Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend = hoax?

**Tre4ISU** · 01-17-2013, 12:21 AM

Originally Posted by CyDude16

This feels like its one big article in the Onion, but its so awesome... Haha

When I first hit the link on twitter, I thought for sure I was going to The Onion and really kind of thought it was in poor taste. I was about halfway through the article when it hit me that it was real.

**isuchicago** · 01-17-2013, 01:16 AM

If I was the AD, I would keep a recorder that said "no comment" with me..no way he's selling anyone on this horse ****. ND should just shut up and stay as far away as possible. They're really going with "they were supposed to meet many times, she just stood him up time after time..but she's definitely the love of his life"?? He needs to stop talking for awhile

Swarbrick deflected a question about the multiple instances in which Te'o fed reporters stories about having met Kekua by saying Te'o could answer them himself. Remember? The South Bend Tribune said they supposedly locked eyes after the ND-Stanford game in 2009. The same paper later wrote that Teo's father, Brian, said Kekua sometimes traveled to Hawaii to see Te'o, though the family had never met her. Te'o told ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski Kekua was "the love of my life." "But I will tell you this was exclusively an online relationship," Swarbrick said at one point, later adding that he knew Te'o and Kekua had also communicated over the phone. One reporter who had written a story about an in-person meeting between Te'o and Kekua going as far back as 2009 asked for clarity. Swarbrick said Te'o had told him the inital meeting with Kekua had taken place online. "Several meetings were set up," Swarbrick said, "where Lennay never showed, including some in Hawaii." So: Manti Te'o was drawn in this far by a "girlfriend" he never met and who blew him off more than once when he did try to meet her.

**Mumbai1986** · 01-17-2013, 07:40 AM

I need a press conference from everyone involved! This is so damn unbelievable.

**Cyclones_R_GR8** · 01-17-2013, 07:55 AM

Over the course of your life you see and hear some pretty bizarre things but this whole story has got to be right there at the top.

**cycloneworld** · 01-17-2013, 08:23 AM

I could believe Teo if this was a newer relationship. But they've been "dating" for 3 years! Three! And not once did he want to meet her? There were reports they were going to met up several times but she never showed...after awhile, don't you get skeptical?

And if she really was the "love of your life", how in the world do you never go visit her in the hospital? How do you not want to see the obituary? How do you not go to the funeral??

The simpler answer is, he is in on it.

My guess is it started out as a small prank, mushroomed into a national story and they couldn't turn back and had to keep running with it.

**Mr Janny** · 01-17-2013, 08:27 AM

Originally Posted by cycloneworld

I could believe Teo if this was a newer relationship. But they've been "dating" for 3 years! Three! And not once did he want to meet her? There were reports they were going to met up several times but she never showed...after awhile, don't you get skeptical?

And if she really was the "love of your life", how in the world do you never go visit her in the hospital? How do you not want to see the obituary? How do you not go to the funeral??

The simpler answer is, he is in on it.

My guess is it started out as a small prank, mushroomed into a national story and they couldn't turn back and had to keep running with it.

100% this. He never found the time to visit the "love of his life" when she was in the hospital? Horsecrap. he was in on it. There's no way he wasn't.

**azepp** · 01-17-2013, 08:31 AM

People do weird things, guys. Especially when a religion that is foreign to most of us is involved.

**LindenCy** · 01-17-2013, 08:35 AM

Originally Posted by BallSoHard4Cy

I don't know what to believe.

1.) I made sure to read the article before I heard anything that way I could make my own starting opinion. After that I felt like he did it all for fame.

2.) listening to Miller and Brinson, some guy called in and said this made him think of a guy who was in the army, who said he had a gf online, so he never went out on the town with them. Later he learned there never was a gf and he was gay. So that was what I thought next. It would make sense because he is going pro and can come out now that he isnt playing for ND ("catholic") anymore.

3.) I watch SC and they release the first ND and Te'o statements, now I'm not sure.

4.) hear about the catfish tweets that were written by the account suspected to be the perpetrator. Now I think Te'o is telling the truth

5.) see tweets that Manti was friends with perpetrator, which makes no sense if the guy is "cat fishing" him. I have no idea now.

someone fill me in with the recent news.

For good or bad, coming out right before the NFL draft would not be a wise move.

**ianoconnor** · 01-17-2013, 08:37 AM

Originally Posted by cycloneworld

I could believe Teo if this was a newer relationship. But they've been "dating" for 3 years! Three! And not once did he want to meet her? There were reports they were going to met up several times but she never showed...after awhile, don't you get skeptical?

And if she really was the "love of your life", how in the world do you never go visit her in the hospital? How do you not want to see the obituary? How do you not go to the funeral??

The simpler answer is, he is in on it.

My guess is it started out as a small prank, mushroomed into a national story and they couldn't turn back and had to keep running with it.

Well said.

