Manti Te'o a fraud?

[MerrittsMustache]

Plus this is the second time ESPN has sat on a story, Bernie Fine being the other.  At some point this is all going to start impacting TWWL.

In a more broad context, I hope but am not counting on, this whole thing being a wake up call to media in general to slow down a step, vet stories and general report info not conjecture and fluffy.  I'm thinking it won't happen because there is no one to hold their feet to the fire and twitter and the public will have moved on within the next 12 hours.

I believe ESPN also sat on a story about Ben Roethlisberger, possibly the rape charge? I don't recall the exact details.

The problem for legit media sources like ESPN, SI, etc is that they need actual proof and two sources to go with a story. Blogs and Tweeters can print anything. Sultan could contact Deadspin and tell them that he had a torrid love affair with Manti Te'o this past season, provide a few details and it could be online within an hour. It wouldn't be so easy if he contacted ESPN with that false story. News travels faster than ever and there are infinitely more "sources" out there and an overwhelming majority have no one to answer to. Have you ever heard people rip Deadspin to shreds when they post an inaccurate story? I haven't.

Don't get me wrong, I think that ESPN has completely lost its way and made itself a punchline but I also think that they're not competing on a level playing field with bloggers who have nothing to lose. That doesn't mean blogs can't provide legitimate news. It just means that they have much more margin for error.

[mu03eng]

I believe ESPN also sat on a story about Ben Roethlisberger, possibly the rape charge? I don't recall the exact details.

The problem for legit media sources like ESPN, SI, etc is that they need actual proof and two sources to go with a story. Blogs and Tweeters can print anything. Sultan could contact Deadspin and tell them that he had a torrid love affair with Manti Te'o this past season, provide a few details and it could be online within an hour. It wouldn't be so easy if he contacted ESPN with that false story. News travels faster than ever and there are infinitely more "sources" out there and an overwhelming majority have no one to answer to. Have you ever heard people rip Deadspin to shreds when they post an inaccurate story? I haven't.

Don't get me wrong, I think that ESPN has completely lost its way and made itself a punchline but I also think that they're not competing on a level playing field with bloggers who have nothing to lose.

Listen, I'd agree with you if the Deadspin article was a shoddy, random sourced product, but that article was pretty heavily sourced and researched.  Plus ESPN publish random info as fact in things like coaching openings and player signings, etc.  Again they had 10 days and with all their resources couldn't come up two sources to confirm it?  They have more resources than any other organization, it's a matter of desire.

[MerrittsMustache]

The press release did that...there was no need to actually appear in front of a camera.  

Agreed. And Swarbruck isn't exactly an inherently likable master of the press conference.

[MerrittsMustache]

Listen, I'd agree with you if the Deadspin article was a shoddy, random sourced product, but that article was pretty heavily sourced and researched.  Plus ESPN publish random info as fact in things like coaching openings and player signings, etc.  Again they had 10 days and with all their resources couldn't come up two sources to confirm it?  They have more resources than any other organization, it's a matter of desire.

I should clarify. I'm talking more big picture and not necessarily about this story in particular. Both ESPN and ND made a big mistake by sitting on the story for too long.

[NavinRJohnson]

.

The problem for legit media sources like ESPN, SI, etc is that they need actual proof and two sources to go with a story.

You mean like the story of the dead girlfriend? I'd be interested to know how many spots ESPN and others ran on the whole thing during ND's season. Certainly not a lot of work or fact checking went into putting them together.

[MUMonster03]

Lance Armstrong's master plan worked. He "confessed" on Oprah and then orchestrated this entire story to come out at the same time. He will now be traveling to an island with Ta'o fake GF in hand for some well earned R&R.

On a side note he plans on suing anyone who claims that this is not true or who claims that the story was "enhanced" in anyway.

[4everwarriors]

Whole new meaning to sex on the Internet thing, aina?

[mu03eng]

Whole new meaning to sex on the Internet thing, aina?

I know you meant it as a joke, but that is one of the biggest issues I have with Te'o's story.  He dated a girl for 9 months that he never tried to skype or anything?  I can see the in 9 months they never were physically in the same room, especially in the run up to and during football season, but there is no way anyone doesn't use skype in this day in age to talk to someone let alone try the things 4ever probably does with a horse, tennis racket and a bucket of ice.

