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

At this point, I suspect the divide between those who largely believe Te'o and those who do not is quite generational. Young people get how this can happen. Those in their 30s and older instead project their own ideas about love and courtship onto Te'o.

Gail Collins wrote in the Times today that it strains credulity to believe that Te'o wouldn't visit her at the hospital. Because a middle-aged Manhattan elite surely is positioned to evaluate the social habits of a 21-year-old Hawaiin Mormon living in South Bend, Ind.

 

Except we don't know if he's a victim, or a perpetrator, or a combination of the two. He has way too many inconsistencies even in the explanations he's been trying to give.

 

Dick, that's pretty damn close to the "How would you know? You never played the game" argument that legitimate journalists rightfully scoff at.

Regarding this story, should we only put value on the reporting of 20-something male Samoans who play linebacker at Notre Dame?

 

She's from Ohio, and presumably has access to young American people, perhaps even her own children.

 

What inconsistencies?

 

One aspect of this that really bothers me is that Te'o seems to have spent more time talking about the loss of his fake girlfriend than his own grandmother.

I don't get that at all. It's a screwed up value system, duped or not.

 

No. You should evaluate the elements of the story independently of the source. And independently of the source, Te'o's version is far more plausible than the alternative: A year-long plot to spring a Heisman Trophy campaign on an unsuspecting public and media.

 

Perhaps she could have explained where she was coming from before firing off this: "It didn't seem to occur to him that he might have dropped by. Do you think this is a young-man fantasy - a girlfriend so lacking in neediness that you don't even have to visit her in the hospital while she's in a coma followed by leukemia?"

 

Playing Devil's Advocate here: How many of us went to funerals for Ron Drogo and Craig Stanke?

Didn't many here feel a strong bond with each of them?

I think what Te'o is at the very least guilty of romanticizing the relationship after the fact. Maybe he fell for her, and she was never interested in making it more than a friendship (because, you know, she wasn't real), then near the end, the fake Lennay relented and said she had feelings for him (and why not? She was about to be "killed off") and when she died, he convinced himself if she'd only lived, it would have truly blossomed into what he hoped it always would. "The love of his life."

Jesus, when I was 20 I thought I was in love with a girl who was my best friend. We wrote letters back and forth, she thought we were just good friends and I totally wanted it to be something more. Eventually it did blossom into that. But the bulk of our "courtship" was over mail, email and phone for 12 months. Now, we knew each other as high school classmates prior to that, so it wasn't like I was confused she existed. But I can see how a 20-year-old guy would pine for someone he wasn't together with and somewhat pathetically convince himself she was "the love of his life" when she was dead. And I can't imagine how mortified I might have been to have to explain some of the complexities of this to Pete Thamel or some old dude from the South Bend Tribune.

 

Just for fun, lets agree that Te'o conceived and orchestrated this entire hoax.

Even in that case, why would he owe anyone answers?

He's not a public official. He's not denying a FOI request.

He's a dumb college kid. If reporters want to stick a microphone under his nose and transcribe what he says instead of reporting, that's on them.

Unless there's evidence he committed some fraud, some crime, he doesn't owe anybody anything. But, not only is there no evidence of that, there's no evidence he was anything other than a victim of a hoax -- a pretty cruel hoax.

 

Just from last night -- he said a group, including a woman purporting to be Kekua, showed up at the hotel before the BCS title game.

Today? That excerpt is removed from ESPN.com's "interview".

Teo's "proof" is a Twitter message received Tuesday from the guy who is behind all this. The problem? That guy deleted his Twitter more than a week ago (according to Deadspin).

To believe Teo's story, you would have to believe that even though he lied to his parents/coaches/teammates/every reporter he spoke to over the last three years, that he's NOW being completely truthful in everything.

 

Exactly. I think most guys have had a girl like that. (And, while waiting/hoping for it to work out, we may have even dated others.)

Now, imagine that girl died. You might not romanticize the relationship into something more than it was based on the "potential" you saw in it?