**LindenCy** · 01-17-2013, 08:39 AM

This was in the Yardbarker feed on the right column today: Report: ND player thinks Te'o lied

**cowgirl836** · 01-17-2013, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by cycloneworld

I could believe Teo if this was a newer relationship. But they've been "dating" for 3 years! Three! And not once did he want to meet her? There were reports they were going to met up several times but she never showed...after awhile, don't you get skeptical?

And if she really was the "love of your life", how in the world do you never go visit her in the hospital? How do you not want to see the obituary? How do you not go to the funeral??

The simpler answer is, he is in on it.

My guess is it started out as a small prank, mushroomed into a national story and they couldn't turn back and had to keep running with it.

yeah..........that's all rather unbelievable. You'd have to be incredibly naive or dumb as **** to not figure out that an internet girlfriend who refuses to meet up with you in person is probably lying.

And how terrible is the media for never verifying her death or any of the other details?! On another board I frequent, there was a woman who posted that her husband had been killed in an accident and she was left widowed and pregnant. A few of us wanted to donate for her baby, but me being me, I'm like let's just check this out first. It took all of 20 minutes to find the story of a car accident, find pictures, and an obituary notice that matched up with what the poster had said. And we didn't have either of their full names to work off of!

**Clonehomer** · 01-17-2013, 08:53 AM

It's not like ND never played games in California while they were dating. Did he ever get her tickets?

**Clonefan94** · 01-17-2013, 09:14 AM

Here's what I think happened. Te'o thought he had a great story line in this, so he made it all up. National Championship buzz starts fowing and the media wants to jump all over this story. He starts getting calls from reporters and other media outlets that they want to sit down and do one on ones with him, to iron out the details. He realizes the scrutiny is going to be too much on this and decides to take it to the coaches and say, "Hey, here's the deal." Notre Dame decides this is a really bad idea to blow this up before the NC game, so, let's focus on the game. In the mean time, our PR people will come up with something to try and make it look like you are the victim here. The other option, that the story now is the truth, is way too hard to believe.

Seriously, I hope what's being said is true. I just can't believe someone is that naive. Especially someone with the "stud" chops he's got. You don't date someone for 3 years without meeting them. Maybe if you've never left your mom's basement, but not with this kind of fame.

Although there is still part of me that hopes Te'o did come up with it all and was a grand plan to scheme the world. Because to me, a bad idea gone bad is better than being so blind to the world around you, that you wouldn't realize something's up. How do you have the love of your life for 3 years an never meet them in person. Seriously, I find that more disturbing than lying about it to gain sympathy. Because if someone was able to pull this off on him, imaging what a genuinely smart person could do, after he's worth millions of dollars. Hell, imagine how much money a person who actually had cancer could get from him.

There was one other thing I heard on the radio this morning, that had me thining of "The Truman Story" though. His parent supposedly said that he met the girl and she had been to Hawaii. The cell phone was possibly registered to another family member. Could this story be perpetuated by his parents, in hopes of getting him extra sympathy, and they played it to him to keep him in the dark about the whole thing? A lot of conjecture and speculation in that though. But if you were to believe anyone and be duped like this, believigng my parents would be the only ones to be able to possibly pull it off.

**CyJack13** · 01-17-2013, 09:15 AM

Originally Posted by LindenCy

For good or bad, coming out right before the NFL draft would not be a wise move.

I would not be surprised if this is the next step for Te'o. And it actually might be his best shot at making this story blow over, the coming out of the Heisman runner up would blow the fake gf story out of the water. Plus he would gain sympathy from a lot of people and while it might make his transition to the NFL tougher, every NFL player is already going to give him **** and think he's a freak because of this story.

**CycloneErik** · 01-17-2013, 09:19 AM

Originally Posted by cowgirl836

yeah..........that's all rather unbelievable. You'd have to be incredibly naive or dumb as **** to not figure out that an internet girlfriend who refuses to meet up with you in person is probably lying.

And how terrible is the media for never verifying her death or any of the other details?! On another board I frequent, there was a woman who posted that her husband had been killed in an accident and she was left widowed and pregnant. A few of us wanted to donate for her baby, but me being me, I'm like let's just check this out first. It took all of 20 minutes to find the story of a car accident, find pictures, and an obituary notice that matched up with what the poster had said. And we didn't have either of their full names to work off of!

People keep mentioning this whole verification thing like the media dropped the ball in a major way. I'm not the biggest supporter of sports reporters, but I think this is the kind of detail you would naturally take for granted. You have the feel good story, and theoretically, something that nobody is going to be lying about.

This isn't a media issue. Nobody would have checked into those details. I'm assuming that no one here looked into them when they heard the story. You just feel bad for him and assume it's true.

In this case, you stop feeling bad, because it's obviously an enormous fraud, but in the moment, it's just something nobody would be lying about.