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

[Small Town Guy]

I want to believe that Manti Te'o was duped, but that's a pretty hard swallow.

I suppose it's possible that he was at least initially--he fell into an online-only relationship with someone he thought was a real person, and when he found out she wasn't, he wanted to keep it quiet to save face.

This...

This is really hard to swallow.

From the article its pretty clear he knew the perpetrator.

My initial thought was/is the two are romantically involved. Why else pull this kind of a stunt? To this extent?

That's certainly a possibility but I do wonder, what would be the point? How would a fake girlfriend hide a romantic relationship between the two guys? Not creating a fake girlfriend would draw less attention. And then she dies? I just don't see what the end game would have been. None of it makes sense, basically. Any angle. As dreu said, can't wrap my head around it.

 

[Azrael]

How many of the lies about the girlfriend came through the school's SID and media apparatus? Was Te'o doing all the lying in interviews, or was there a bio in circulation with the imaginary girlfriend story in it?

 

[ColdCat]

so we're left with a couple of possibilities,

1- Te'o and a co-conspirator cooked this up to hype his Heisman chances

2- Tuiasosopo cooked this up to get close to Te'o and Te'o and his family had no clue until December that it was a fraud

or perhaps. . .

3- Te'o actually WAS dating the person behind the profile, Tuiasosopo, and they chose to put a female face on the profile out of fear that certain segments of the population would not be rooting for him otherwise.

 

[BadgerBeer]

Could it be a front to hide the gay?

We have a winner.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Could it be a front to hide the gay?

We have a winner.

Was just about to say the same.

 

[I Should Coco]

Reading through the Deadspin account, all I can say is ... wow.

Did it really take four months for anybody to check out the girlfriend story?

Te'o and ND aren't the only ones with rotten eggs on their face.

Dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-DAH!

 

[Boom_70]

I think he was trying to pull an Eric Stratton to garner sympathy from the girls at St Mary's.

 

[TGO157]

Oh, wow. The gay theory. I haven't heard that one yet, but it does make sense.

 

[PressRowsNotSafe]

Notre Dame is really putting themselves in the crosshairs the way that they're crafting this, no? Killing any deniability that they have.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I want to believe that Manti Te'o was duped, but that's a pretty hard swallow.

I suppose it's possible that he was at least initially--he fell into an online-only relationship with someone he thought was a real person, and when he found out she wasn't, he wanted to keep it quiet to save face.

This...

This is really hard to swallow.

From the article its pretty clear he knew the perpetrator.

My initial thought was/is the two are romantically involved. Why else pull this kind of a stunt? To this extent?

That's certainly a possibility but I do wonder, what would be the point? How would a fake girlfriend hide a romantic relationship between the two guys? Not creating a fake girlfriend would draw less attention. And then she dies? I just don't see what the end game would have been. None of it makes sense, basically. Any angle. As dreu said, can't wrap my head around it.

I think Wicked theory holds some water.

Of course with college kids .. any forking thing is possible. But it also appeared to me Te'o's dad was in on this as well, based on the quotes he'd supplied about the phantom GF.
I don't know if this square peg will ever fit into a round hole.




And I think we are seeing the cusp of a Titanic metldown of a college football star. This, the Bowl game, his draft stock plummets, NFL flameout ... Cue E! True Hollywood Stories.

 

[wicked]

A female friend many years ago befriended a "guy" in some online chatroom. She got photos from him, talked to him on the phone, everything. She fell for him, but he was hesitant to meet her.

They meet years later, after many flirtatious conversations, and it turns out the "guy" is a she.

(Mind you, this is one side of the story.)

Maybe Te'o was the victim of something along these lines, maybe not. But some people are crazy.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I think Nick Saban was behind it all the time.