

This means nothing. ESPN could have had everything Deadspin had and decided they didn't have enough to publish yet. Deadspin's story kicks ass, but as has been pointed out, the absence of response from Te'o or any verdict on whether he knew would be enough to keep other outlets from publishing. ESPN may have required a higher burden of proof. Next.

 

Wojciechowski also said on ESPN radio that he looked for her obit on Google but couldn't find it. He thought it was odd but shrugged it off.

That was when he could get in a word with Linda Cohn saying over and over "Manti Te'o is a LEADER of MEN."

 

So, once again, ESPN, a division/affiliate of ABC/Disney, goes head over heels to run interference for Notre Dame, the flagship team of NBC??

What the fucking fuck?

 

Reading the Deadspin takedown, date by date, it defies logic that Teo had no clue. He was feeding "facts" to the media; as was his family. Hoax presumes you were unaware.

 

And I thought Lance Armstrong was having a bad week.

 

I still don't understand - wasn't he talking specifically about how he had met her at specific places? And what's more - Notre Dame knew about this Dec. 26, and didn't correct the public record right away, and - by all accounts - wouldn't have, had the media not come out with it?

This whole story is mind bottling.

 

I can also buy the fact he was duped.

Did he ever talk about the meeting at Stanford before she died? Okay, "died."

I can see him meeting a girl online. They never actually meet. His grandmother dies, the perpetrator sees it as a great time to...whatever, fuck with him, see how far he can push it, etc. Girl dies. Media finds out girl dies through Notre Dame or whoever. "So, how'd you guys meet?"

"Um, we never actually did. It was online only."

He's embarrassed to say that. So makes up a bullshit story about the Stanford game and about how they actually met. Maybe the last few years told his family he met up with her in Hawaii. Same reason: Embarrassment.

To me, him being duped is more plausible than him participating in the thing from the outset, because, again, to what end? A Heisman campaign for a team people thought was going to win 5 games?

Personal experience, though: I met a girl online, spoke on the phone with her, went to meet her and when asked by family who the girl was, I did not say, "Oh, some girl I met on a website I won't reveal but we've never actually met." I said we'd met online but then bumped into each other in the city. I went to meet the girl and she had literally fled the country. Which her friend, flesh and blood, friend told me. Did I feel dumb? Yeah. Would I have continued to tell the story of our meeting if I was early 20s and was asked by media about it? Hell, probably.

But who the hell knows what happened here. I'd believe anything at this point.

ESPN: Aren't we always outraged when people publish before knowing all the info? Yet at the same time publications are the bad guys when they get beat. they must be covering something up. It can't be that they actually didn't feel like they had all the facts and wanted to wait.

 

Seth Meyers wins the day on Twitter:

"These Te'o jokes are all very funny but let's try and remember that a person who never existed is dead."

https://twitter.com/sethmeyers21/status/291688309015580672

 

To the NFL, is this worse than smoking some weed? Um, do you still need to look at the Wonderlic score?

 

Why does every story need to be questioned on its "importance" on this site? This is one of the craziest stories I've read in a long time, and it damn sure is important to Manti Te'o and his future.

 

Those are both from the South Bend Tribune in October. So, unless the Trib entirely made up the story about how they met and Te'o's dad is lying about them having spent time together in Hawaii, there's no way Te'o's statement holds up.

 

I'm willing to believe just about anything at this point. Just pointing out that he may have lied to those close to him about "how they met" while still believing he was "in a relationship" with her.

And, he may have had doubts too. Hell the Catfish movie and TV show alone would be enough to both make you doubt the relationship and want to lie about it to your friends/family just so they didn't think you were an idiot.