What impetus would there be in said situation for Te'o to claim that he had a girlfriend with leukemia who then died?

Tim Burke, one of the authors in the Deadspin piece, joined Doug Gottlieb on CBS Sports Radio's Doug Gottlieb Show on Wednesday afternoon to explain the work that went into the story. Deadspin was initially alerted about the hoax via a reader email, but it was not until Burke and Jack Dickey began digging that the absurdity of the situation began to reveal itself.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoot...ctim-of-a-hoax

I find it amazing how many large sports media outlets repeated the story without checking facts.

He wins the sympathy vote in the Heisman race?

but why? If she was good enough to make him fall in love with her why not keep it up til he made the money? Shit doesnt make since.

I lean towards manti contributing to this hoax.

If it is a lie that he just got to far into, how the hell did it start? Where do you start a lie like that?

Even though it's a logical explanation, it's FAR from being the only logical one.


The most logical one is that they created this as a way to get sympathy voters for the Heisman:

The hawaiian linebacker from Notre Dame who had one of the best all time seasons after the sad deaths of his grandmother and his girlfriend on the same day.

It got him a lot of attention and a lot of media hype that then translated to being a Heisman favorite.

That suggests a level of cunning that is completely incompatible with the idiocy of his subsequent actions and denials.

spitballing

they used the girlfriend cover to communicate (not wanting to be totally covert for whatever reason)...then decided it wasn't worth maintaining, or they broke up...either way the cover had to be erased, but as it was public there had to be an 'explanation'...

Every explanation I can come up with, ends with "yeah that's really not possible or likely" and I come back to "he's probably made it all up and is scrambling to not look stupid".

Least it wasn't a made up boyfriend

Agreed.

Were they waiting for his grandmother to die and then release this simultaneously?


LMAO

This is from the guy who made Catfish. You figure it out.

@NevSchulman
I am working on finding out more about this @MTeo_5 #Catfish story. I have been in contact with the woman involved and will get the truth.

Thomas Robinson suffered much more real and acute tragedy and it was a blip on the national radar.

Didn't NBC or ESPN run a big story on it? When they were talking about her then, why didn't he say "well, we've never met"? You don't think, "yeah, I've never actually met this girl face to face" would come up?


This is all bullshit. Dude lied, got called on it, now he's spinning his wheels.

The fake dead girlfriend just tweeted.

L K ‏<s>@</s>LennayKay It isn't fair to drag Reagan and Troy into this.. a lot of truths and myths need to be addressed here, and they will be at noon PST tomorrow

Guy is nuts....

From Deadspin:
The hoax began crumbling around the edges late last year. On Nov. 4, 2012, an "U'ilani Rae Kekua," supposedly Lennay's sister, popped up on Twitter under the name @uilanirae. Manti Te'o immediately tweeted out the following:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/post/11/..._chrome066.jpg
Te'o also wished U'ilani a happy Thanksgiving on Nov. 22.

Numerous Notre Dame fans sent U'ilani messages of condolence, and she responded with thanks. On Nov. 10, U'ilani tweeted the following:
http://img.gawkerassets.com/post/11/..._chrome067.jpg
A few weeks later, the @uilanirae account was deleted. The deletion came immediately after tweets from two now-suspended Twitter accounts had alleged that U'ilani was a fraud, that the same person behind Lennay was operating the U'ilani account, and that the images of "U'ilani" were really of a woman named Donna Tei.

In yet another now-deleted tweet, Tei herself reached out to Nev Schulman, star of the 2010 film Catfish and executive producer of the MTV program of the same title. Schulman's movie and show are about romantic deception through fake online personas.

Manti Te'o, meanwhile, has deleted his tweets mentioning U'ilani.

http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-te...ason-is-a-hoax

Not really logical to someone from Hawaii. If the guy was ohana - family (which often includes people who are close but not related by blood) - as your quote says, they would have been more like brothers. The term "family" means something in Hawaii.

/thread

Video of Manti in the last 8 hours:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yYKloZRwLu4#t=284s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

lol the fullback on the Arizona Cardinals said he met the girl in person on a trip to Somalia with the name used in this hoax and she was in fact beautiful.

Samoa.....not Somalia. Huge difference.

Not really.

whatever it's 1 am here, and ESPN is on in the background.

I just found it funny there are dudes coming out that have actually met a girl of a name, used in this. So technically she does exist and she's not actually fake?

Or it was just one huge hoax. Either way.....Te'o is as gullible as a 3 year old or he's a sociopath.

Big difference. Samoa is a lush tropical island and territory of the US with a legitimate government and is safe to travel to. Somalia is an African desert nation with no real government and only a crazy person would go there.

so NFL players are also getting in on the hoax? I dont understand, if the fullback of the Arizona cardinals said he met a pretty girl with that name on some trip to wherever, why would be lying to defend Teo? Unless they are friends, which I really doubt he would do that, because he clearly said he met her way before Teo was in the picture, and more so confirming she exists.

Who ****ing knows at this point.

It's a ****ing train wreck.

They are homo lovers.

He's got a model girlfriend.

They did a Romeo/Juliet poison death scenario.

Both don't exist. (Evidenced by his performance against Alabama.)

A ****ing mess of epic proportions.

I'm out.

I don't think it's cool to make fun of someone who got tricked into thinking someone they loved died.

lol this dude makes this entire story hilarious

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-...06--ncaaf.html

Odds are pretty slim that he was tricked.

Mel Kiper says "**** you."

He's the Chiefs pick at #1.

You gotta love the strategy of Notre Dame and their faithful. Throw out as many potential scenarios and then claim that nobody has all the facts.

