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

Oprah is holding out for Te'o himself.

 

Seen this line of reasoning a lot lately under the "why would he start it then?" question. Bears mentioning that he was never a nobody freshman. He was one of the most highly touted recruits of his year, and when he made his recruiting trip, it was covered pretty extensively. (It was the game they lost to Syracuse and the students pelted the players with snowballs. I thought there was no way Te'o was going there after that.)

So he was not one of the most famous athletes in the nation, no, but within his sphere -- which is the only place he ever lived anyway -- he was very well-known and would have had justification to bolster that fame were he so inclined.

 

The issue I can't get past is the phone calls...

 

No way would I be quoting anonymous sources on this.

If Tuiasosopo wants to speak to the media, demand his text message record between himself and Te'o. The guy is a slime.

 

Also, people need to stop focusing on 2009.

The relevant date is the fall of 2011. That's the first recorded contact between them, on Twitter, and it has an introductory character.

The 2009 date is either part of the lie on his part of else when Tuiasosopo convinced him he met her after a game. I think 2009 was mentioned in the South Bend Tribune story, and he also said "four years" to Thamel. But 2011 is the date that matters.

 

Remember Jerry, it's not lie if you believe it.

 

Its starting again, the attack the non-story, Tuiasasopo, rather than the person who is the central figure, Te'o. Tuiasasopo may be slime for "catfishing", but that's not the point here. Tuiasosopo never lied to the media.

This is a huge story because Te'o clearly lied about this story to the national media, at the very minimum from Dec. 6.

 

You're wrong.

Investigating Tuiasosopo's role isn't some back-door way of letting Te'o off the hook. It's a major piece of the puzzle. The extent of Tuiasosopo's role in this brings us closer to knowing Te'o's role.

 

Was Notre Dame complicit, AT ANY TIME, of propagating the lie, allowing it to continue or failing to correct lies it knew or should have known to be false that were uttered or spread by Te'o ?

If so, it's time to expose Notre Dame.

 

No, there is no bigger slimeball than Tuiasosopo in this story. He deserves all the attention he gets and I hope some media outlet is ripping his life apart as we speak.

Te'o's part in it is the most baffling and noteworthy, but Tuiasosopo's is clear -- he is a heartless fuck who enjoys playing with and preying on people.

 

Stewart Mandel:

Feeling pretty confident in my Wednesday call that it was a combo: He was duped; and he was lying to friends/family/media about extent of the online relationship.

Again back to the original story. It was a thorough takedown, piece by piece laid out. Until the end, when it quotes the friend saying he's 80 percent sure Manti was in on it. That's it for the evidence that he was the co-mastermind of this. A made-up percentage. I do wonder what people's reactions would have been if that line hadn't been included or if the guy said he's 80 percent sure Manti wasn't in on it.

 

Yeah, I was just thinking that. He had to have been talking to some woman, unless this Roniah dude did a good fake woman's voice.

Who was the woman?