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

Holy shit, that's awesome.

 

No politics please

 

All right. Read the press conference transcript. I'm even more strongly in Team Duped's camp. I know we have the irony police, not sure if there's an Occam's Razor police. But to me, again, it seems more plausible that someone -- even someone famous -- was the victim of an online hoax, which has happened to many, many people, than the idea that the same person was the ringleader of a multiyear hoax that was designed to...what? Earn him publicity for a senior-year Heisman campaign no one saw coming? Convince people who didn't even wonder about it that he's not gay?

 

Duped or not, he has a lot of lies to explain.

 

Agreed. Not that this will happen, but his best bet to get people to believe him would be to talk to Deadspin and go through piece by piece his side.

 

Some reporter posted a link to a transcript on Twitter earlier where he asked Te'o a question in a presser on maybe Jan. 3 about the gf, and Te'o responded.

Perhaps Te'o and the Tuiasasopo person weren't just involved in creating the fake girlfriend, but were also ... involved?

 

Yes. To the same extent they protected Declan and Lizzy.

Oh, wait.

 

A.J McCarron had much better luck meeting his GF on Twitter

 

This is a popular theory and has been floated here. That is the way I'm leaning at this point. Not sure what the girl's death helps though. Lots of questions.

 

To whom?

People lie to make themselves look better. He had an on-line relationship. It was bigger than that in his mind, so he described a relationship that was more full than it really was. He described the relationship he wanted.

And, he didn't hurt anyone. He was duped by someone.

I swear, people are demanding more honesty and contrition out of Te'o than they did out of Bill Clinton.

Who does he owe it to?

 

Maybe he was just waiting to win the Heisman so he could announce his sexual orientation at the awards ceremony for the sole purpose of pissing off Drip.

 

Nice to see the South Bend Tribune removing stories on its website