Manti Te'o a fraud?

[MerrittsMustache]

The longer Teo goes without speaking, the worse this is going to get for him. Think about it, if this was a legit, elaborate hoax, and you have the biggest (and very public) job interviews of your life coming up, wouldn't you be wayyyyy out in front of this and making sure everyone knew this was a hoax, you're a victim, blah blah blah? Silence is not his friend right now.

And think about what has happened on Swarbrick's watch while at ND, I mean my god. 2 horrible deaths of students related (in some fashion) to the football program, and now this. I realize it's his job to protect "the brand", but this is unreal to me.

I was thinking the same thing. The longer it takes for Te'o to speak up publicly, the worse he looks. If this truly was a complete and total sham that blindsided him in early December, he'd have been on camera as soon as the Deadspin story was posted so that he could tell his side of things. Waiting makes it seem like ND and his handlers are working on a spin.

Both of those deaths went away so in the minds of a lot of ND alums, Swarbrick did a great job.

[Golden Avalanche]

Well, here's the deal.  This story wasn't told to me until about six months ago.  I had no idea who Chicos was, so when an MU friend of mine was talking about Scoop, and Chicos name came up, he said "don't you remember him?  He was driving you nuts and you through your beer at him."  I remember the incident and thought it was at one of those Greentree all you can drink for $3 disasters, but he claimed it was at an Evan Scholars party.

So either way, the marginal cost of the next beer was $0.

So I apologize to Chicos for throwing a beer at him.

Haha.....stories are always better when a friend recounts the details of what I've done.

I thought maybe this happened recently. Would be ironic if pestered enough to toss a beer at someone and then find out its the same guy who pesters you on Scoop. Actually, I'm sure that has happened for some twosome here, knowingly or not.

[MarsupialMadness]

I was thinking the same thing. The longer it takes for Te'o to speak up publicly, the worse he looks. If this truly was a complete and total sham that blindsided him in early December, he'd have been on camera as soon as the Deadspin story was posted so that he could tell his side of things. Waiting makes it seem like ND and his handlers are working on a spin.

Both of those deaths went away so in the minds of a lot of ND alums, Swarbrick did a great job.

The problem is, I think they are working on a spin.  The facts (and lies, for that matter) are still being uncovered.  Te'o issued a statement already... I don't expect him to start answering public questions until they've sorted everything out.  Unless Te'o is 100% oblivious to the situation and he really was the butt of an elaborate hoax, anything he says now will most likely backfire on him.

[MerrittsMustache]

Clearly ND officials never thought word of the hoax would get out. This is from an article on ESPN.com.

The revelation of the hoax has been far-reaching, a Notre Dame graduate who launched a campaign to raise money for a cancer research group in memory of Te'o's girlfriend says he is "shell-shocked" to learn the woman didn't exist.

Dan Tudesco, a 2006 graduate who now works in public relations in New York, set up an online account at fundraising website indiegogo.com on Jan. 9 to solicit $5,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Inc. The initial pitch said donations would go to the society in memory of Lennay Kekua and in honor of Te'o, "two individuals who have been an inspiration to us through an iconic season."

Tudesco said he and three friends got the fundraising idea after a seeing a video that went viral of Te'o holding his head in dismay during the Irish's 42-14 loss to Alabama in the national championship game on Jan. 7.

The goal was to turn the loss -- and the player's sudden popularity -- into something positive.

"I think we were all kind of disappointed in the result of the game ... and the Manti story was very inspirational," Tudesco told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Notre Dame took notice of Tudesco's tweets about the fund drive and sent a university videographer to shoot an interview with him. The video was posted on the Notre Dame athletics YouTube channel Tuesday.

Tudesco said he didn't believe Notre Dame was aware of the hoax when it promoted his fundraiser.

"It would surprise me that Notre Dame would want to promote this if they knew something like this was going on," Tudesco said.

However, Notre Dame officials said Wednesday that they became aware of the hoax on Dec. 26, nearly two weeks before the championship game. University spokesman Dennis Brown didn't immediately respond to a request seeking comment Thursday.

[ChicosBailBonds]

I'm 45 years old.

20 years ago, I was pretty active in the early days of USENET in their rudimentary discussion forums on college basketball.  I have about two dozen Facebook friends from those forums whom I have never met.  Hey, most of the people here I have never actually met.  (I was informed by someone that I once threw a beer at Chicos.)

So I can see how this *might* occur...but I am doubtful.

I've never had a beer thrown at me in my life.  No one would dare waste a beer on something that insignificant.  LOL.  Seriously, never had a beer thrown at me

[ChicosBailBonds]

Well, here's the deal.  This story wasn't told to me until about six months ago.  I had no idea who Chicos was, so when an MU friend of mine was talking about Scoop, and Chicos name came up, he said "don't you remember him?  He was driving you nuts and you through your beer at him."  I remember the incident and thought it was at one of those Greentree all you can drink for $3 disasters, but he claimed it was at an Evan Scholars party.

So either way, the marginal cost of the next beer was $0.

