Manti Te'o Dead Girlfriend ... A Hoax?

norm

manti went all jan brady i guess

norm

Te'o issued a statement:

"This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her.

"To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating.

"It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother's death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life.

"I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been.

"In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was.

"Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I'm looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft."

Jason P

I think it would take me a few days to figure out what the hell is going on before issuing statements.

Carefully created statements being issued a few hours after a website makes the allegations seems ... odd. Wouldn't you investigate first?

norm

Jason P wrote:

I think it would take me a few days to figure out what the hell is going on before issuing statements.

Carefully created statements being issued a few hours after a website makes the allegations seems ... odd. Wouldn't you investigate first?

notre dame knew about this on december 26...and espn has been sitting on the story for the last 10 days (according to tweets)

Cliffy6745

There is no way he is telling the truth, right?

If he never met this person, he claimed he had a "girlfriend" who died that that he never met and talked about it ALL the time. The captain of ND football had an online girlfriend that he never met but talked about all the time? I repeat the captain of ND football and a future first round draft pick and multimillionaire had an online girlfriend who he never met but talked about all the time? How possible is that?

Or....

He met someone who claimed to be someone else online (although this does not go with the stories about how they met at the Stanford game), and had a relationship, he did know her personally but she was able to hide that she didn't actually go to Stanford (and everything else) and then she claimed to die. Doubtful for so many reasons, the least of which is why a chick dating him would pretend to die a couple months before he makes millions and that he talked about her family.

Or...

He made it all up?


This is what I can come up with

Bronx Bombers

norm wrote:

Te'o issued a statement:

"This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her.

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.

His Notre Dame football team hadn’t won since Halloween, and a three-game losing streak, that included seismic home setbacks to Navy and Connecticut, was pushing Irish head coach Charlie Weis out the door after five seasons, albeit with a seven-figure financial settlement set to kick in.

Weis was the man who, in the recruiting process, promised Te’o’s parents that he would take care of their son 4,400 miles away, that he would make sure he graduated and really nothing else, nothing that had anything to do with football anyway.

And once Te’o’s 11th-hour shift away from USC and to Notre Dame took hold, Te’o’s still-confusing leap of faith hinged upon every subsequent word that came from Weis.

The part that stung the most for the Laie, Hawaii, product was that there was nothing he could do in ND’s upcoming clash with Stanford that could reverse the process. His only anchor was about to be set adrift.

There had been delusions by some observers, going into the ’09 season, that the freshman linebacker would be so advanced, so transformational, so immune to growing pains and flat spots in the growth curve that he could help launch the Irish back into a cycle of national prominence.

Instead, it was a school with an even smaller recruiting pool and a less-decorated football tradition that prevailed, 45-38, in what turned out to be Weis’ last game. That same school, Stanford, then proceeded to smack around the old stereotype of needing to compromise academic standards in order to climb up on college football’s biggest postseason stages.

Te’o would start the game on the bench and finish it with a new career high in tackles, with 10.

This Saturday afternoon at Notre Dame Stadium, three years later and half a continent away, Stanford and the Irish meet again, this time with Notre Dame ascending and Te’o right in the middle of the uprising.

The Cardinal (4-1), ranked 17th, have won three straight in the series and have pushed around the Irish in the process. ND (5-0), which started the season unranked, has pushed itself into the cusp of the national title conversation.

For the first time this season and seventh time in Te’o’s career, his parents, Brian and Ottilia, will be in the stands for the game — along with the youngest of his five siblings, 6-year-old brother Manasseh.

“They’re watching you and they're watching someone who they've given everything they have to live his dream,” Te’o said earlier this week.

“My dream is to help them in their dream, too. So, it's always exciting. It's going to be a special occasion to see them in the stands.”

And Manti Te’o is convinced the beautiful stranger will be watching too Saturday, somehow.

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.

“And we came to the realization that she could be our daughter-in-law. Sadly, it won’t happen now.”

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8655 ... tml?pg=all

Q. No one would question how any person grieves, but what went into your decision or did you think at all about going back for your girlfriend's service? I understand you had a game that day but what was the decision there?