[jficke13]

Talking to one of the guys in the office (he's 36) he said: "It's totally normal for guys who grew up their entire lives with facebook and twitter to develop digital relationships... they've never known any different." I'm 26, has life really changed so much for people only 4 years younger than me that this is feasible?

No skype? No scraped together plane ticket to Cali for a weekend? For a visit to the hospital? It's just baffling.

[reinko]

Back in late 90's I had like 15 GF's on AOL IM.

[MerrittsMustache]

Talking to one of the guys in the office (he's 36) he said: "It's totally normal for guys who grew up their entire lives with facebook and twitter to develop digital relationships... they've never known any different." I'm 26, has life really changed so much for people only 4 years younger than me that this is feasible?

No skype? No scraped together plane ticket to Cali for a weekend? For a visit to the hospital? It's just baffling.

He's right. Think of Swarbrick's comments yesterday about how Te'o said he "met" this girl and, by that, he meant, met her online. It's similar to how a lot of 16 year olds don't get their driver's license because they don't go over to their friends' houses to hang out or just get together drive around (we were cool), they go online to hang out with their friends, many of whom they don't actually know in person.

That said, I can't imagine having strong feelings for a person without ever meeting her nor can I imagine a person I did have strong feelings for getting into a terrible accident and/or dying of leukemia and never going to see her.

[jficke13]

I feel really weird saying this, but: man, kids these days...

[LAZER]

Talking to one of the guys in the office (he's 36) he said: "It's totally normal for guys who grew up their entire lives with facebook and twitter to develop digital relationships... they've never known any different." I'm 26, has life really changed so much for people only 4 years younger than me that this is feasible?

No skype? No scraped together plane ticket to Cali for a weekend? For a visit to the hospital? It's just baffling.

I'm with you on this one.  I don't think it's normal and think it's even weirder when it's a famous athlete with a million adoring fans.  Te'o wasn't some nerd living in his parents basement, he was the most popular athlete at a major university and resorting to an online relationship is just flat out bizarre.

While there are details that still need to come out, Te'o created this girl.  He might not have created the scheme or created the whole hoax, but he created "Lennay" from his string of lies and ridiculous exagerations.  And then the fact he continued these weird lies and stories after he knew it was all BS, is almost just as weird as concocting the whole plan.

[JWags85]

While there are details that still need to come out, Te'o created this girl.  He might not have created the scheme or created the whole hoax, but he created "Lennay" from his string of lies and ridiculous exagerations.  And then the fact he continued these weird lies and stories after he knew it was all BS, is almost just as weird as concocting the whole plan.

This is the point I've been making.  Say this Tuiasasopo kid really did play him into thinking this Lennay chick was real through tweets, phone calls, etc...  Te'o flat out lied about meeting her in California, played along with his dad saying she came to Hawaii with him, manufactured key details of her story which made her appear very real and significant to the media.  To say he was an innocent victim is complete BS.

[jficke13]

on Mike & Mike this morning while I was driving in, Golic danced around what might be the only somewhat plausible explanation:

Teo got scammed, when the reveal came and he found out he got scammed he thought it was best to try to cover it up than come clean, and so he went along with it hoping it would go away.

Is he an idiot? Definitely. Is it still unfathomable that a D1 football player would resort to an online girlfriend in the first place? Absolutely.

[GGGG]

Talking to one of the guys in the office (he's 36) he said: "It's totally normal for guys who grew up their entire lives with facebook and twitter to develop digital relationships... they've never known any different." I'm 26, has life really changed so much for people only 4 years younger than me that this is feasible?

No skype? No scraped together plane ticket to Cali for a weekend? For a visit to the hospital? It's just baffling.

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.

[mu03eng]

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 completely get the forming of a relationship online having never met.  But I don't get the lack of video chat and I certainly don't get a high profile football player going for this sort of thing.  Maybe we should be applauding it because clearly he was chaste and getting to know someone for who they are not what they look like or just to get them in bed.  I just don't believe that a 22 year old football acts that way.

Plus he is on record saying he met her.  So to Sultan's early point, Te'o is lying, its just a question of what is he lying about and why.