But let's take the gay angle for a second. Why not just have a close friend in South Bend be his "girlfriend" while he continues to invade the butthole of Marcus Tuiososopo's (cool name, btw) brother on the side?

He is either incredibly stupid or a complete sociopath, in addition to being an over-hyped mediocre football player. He deserves every ounce of ridicule.

It's Notre Dame. They're not going down without a fight.

The truth will come out. There are too many holes in this chuck of moldy, rotting swiss.

Manti T'eo is a freak.

You are going full Manti right now, man.

Do you enjoy ridiculing people? Is it a hobby? Have you taken your meds today?

Oh ok thanks for clearing that up.

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions--Thomas Jefferson.

I'm thinking it is time we see if Te'o has aPOF account.

You, sir, are no Thomas Jefferson. Unless you are ridiculing your own positions, then I can see it.

The most ridiculous thing in this is that Swarbrick expects us to believe that Teo is some innocent little angel that has had his world shattered and he will never be the same.

He's a 21-year old college football player at one of the highest profile institutions in America, and a Heisman candidate who will most likely go in the first round of the NFL draft.

I don't give a shit if he's a Mormon. His innocence was lost long ago. He's not a little boy.

Sorry to get your panties in a bunch. The fact this guy has always been an over-hyped prospect. Now it comes out that he was the "victim" of an elaborate hoax. I'm sorry, but him and his family made the whole thing up.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8...ll-circle.html

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.

“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.

You would know.

My panties aren't in a bunch. It was a joke, numbnuts. And you think Te'o is dumb?

That article contradicts with Teo's own 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," admitted Te'o said. "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.

Hardy har har.

Ahahhahhahahhahhahahahahaha!

Ahahhahhahahhahhahahahahaha! A drowning would have been more plausible than a car wreck followed by leukemia.

I don't know many funerals held ten days after death that conveniently coincides on game day so her beloved boyfriend cannot attend.

Ahahhahhahahhahhahahahahaha! The imaginary white roses!

Ahahhahhahahhahhahahahahaha! The head coach awards the game ball to the imaginary girlfriend - They don't send flowers?

I read the entire convoluted story: Would the best player on Notre Dame football team have an online-only relationship?

Te'ogate should push Oprah and Armstrong below the fold.

Doug Gottlieb told a story on his show today about when he got kicked out of Notre Dame for stealing credit cards. He basically said that the school was going to put a BS story out there that he left school and went home because he was homesick. The students that had their credit cards stolen publicly called BS and that is when the real story came out. It wasn't until after that point that the police got involved and prosecution and restitution was paid because Notre Dame had the police on a leash.

TL;DR Doug Gottlieb says take whatever Notre Dame claims about the story with a grain of salt.

Are you posting as you are reading it? Everyone's seen that information located in the one centrally located place called deadspin.com, where the original report is contained.

This story is really bizarre and then some.

I agree with Laz's take on it though, sounds closer to the truth of what really happened.

You can bet that his family will be questioned and hounded about it. Sad when
you get the family involved with a fraud story.

The lies build up and and now it comes crashing down unmercifully.

This thread will go on for quite a while.

We have a hostage crisis going on - I'm late to the party -

Since you seem to have your finger on the pulse - Can anyone find one of Te'o's past girlfriends?

TIA :D

Im telling you, the best thing Teo could do to restore his image is if he just came out that he is gay and was embarrassed. I dont know that to be true or anything, but if thats the case he should just do it.

He won't get drafted high if he's gay.

I think if he keeps going with this obviously fake story it will hurt him more than being gay. Not to mention the endorsements that he could pick up for being the first openly gay nfl player.

The Donks might risk it. (HIV, I mean)

So being a sociopath who created an elaborate story about the death of a gf is better for his draft stock?

Would you rather have a gay LB or a raging sociopath?

EDIT: Wait, gochiefs, don't answer that. We know which one you would choose.

Uh, can it be both?



Gay Ray Lewis?

LMAO

I honestly think he might go undrafted if he was gay.

I'd be surprised if he had just finished this year out and admitted it but with this shit?

No ****ing way.

He's most likely Belchered any chance he has to be a first rounder after this debacle.

Dude will be a money bonanza if he comes out as being gay. I dont think he goes in the first now but think he would be drafted if gay.

Hey Fairplay.

This is a huge story. Easily a top 10 sports story this year.

Uh-oh.

You gotta be famliy of this guy to be white knighting this much.:rolleyes:

I hope he doesn't pull a Belcher on himself.

Talk about the Titanic hitting an iceberg and water gushing in. Maybe he finds a lifeboat, push the women and children out of the way for crying out loud.

I hope ND provides in a Psychiatrist immediately this man needs help.

If he was gay a tell-all book by his boyfriend and rights to any movies made about this debacle would mean a serious payday for him.

LMAO The plot thickens!

Manti Te’o Told Interviewer Lennay Kekua Wrote Him Letter Before Stanford Game, 31 Days After She Died [UPDATE]

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IZh0X9FJW-o?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/...fter-she-died/

Numero uno I think.

For his dance, GayRay party boys teammates before games.

Not really, he has no chance whatsoever to save face. I really don't know why ND is even trying to cover his arse.

That was quick.

And good.

Wish I could take credit ROFL

Originally Posted by Aniketos
Q: what does Te'o and his girlfriend have in common?
A: neither showed up in the National Championship.

-AJ McCarron


From another forum but ROFL

It's fertile soil to be sure.

LMAO

Manti>>>>>>>>>>>>>Geno. How sad is that for Geno?

Dear god troll, do you realize that you're not funny? If you want to be a troll atleast try to be funny.