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

What makes you think they care who is behind it?

But I think that Reba they interviewed whose photo was used was in on it. Hasn't she lawyered up?

 

"A South Bend Tribune report described Te'o and Kekua touching hands during an in-person meeting in 2009 at Stanford, but Te'o said that never happened and he didn't know Kekua until 2010." If you believe Te'o, that reporter fabricated parts of a story. Has anybody interviewed that reporter to find out why they would make things up in a story? Why such a seemingly innocuous little detail, at the time it was written, would be the focus of a journalistic fabrication?

 

That's fine. Somebody said she was in on it because she hired a lawyer. I offered another explanation. This chick doesn't really interest me unless she was involved.

 

Not fully sure I believe him. And all these sources unraveling the mystery are all cousins or in-laws or an unidentified woman who's met the shyster. Where is the guy who masterminded it? If he's sorry and admitting the whole thing to save Te'o why hasn't he surfaced publicly?

And the interview was done off camera, on a Friday night when everyone knows is when you dump stuff you don't want the public paying attention to. And he has handlers out the wazoo. Plus, the way ESPN will get in bed with athletes to get "the story" taints the interview to me, too.

 

Maybe the South Bend paper hired away "Esquire's" editors from the NIU piece so many here loved.

 

Bradenton was used.

 

What do you think happened? What did he say that strikes you as suspicious?

 

Given the "feeding frenzy" this is supposed to be, you don't wait for the February sweeps, do you? Seems like you grab it at the earliest possible moment.

If they didn't want the public paying attention to it, why did it dominate the scroll at the bottom of the screen?

Sometimes we overthink things a little too much.

 

The thing I've been wondering this whole time is:

Did Manti send this "girl" any money?

And if so, where did this money come from?

From all the other stories involving this guy behind the fake girl, everything seems like a scam that leads to one thing: asking for money.

"Te'o, your girl's been in a car crash. Gee, the family sure could use a few extra bucks for the medical bills."

"Te'o! She's got luekemia! You know how hard up we are for money, right?"

Someone who talked to TMZ said she met the scammer's little sister or cousin, and weeks later this little girl suddenly has a disease. What's usually the next step in these things? "Hey, let's have a fundraiser!"

Plus, the dude may have targeted another NFL player in the Polynesian circle.

I haven't read the ESPN interview, so don't know if they asked Te'o about money, but as this thing dragged into the second day, that's more and more what I began thinking.

Maybe Te'o sent this guy money...and his embarrassment is where he got this money...booster?...which is something Notre Dame obviously would never want coming out.

And what spooked him between dec. 6 and dec. 26? "te'o, send more money or we begin to spill the tale."

Just a theory, and admittedly just as convuluted as others.

 

Why are you so quick to believe Te'o?

 

What this story really points to is the unhealthy obsession middle-aged men have with the sex lives of college athletes.

A 22-year old college football player can't be content to have a relationship with a person he hasn't physically met. They have to be fucking. Never mind the other factors like he was raised in a Samoan culture that emphasizes marrying another Samoan and his religion, Mormonism, also encourages its members to date, then marry other church members and, of course, not having intercourse before marriage or that he was raised on Hawaii and has family members thousands of miles apart. A guy like Te'o could have a cousin in Samoa, never meet him, but they still have a connection because of the telephone and various intertoobz methods of communicating.

So when Musberger gets all creepy about McCarron's girlfriend, it is because he's saying, "look at that, wouldn't you like to fuck that America?" And when Te'o isn't fucking it is because he's a) Gay, so he's really fucking, b) gay, so he's really fucking but a liar c) he's been fucking someone else in South Bend and the fake, dead girlfriend was a ploy to get the Heisman Trophy.

All this story is missing is for Clay Travis to swoop in and ask Tebow Te'o if he's a virgin at media days.

 

Chicago Tribune reported today that she asked for his checking account number at some point and he said no.