[jficke13]

Plus he is on record saying he met her.  So to Sultan's early point, Te'o is lying, its just a question of what is he lying about and why.

I'm warming up to the idea that he got scammed and tried to lie his way out of it. He realized how goofy it was to have never met the "love of his life" so he said he met her a few times rather than get questioned about it. (should have been a bit of a tipoff really)

[mu03eng]

I'm warming up to the idea that he got scammed and tried to lie his way out of it. He realized how goofy it was to have never met the "love of his life" so he said he met her a few times rather than get questioned about it. (should have been a bit of a tipoff really)

I suppose it could be true, but that would have to be after she "died".  Teammates have already said that they were in the room with him when he got the death call and was completely beside himself with grief.  So either he didn't find out until after that point or he played his teammates, which only further damages his draft stock.

[warriorchick]

I believe we may have found the shirt for the student section to wear for the ND game.  The lettering is even closer to MU gold than ND gold.

[StillAWarrior]

I'm warming up to the idea that he got scammed and tried to lie his way out of it. He realized how goofy it was to have never met the "love of his life" so he said he met her a few times rather than get questioned about it. (should have been a bit of a tipoff really)

I'm warming up to the idea that he got scammed but realized that the totally on-line/phone relationship was a little creepy so he made up a little back story to make the relationship seem a little more normal.  People's reaction here (and elsewhere) to the thought of a football star being involved in a chaste, totally on-line/phone relationship does suggest that it is viewed as a very odd relationship (and I don't disagree).

My first reaction (as posted on the first page of this thread) was that the thought of Te'o being a victim of a scam was "pretty unlikely" (and that he'd still have to be an idiot and a liar).  However, the completely unequivocal support by ND makes me think that they're completely convinced that was scammed.  And Swarbrick's deflection of the questions about the inconsistencies make me think that he's expecting Te'o to own up to the lies that he told during the process.

[mu03eng]

I'm warming up to the idea that he got scammed but realized that the totally on-line/phone relationship was a little creepy so he made up a little back story to make the relationship seem a little more normal.  People's reaction here (and elsewhere) to the thought of a football star being involved in a chaste, totally on-line/phone relationship does suggest that it is viewed as a very odd relationship (and I don't disagree).

My first reaction (as posted on the first page of this thread) was that the thought of Te'o being a victim of a scam was "pretty unlikely" (and that he'd still have to be an idiot and a liar).  However, the completely unequivocal support by ND makes me think that they're completely convinced that was scammed.  And Swarbrick's deflection of the questions about the inconsistencies make me think that he's expecting Te'o to own up to the lies that he told during the process.

But even if you think of the best case scenario, the lies he told are still pretty bad and reflect poorly on his character and viability as a leader on a team.  This is why I don't get why ND went to bat for him.  Once they knew it was a scam, should have revealed it and let the chips fall where they may on Te'o.

[StillAWarrior]

But even if you think of the best case scenario, the lies he told are still pretty bad and reflect poorly on his character and viability as a leader on a team.  This is why I don't get why ND went to bat for him.  Once they knew it was a scam, should have revealed it and let the chips fall where they may on Te'o.

I agree with you...no way Te'o comes out of this looking very good.

I'm not sure whey ND went to bat for him either.  I can understand why they might have been willing to sit on things and let Te'o break the story, but I'm not sure why the press conference.  I do think that the press conference has helped Te'o (it makes me more inclined to believe that he was duped), but I'm not sure why ND would put itself out there like that.  It wasn't necessary and if it turns out that Te'o was in on it, it's going to make ND look pretty bad.

[RJax55]

Glad to see some love for Yahoo! out there.  I've been reading comments saying that Deadspin is the last bastion of real sports journalism, but Yahoo! has done some great work recently.  In my opinion, they're probably the best.

Completely agree. IMO, Yahoo! Sports is currently the best for sports journalism. In particular, Charles Robinson has done outstanding work and is the best investigative sports reporter out there.

ESPN has the resources to do this work, but obliviously there's no interest.You would think an ESPN entity like Bill Simmons' Grantland would be the perfect place to host such an endeavor. Instead, you get fluff.

[brewcity77]

This is my favorite news story in years. Right up there with Michael McGee's North Side extortion racket.