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

Rick Reilly wants Te'o to provide his phone bill that would show the 4-hour calls.

Seems simple enough to me.

 

How did the player end up doing in The NFL?

 

He's still in the NFL 10 years later. He's been a starter, but most of it has been as a backup. It would be accurate to call his career a disappointment.

PM me and I'll tell you who it was.

 

So many layers to this thing. They'll be peeled back layer by layer over days, weeks. Some interesting takes on this thread. Some posters are making some logical assumptions that are flawed, but there's a lot of good critical thinking going on here.

I had coffee with some friends and shared some of the best insight from the thread, telling them they were the thoughts of some sports journalism friends of mine. "Oh, who?" one of them asked. "Anybody I know?"

It was awkward, because I didn't want them to know I have so many journalism friends online that I've never met in person.

 

Haven't been able to prove it...but a Te'o-esque situation happened at my last paper. Well, at least that's how we all think it happened.
I won't go into detail since we could never prove anything...but almost the whole staff basically believed that this guy's girlfriend was made up. She later "died" and he moved to a new job....but none of it added up.

 

Great story. Huge story. Still not convinced it's an "important" story.

 

Neither is "Idol." Nor "Jersey Shore." Nor a million other things. As you know, that horse left the barn long ago.

 

Sometimes I just don't know what the fuck you're even trying to say.

It's sports. Ninety-nine percent of the stories out there aren't "important" when you get down to it.

 

Had a neighbor who I think faked being married for several years. Never met her, and she was never in his Facebook photos. He said she was from Germany, and his "wife's" profile was public. No photos of my neighbor in any of them.

Earlier this year, he sent me a message on Facebook asking how he's doing. I say good and ask how him and his wife are doing. No reply. He recently deleted references to the "wife".

 

boots just ran to the laptop, and doesn't know why.

 

I disagree with Azrael.

On the surface, yes, it's voyeuristic and not "important."

But it's a very important story in what it brings to the fore: Persistent myth-making by the sports media and media in general. The weirdness, at least from where a lot of us stand, of young people's interrelationships in the Internet age. Flaws in the story-gathering apparatus - I had a drink with a friend last night who compared this to Judith Miller.

 

It's "important" to me because, while we all know there are various inaccuracies and exaggerations in things we read and see on TV, to think that so many media organizations --- very well-respected ones --- could publish (or repeat) so many details about someone who did not exist really shakes my faith in this profession.

Any photo you see could be a photo illustration. Any story you read could be complete BS. It's come to that.

And the fact that it was a high-profile player at America's highest-profile university who was either duped or duping (or both, I guess) makes it even more delicious. Or bitter.