Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend might be a hoax

[Yoshi]

The more I read about this, the more it seems like he got duped. I mean, tons of people are embarrassed to be involved in online dating so it makes sense that he made up a back story. And I see some are saying how far fetched it is for the fake girl to have family members, watch Catfish the documentary. It really isn't farfetched at all. For instance, this girl was tricking the guy making the documentary. They were on FB and this girl had tons of friends. All had their own profile and friendships and posts of their own. They all ended up being the same girl. I don't really buy the whole publicity thing. I think it's either what I just said or he's possible gay and wanted to post openly to the guy without being attacked online.

Great thread man. I'm going to hold out reservations until we find out whether or not Teo was the architect or the victim of this "hoax".

There's a couple of things, however, that makes me wonder if Teo was truly the mastermind behind this. I read the article and noted that Teo had mentioned that doctors discovered leukemia while treating her after that collision. The article stated that she was doing fine, only to die as a result from her complications from leukemia just months after doctors apparently discovered it?

I interned at an oncology unit and from the looks of it, whatever his "girlfriend" had was an aggressive form of leukemia and she would have been symptomatic before this car accident. I know of a few forms of cancer (i.e. pancreatic) where an individual could potentially die just one month after being diagnosed with, but leukemia works in a different fashion. Granted, Teo mentioned about the bone marrow transplant but still, the timetable was a red flag when I first read that article.

Addtionally, arsenal made an excellent point about how the media didn't do their homework to corroborate this story. For example, there was a mention about "Carson City" when in fact it is Carson, California that the article was referring to. I have a friend who's from Carson so I know for a fact that there is no such thing as Carson City.

Furthermore, Teo stated about actually meeting this person when "Lennay" would visit his family in Hawaii? He also commented on his "girlfriend's family"?

All I can say is wow. Clyde made a comment about Teo potentially being a pathological liar - if he is the architect behind this, I'm going one step further and saying that this guy has a histrionic personality disorder.

Again, I'm waiting for the results of the investigation about this to surface so we can't absolve nor incriminate this guy, but damn what a disgrace to Hawaii and the poly community if Teo was behind this.

 

[wartyOne]

I saw a story about this on the morning news. The anchor called him "Manatee (like the animal) Tee-oh. I'm guessing he doesn't watch football at all.

Other than that, I'm trying to find out why this story is getting so much attention among the national media. Seems like a total non-story to me.

 

[abaskin18]

I saw a story about this on the morning news. The anchor called him "Manatee (like the animal) Tee-oh. I'm guessing he doesn't watch football at all.

Other than that, I'm trying to find out why this story is getting so much attention among the national media. Seems like a total non-story to me.

The media ran with the death story and did everything they could to hold him up as a high character guy. At best, he went along with the deception once he found out. At worst...man I can't even quantify it.

The general public doesn't like being deceived. Play to their sympathies under false pretenses and you'll really bug them.

Not saying there aren't more important stories for us to focus on, there are. But if you're wondering why, that's why.

 

[spacedoodoopistol]

Other than that, I'm trying to find out why this story is getting so much attention among the national media. Seems like a total non-story to me.

It is pretty insane and unfortunate. They broke into NBA coverage last night on ESPN to give updates, and had it on the crawl along the bottom constantly. All you can say is that the media doesn't like being played and looking stupid, do that and they'll take chunks out of you on the way down. Maybe if the headline was "Stupid Kid Makes Stupid Mistake" I would buy it, but they are just tearing him to shreds.

 

[NinerSickness]

As predicted, the wagon circling has officially begun on BSPN Radio. I don't even want to name names to give them attention.

 

[Heathbar012]

Either way, he is extremely stupid, a very bad person or mentally ill. Any of those three would give NFL GMs pause.

EDIT: Obviously, the latter moreso than the other two.

 

[NinerSickness]

I don't see how there's any ambiguity about this story. Didn't he claim to have met her at Stanford?

Unless he went all Beautiful Mind on us, that was a lie.

 

[Rathman44]

The more I read about this, the more it seems like he got duped. I mean, tons of people are embarrassed to be involved in online dating so it makes sense that he made up a back story. And I see some are saying how far fetched it is for the fake girl to have family members, watch Catfish the documentary. It really isn't farfetched at all. For instance, this girl was tricking the guy making the documentary. They were on FB and this girl had tons of friends. All had their own profile and friendships and posts of their own. They all ended up being the same girl. I don't really buy the whole publicity thing. I think it's either what I just said or he's possible gay and wanted to post openly to the guy without being attacked online.

I met the guy, Nev, who the documentary Catfish is all about at a charity event in NYC early last year. He got a little blitzed and ended up telling me that his whole documentary is a fake and was set-up from the get-go. He said it was a great story that only worked if people believed it was a real documentary. It's obviously served him well...he now has his own TV show. So I wouldn't be so quick to jump to believe that this stuff is possible for people with normal IQs. Which leaves us with 2 possibilities for Te'o: 1-he faked the whole thing with his friend Tuiasosopo or 2-his IQ is somewhere in the 70s and a whole crew of people led by Tuiasosopo hated his guts so much that they wanted to ruin his life with this elaborate scheme involving multiple characters. I'm not really sure which would be worse for Te'o at this point.

