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

And to believe he perpetrated this, you have to believe he hatched his unlikely Heisman campaign a year in advance via a slowly unfurled back story, then launched it on the public after a victory over Navy and a near loss to Purdue.

I live in Indiana. I remember that week. The paper had an item in its notes package about the double tragedy in his life. As Notre Dame kept winning, the narrative picks up steam.

 

Also: He "lied to ... every reporter he spoke to for the last three years"?

Cite for that?

 

I can see it too. I can also see how a savy 20-year-old guy would use a situation like this to his advantage to try to further his Heisman/Draft stock in any way possible. Or maybe it wasn't to help his career, maybe he's just flat out delusional or has some sort of split personality disorder?

How soon we seem to have forgotten the wacky story a couple of years ago about the high school kid who cooked up this big recruiting saga about how a bunch of D-1 schools were after him to play football? He even got the entire school together, with cameras from local TV, for his big selection day. He had the hats lined up and chose Cal. Except...oh wait, he was actually not a very good football player and had nobody recruiting him. He made the entire thing up for shits and giggles. (Google: "football recruit kevin hart).

That was a 17/18-year-old kid that pulled the wool over everyone's eyes. So why is it simply unfathomable to believe an about-to-graduate-from-college Manti Te'o could concoct something similar?

 

Diabolically hatched a year in advance, in the off chance his grandmother died in season.

Timed for release after a near-loss to a shitty Purdue team.

 

Te'o said last night he "tailored" the story for the press. That's saying he lied without saying "I lied."

Even if the relationship was real and he was truly duped, he still exaggerated and over-dramatized the relationship with Lennay in his many, many media pieces on the topic.

 

Both are really inconsequential and don't answer the question: "If a high school kid was smart enough to fool everyone, why isn't Manti Te'o?"

 

"He lied to ... every reporter he spoke to for the last three years."

Cite please?

 

Of course he's capable, generally.

But your specific theory requires the potential facts I just articulated.

 

It's not a black or white situation. Just because I believe he wasn't duped doesn't mean I believe he diabolically hatched this plan in his parents basement years ago.

I think it's entirely possible he fell for this at first, caught on but decided to keep it going when he saw the attention it was getting him. OR he truly was fooled all along, but played up the details of the relationship to the media to make it sound far more dramatic and emotional than it actually was.

 

What does being "smart enough" have to do with anything? That's not a motivator.

 

Me, too.

 

It's worth noting when the "oh come on, he's just an innocent Mormon college kid" narrative comes into play.