So I apologize to Chicos for throwing a beer at him.

Your friend has an active imagination, or at the very least the wrong person in mind.  Not sure what else to say...especially since I never once attended an Evan Scholars party and didn't frequent the Greentree except as a Freshman.   

[brewcity77]

I've never had a beer thrown at me in my life.

That is patently UNTRUE!!! I know this because I personally threw a beer at you during a Scoop disagreement 1 year, 7 months, and 5 days ago. It was an IPA, which I generally don't like (not a bitter beer fan) so I didn't consider it a waste, but as I live in Milwaukee and you live in California, it is possible my throw came up short.

[mu03eng]

Clearly ND officials never thought word of the hoax would get out. This is from an article on ESPN.com.

The revelation of the hoax has been far-reaching, a Notre Dame graduate who launched a campaign to raise money for a cancer research group in memory of Te'o's girlfriend says he is "shell-shocked" to learn the woman didn't exist.

Dan Tudesco, a 2006 graduate who now works in public relations in New York, set up an online account at fundraising website indiegogo.com on Jan. 9 to solicit $5,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Inc. The initial pitch said donations would go to the society in memory of Lennay Kekua and in honor of Te'o, "two individuals who have been an inspiration to us through an iconic season."

Tudesco said he and three friends got the fundraising idea after a seeing a video that went viral of Te'o holding his head in dismay during the Irish's 42-14 loss to Alabama in the national championship game on Jan. 7.

The goal was to turn the loss -- and the player's sudden popularity -- into something positive.

"I think we were all kind of disappointed in the result of the game ... and the Manti story was very inspirational," Tudesco told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Notre Dame took notice of Tudesco's tweets about the fund drive and sent a university videographer to shoot an interview with him. The video was posted on the Notre Dame athletics YouTube channel Tuesday.

Tudesco said he didn't believe Notre Dame was aware of the hoax when it promoted his fundraiser.

"It would surprise me that Notre Dame would want to promote this if they knew something like this was going on," Tudesco said.

However, Notre Dame officials said Wednesday that they became aware of the hoax on Dec. 26, nearly two weeks before the championship game. University spokesman Dennis Brown didn't immediately respond to a request seeking comment Thursday.

And this, as well as the ESPN spin is why nobody believes anything that is coming out right now and why this will last for weeks.  It's such a convoluted, interwoven story that it doesn't untangle easy and there will always be doubters.  And again if your an ND alum what are you thinking of Swarbrick, how does he not immediately extract ND from activities around Te'o and ESPECIALLY fundraising employing a fake dead person.

Until December 26th ND had no role in this....they have now flopped head first into the Te'o mess and are sinking quick.  BY CHOICE!

[GGGG]

Your friend has an active imagination, or at the very least the wrong person in mind.  Not sure what else to say...especially since I never once attended an Evan Scholars party and didn't frequent the Greentree except as a Freshman.   

Well, then he was wrong.  Maybe I'm just mixing up things...I mean it was 25 years ago.

[Litehouse]

This Tuiasosopo guy is going to talk sooner or later.

[ChicosBailBonds]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/manti-teo-catfish-video_n_2498345.html

[GGGG]

Te'o twice lied about his girlfriend after he supposedly found out it was a hoax.

http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2013/january/manti-te-o-talked-about-his-girlfriend-passing-away-at-the-heisman-trophy-presentation.html

So there are only two real explanations for this...

1. He was in on it from the beginning.

2. He simply didn't know what to do after finding out the truth besides perpetuate the hoax and hope it all goes away.

[MerrittsMustache]

Te'o twice lied about his girlfriend after he supposedly found out it was a hoax.

http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2013/january/manti-te-o-talked-about-his-girlfriend-passing-away-at-the-heisman-trophy-presentation.html

So there are only two real explanations for this...

1. He was in on it from the beginning.

2. He simply didn't know what to do after finding out the truth besides perpetuate the hoax and hope it all goes away.

I'd guess it was #2. I actually think that he believed Lennay to be a real person and she was a girl who he'd occasionally talk to online. Once she got sick and died, she somehow became his girlfriend (with some help from the media) and then he got caught up in the attention and turned her into the love of his life. Once he found out it was a hoax, he was embarrassed and not really sure what to do so he just kept going with it.

From what I've heard, Te'o really is a good person but he's also very impressed with himself and somewhat immature.

[MarsupialMadness]

Te'o twice lied about his girlfriend after he supposedly found out it was a hoax.

http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2013/january/manti-te-o-talked-about-his-girlfriend-passing-away-at-the-heisman-trophy-presentation.html

So there are only two real explanations for this...

1. He was in on it from the beginning.

2. He simply didn't know what to do after finding out the truth besides perpetuate the hoax and hope it all goes away.

I agree, and I also think it's #2, but there's also evidence that he kept this whole charade going after he knew of the "hoax".  There's something wrong about him mentioning her at the Heisman presentation if he already knew that she never existed.