Manti Te'o: You know, I really wanted to see her. I really wanted to see her. But I knew that she made me promise, you know one day she made me promise that, she said, "Babe, if anything happens to me, you promise that you'll still stay over there and that you'll play and that you'll honor me through the way you play, and know that I would rather have you there." And just make sure that all she wanted was some white roses. White is her favorite color. So she just wanted some white roses and that's all she asked for. So I sent her roses and sent her two picks (interceptions) along with that, so that was good.

http://www.und.com/sports/m-footbl/spec ... 12aaa.html

The award for best actor

http://espn.go.com/blog/notre-dame-foot ... es-tragedy

Busted dude needs to get his story straight what a total piece of shit.

MayDay10

im leaning toward gay (mormon, catholic university, football player), and a coverup story that spiraled way past where he ever imagined possible

Cliffy6745

How about this fucking gem? Talking about his girlfriend directly in relation to the Heisman

Q. Have you seen some of Heisman Trophy talk and that you’re a part of the discussion?

Manti Te'o: I've seen some of it. It's definitely very exciting and it was very humbling at the same time. I'm very grateful for all of the support, like I said, my family and my girlfriend's family have received from so many people.

Indifference71

This whole thing is so fucked up. Hard for me to believe Te'o was completely duped by this whole thing. But then again, is Te'o really dumb enough to think he could get away with something like this in this current society of internet, twitter,facebook, etc...??? Crazy shit.

Jason P

Perhaps Lance Armstrong is behind this ... He planned it perfectly to draw attention from him.

His ultimate Dr. Evil moment .... If only the fictitious girlfriend had lasers on her head.

EdsonNascimento

I think this is great. If nobody got hurt who cares? It's the ultimate 7th grade girlfriend from another state story gone horribly wrong. Its hysterical he ended it this way. He probably could have just let it fade away and nobody would be any the wiser. That Stanford meet from afar thing is classic.

My biggest question is after being run over by Alabama, how does this guy show his face on campus? This has to be one of the greatest come downs of all time.

Why folks are so upset about this is silly. The only reasons are:

1) they hate ND
2) they're embarrassed that they've been duped by him

Hysterical.

Cliffy6745

I don't think anyone is upset, it's fucking hysterical. But he is a scumbag if he used a fake girlfriends death for sympathy and heisman votes

norm

MayDay10 wrote:

im leaning toward gay (mormon, catholic university, football player), and a coverup story that spiraled way past where he ever imagined possible

damn i didn't think of that...not a rumor i want to spread but interesting take

EdsonNascimento

Cliffy6745 wrote:

I don't think anyone is upset, it's fucking hysterical. But he is a scumbag if he used a fake girlfriends death for sympathy and heisman votes

Why? Who cares? It's the freaking Heisman. It's pretty much a running joke of an award like the Nobel Peace Prize nowadays. That would have been even funnier had he won.

Bronx Bombers

Jason P

Cliffy6745 wrote:

I don't think anyone is upset, it's fucking hysterical. But he is a scumbag if he used a fake girlfriends death for sympathy and heisman votes

It is one of the most bizarre sports stories ever. There have been a few sports stars that have lied about their resumes ... But nothing like this.

Didn't George O'Leary get busted on the resume for N.D.?

norm

RKCNDY wrote:

"anybody ever see the movie or TV show 'Catfish'"?

nope but seeing as how notre dame's ad just mentioned it, i looked it up

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish_%28film%29

this just adds a layer of wtf to this whole thing

Empty Glass

Bronx Bombers wrote:

Cliffy6745

These people are trying to convince me that the star linebacker and captain of notre dame football and a future first round NFL draft pick had a relationship that he referred to constantly and referred to her family that was strictly online and they never met in person even though the story is that they met in person.

They are trying to convince me that manti te'o is essentially a 12 year old girl on the Internet talking to a 45 year old dude. Manti teo is as naive as a 12 year old girl?

EdsonNascimento

Cliffy6745 wrote:

These people are trying to convince me that the star linebacker and captain of notre dame football and a future first round NFL draft pick had a relationship that he referred to constantly and referred to her family that was strictly online and they never met in person even though the story is that they met in person.

They are trying to convince me that manti te'o is essentially a 12 year old girl on the Internet talking to a 45 year old dude. Manti teo is as naive as a 12 year old girl?

That's the best part of this. The benefit of the doubt story is worse than the most likely story.

I assume he will get a better PR team when he has more money.