 

[Smalls]

I don't see how there's any ambiguity about this story. Didn't he claim to have met her at Stanford?

A story ran in the South Bend Tribune in October which gave some detail about their relationship and how they met.

What dreams may come - southbendtribune.com

Some excerpts:

It never felt like a chance meeting, although it probably appeared that way from the outside looking in. Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te'o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes.

They could have just as easily brushed past each other and into separate sunsets. Te'o had plenty to preoccupy himself that November weekend in Palo Alto, Calif., back in 2009.

Lennay Kekua was a Stanford student and Cardinal football fan when the two exchanged glances, handshakes and phone numbers that fateful weekend three seasons ago.

She was gifted in music, multi-lingual, had dreams grounded in reality and the talent to catch up to them.

The plan was for Kekua to spend extensive time with the whole Te'o family when upwards of 40 of them came to South Bend in mid-November for ND's Senior Day date with Wake Forest.

"They started out as just friends," Brian Te'o said. "Every once in a while, she would travel to Hawaii, and that happened to be the time Manti was home, so he would meet with her there. But within the last year, they became a couple.


I bolded some of the things that are just ironic, ridiculous, or tough to explain at this point.

 

[Smalls]

Report: Te?o ?loved the attention,? and teammates were suspicious | ProFootballTalk

 

[Ray_Dogg]

Notre Dame's Manti Te'o in his own words - College Football - Pete Thamel - SI.com

 

[NinerSickness]

Teo said she knew his counsin huh?

That makes perfect sense.

 

[Heathbar012]

I don't see how there's any ambiguity about this story. Didn't he claim to have met her at Stanford?

Unless he went all Beautiful Mind on us, that was a lie.

That one could have just been to cover up the fact that he thought he was in a relationship with someone that he never met. I understand the internet dating thing, but that would still be pretty embarrassing, especially for a guy that is likely pursued by most of the ladies on campus. I see where you're going with it, and I think you're right, but he will be able to play off a fairly plausible explanation. The thing is, it would be very easy to prove him wrong (ie. women coming forward that he hooked up with all throughout their "relationship" or Tuiasasopo coming forward; though that one may be less likely with the millions Te'o is about to make). If what you and I assume is true, in fact is, this guy is a major sociopath.

 

[NinerSickness]

I'm probably not the first to suggest this, and it's not the first time I've cmoe up with nicknames that don't stick (Blaine Gabbert = YouProbablyThinkThisSongIsAboutYou), but will the media let ths nickname for him stick?

Teo = The Catfish

 

[threelittleturds]

Saw this on Funny or Die, ha, pretty funny response

 

[BINGO]

I have not mead the majority of the posts made in this thread. So I apologize in advance if someone has already brought up this issue as a point: Do you guys think that this incident contributed greatly towards his bad performance in BCS National Championship game? I'm speculating that he must have known about this immenent investigation taking place - which led to an extremely high level of anxiety, worries, stressed, embarrassment over this issue which led him to play in such an awful game. His mind was never in the game! I think he must have known of this news just before or during the time of the championship game. Only way I can justify him playing such a bad game.

 

[Smalls]

I have not mead the majority of the posts made in this thread. So I apologize in advance if someone has already brought up this issue as a point: Do you guys think that this incident contributed greatly towards his bad performance in BCS National Championship game? I'm speculating that he must have known about this immenent investigation taking place - which led to an extremely high level of anxiety, worries, stressed, embarrassment over this issue which led him to play in such an awful game. His mind was never in the game! I think he must have known of this news just before or during the time of the championship game. Only way I can justify him playing such a bad game.

ND has said that Te'o told them he was duped on December 26th, so he definitely knew people were looking into it. It's been reported that the school expected him to break the news to the public on his own after the NCG, but he obviously didn't in time. I can't imagine he could possibly put the whole thing out of his mind.

 

[BINGO]

ND has said that Te'o told them he was duped on December 26th, so he definitely knew people were looking into it. It's been reported that the school expected him to break the news to the public on his own after the NCG, but he obviously didn't in time. I can't imagine he could possibly put the whole thing out of his mind.

Thanks for letting me know that. Wow, so he was getting pressure from the school indeed to at least be upfront about it. Can you imagine the anxiety he was going through. His mind was really not in the game which explains his horrible performance that day.

 

[Kinzu]

I don't understand how a fake story has been Headline news all week. This story over took Lance Armstrong admitting to using PED's. Why should we care about a made up story?

 

[Flyingiguana]

I have not mead the majority of the posts made in this thread. So I apologize in advance if someone has already brought up this issue as a point: Do you guys think that this incident contributed greatly towards his bad performance in BCS National Championship game? I'm speculating that he must have known about this immenent investigation taking place - which led to an extremely high level of anxiety, worries, stressed, embarrassment over this issue which led him to play in such an awful game. His mind was never in the game! I think he must have known of this news just before or during the time of the championship game. Only way I can justify him playing such a bad game.

the whole notre dame team seemed to come out flat. teo played like absolute crap, maybe his worst game in an irish uniform. the whole defense fed off of teo and seems like this took the life out of teo.