[Benny B]

Hypothetically, let's assume Manti is gay.  Obviously, being a star for an elite football program makes it a bit more difficult to keep a secret... so at some point, questions were probably being asked and minor suspicions were starting to surface, so Manti did what any public figure would do: he - with the help of a friend - created a distraction.  I'm not insinuating that Manti and Ronaiah are anything more than friends, but the two concocted a plan (Lannay) to squelch any talk of Manti's homosexuality; however, things got a little out of control with the added attention from the Heisman and BCS run... so Manti and Ronaiah did what anybody perpetuating an out-of-control hoax would do - they killed off their subject.

But the attention didn't go away, questions were asked, and eventually, someone got to the real girl in the picture.  Caught in a web, Manti probably let his family and Swarbrick in on the secret by now, and they've simply been doing their part to protect him.  Sure, it's a scam, but there's no malicious intent here... just a young, Mormon kid who wants to keep his secret.

-End hypothetical.

If this is all just an elaborate hoax to keep his personal life private, it's more an indictment of society than it is of Manti.  However, if Manti is straight and he is on this... I'd like to think his NFL career will end before it begins.

[MarsupialMadness]

If this is all just an elaborate hoax to keep his personal life private, it's more an indictment of society than it is of Manti.  However, if Manti is straight and he is on this... I'd like to think his NFL career will end before it begins.

Agree with the first part of what you said... but the guy is a player on the field.  He'll be on a team somewhere in the NFL.  If teams take risks on guys that murder people (seriously, murder) then they can find a way around this. 

[jficke13]

I realize that there's no explanation that doesn't involve Te'o looking like a moron, but really the method, in this hypothetical, he went with to stay in the closet was: hide being in the closet by creating a fictional girlfriend and playing up her tragic demise in front of a voracious national media in an age in which any and everything can be digitally checked out?

[LON]

Agree with the first part of what you said... but the guy is a player on the field.  He'll be on a team somewhere in the NFL.  If teams take risks on guys that murder people (seriously, murder) then they can find a way around this. 

Exactly, guys like Ray Lewis, Leonard Little, Donte Stallworth, and countless others didn't get blacklisted form the NFL.

[🏀]

Exactly, guys like Ray Lewis, Leonard Little, Donte Stallworth, and countless others didn't get blacklisted form the NFL.

Te'o will be grilled by the NFL and that will determine his future.

He could end up like Vontaze Burfict, but I don't think it will be that bad.

[warriorchick]

Exactly, guys like Ray Lewis, Leonard Little, Donte Stallworth, and countless others didn't get blacklisted form the NFL.

Not to mention Michael Vick.  For whatever crazy  reason, people who hurt animals are worse than murderers and rapists in the court of public opinion.

Now if Manti made up a story about his puppy dying, he might have a reason to worry about his career......

[Hards Alumni]

Not to mention Michael Vick.  For whatever crazy  reason, people who hurt animals are worse than murderers and rapists in the court of public opinion.

Now if Manti made up a story about his puppy dying, he might have a reason to worry about his career......

I will never understand that either, and honestly, it tells you a lot about little we value human life.

[Lennys Tap]

Exactly, guys like Ray Lewis, Leonard Little, Donte Stallworth, and countless others didn't get blacklisted form the NFL.

Ray Lewis's "farewell tour" has included everything from sideline embraces from the commissioner to nonstop fawning by the media. Disgusting.

[RJax55]

Ray Lewis's "farewell tour" has included everything from sideline embraces from the commissioner to nonstop fawning by the media. Disgusting.

+1. A complete joke.

[Golden Avalanche]

Te'o twice lied about his girlfriend after he supposedly found out it was a hoax.

http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2013/january/manti-te-o-talked-about-his-girlfriend-passing-away-at-the-heisman-trophy-presentation.html

So there are only two real explanations for this...

1. He was in on it from the beginning.

2. He simply didn't know what to do after finding out the truth besides perpetuate the hoax and hope it all goes away.

I've leaned towards #1 since Wednesday due to the Tuisasopo connection, which I think has been downplayed by all these writers who are covering their asses over the last two days. Not to mention that the longer Te'o goes without speaking on the matter makes it seem more and more that CAA is crafting an evasive narrative.

How haven't they found Ronaiah? No one can find him walking to his church? No one can find a friend to talk about his character? No one can have USC confirm or deny Tuisasopo was on-field guest of Te'o in November? And why was Te'o extending an invite to Hawai'i for Tuisasopo if they weren't at least strong acquaintances?

[brewcity77]

If anyone thinks he was duped, sorry, but I think you're being suckered. Come on...he didn't know when she graduated, what her major was, or how she died? And he gave three different stories of how they met. Add in his dad lying about her visiting him and it's pretty clear Te'o and his family were in on it.

Lennay Kekua was his beard either to hide a gay lifestyle or to cover up him slitting around Notre Dame while keeping his "good Mormon boy" image. And he would've got away with it too, if not for Deadspin!

If you think he was a victim then I really think you're just as big a sucker as Te'o wants you to believe he is. This guy is the biggest sports slimeball since Lance Armstrong...okay, I realize that was only a day before, but Te'o is scum and reveling in it.