Manti T'eo & The Mystery of the Undead Girlfriend

[aawagner011]

To what extent do y'all believe he may or may not have been involved in th hoax?

[dfwabel]

So now the "girlfriend's Twitter account" is again active?

If you go review Te'o Twitter history (before he became verified) does tweet that account along with his father's in the same message on July 8.

In honor of the Pacific Islanders everywhere.."How Bizarre"

[rams80]

So a big-time football player at Notre Dame fell in love with an imaginary chick instead of racking up some tail in South Bend?

His stock should drop just for being a dumbass.

Or, one might argue this is a sign of higher intelligence. This is Northern Indiana we are talking about after all.

[Sodboy13]

Let's throw a couple of other people involved, and a couple extra layers of WTF-ness, onto the pile.

[OnWis97]

There is NO way he didn't know what was going on. Unbelievable story.

Isn't there some sort of mental illness that makes people do this type of thing? I could swear I saw a non-sports story similar to this. Then again, maybe I'm making up the part about seeing it before.

I was thinking of Munchhausen Syndrome, which causes people to do things that will draw sympathy. I have no clue whether this is the type of thing they do...I think most just try to get physical illnesses so they can be cared for.

http://en.wikipedia....hausen_syndrome

Edit, after reading that it seems like this does not really fit the description, but maybe it fits some other mental illness.

[NJTank]

On the plus side if Manti Te'o does not make it in the NFL he can write for a Soap Oprea.

[OnWis97]

This remind me of the old girlfriend in Pennsylvania routine, very strange.

Maybe Mant Te'o is gay and was afraid some one at Notre Dame would find out and make his life miserable.

Its sad enough his grandma died but to make up a girlfriend strange.

Did he go to Walmart and pick a picture frame and whatever girl looked the best was the object of his fantasy.

Oh god, I hope not. I do not want the first big-time team sport athlete to be this open of a target for the "we don't hate him cuz he's gay; we hate him cuz he lied" line.

The rare "self quote"...

The more I think about this, the more I think this is a possibility. It's starting to look unlikely that he had no idea about this hoax. Sure, most people (particularly if they are from Hawaii and going to school in Indiana) could just make up a fake girlfriend. But if he gets sick of pretending, killing her off in a car-wreck achieves something that a break up does not: it provides an excuse to go an extended period of time without dating. College kids break up and tend to get back out there, but a loss like this is something where people will understand why he cannot bring himself to date for quite some time.

And the timing with his grandmother's death makes total sense, since he was already mournful it was easier to fake the sorrow of losing the girlfriend. Under this scenario, the worst thing he does is exploit her death for his own lie. But as I said, it's a huge opening for the "we don't care that he's gay; we are upset that he lied" cop out.

[CS85]

This changes everything regarding his draft status. The guy's mental faculties are now in severe question, and I'm hoping he comes out tomorrow and does a press conference for his own sake. The mishandling of this by T'eo, his family, Notre Dame, and hell - everybody involved has been incredible. Damage control is an impossibility. Now there's nothing left but salvaging the final bits of dignity and showing some level of transparency, if any.

edit: I didn't realize that T'eo had released a statement. From what it sounds like he's throwing up his hands and saying that he was a victim of somebody's "sick joke," and was totally duped from the start. If this is the case, it wouldn't be the first time an athlete has been proven to be an absolute idiot in regards to women.

However, there are too many holes that weren't addressed.

• What is his connection to Tuiasosopo?
  
• Why didn't this come out earlier? What did he have to lose besides his pride?
  
• Was there money involved? Was he part of a scam? If so where did the money come from?
  
• Why didn't ESPN break this story earlier? Did Deadspin just do the legwork they weren't willing to do?
  

[bigmike]

This whole story is really confusing and it really doesn't make sense as to why Teo would make this up.

But I just don't believe he was a "victim" of this. His interviews are just too inconstant IMO. I mean in some interviews he says that they met and all this crap. Besides, how could he be so emotionally attached to a person he met over the internet.

Even if there is some chance that he really believed this girl was real and was not apart of the hoax, than he played it out. If he only knew her through the internet and phone, then why was he playing out this relationship so much in interviews? I mean he plays it out like they had this really close relationship and all this garbage. I think hes in on it 100%.

I don't understand why he would do this, its not like it really helps him even if it is true, I mean the media would have soaked up his grandma's death either way, so I just don't see what his motive is behind this unless he is a closeted attention whore.

One thing is for sure.... AJ McCarron's girlfriend is very real and so is his National Championship ring .

[Geoff]

It doesn't make sense why he'd make this up but crazy people do things that don't make sense. I'm not saying he's crazy, I'm not saying he's making it up completely but there are too many holes in his story.

• The South Bend Tribune has now said that the source that claimed Te'o and Kekua had actually met in person was Brian Te'o but why woud Manti lie to his mom and dad? Article now comes up 404
  
• The guy who is allegedly behind all this has had several exchanges with Manti on Twitter.
  
• He claims to have found out she was fake on 12/6 but in an interview at the Heisman presentation he mentions how he hates cancer and how it took lives of family members and his girlfriend.
  
• He claims to have found out on 12/6 when the woman he knew as Kekua called him and told him she wasn't really dead and had a story to explain it all. He then received more calls from her and that's what made him go to his coaches on 12/26. He also didn't inform his family until 12/26.
  

I don't know about you guys, but that first call on 12/6 would have been enough for me to need to talk to/tell someone. I wouldn't have waited 20 days to tell my coaches and family. Why not contact the paper and set the record straight about how you met, or didn't meet, your girlfriend. Especially when they run multiple articles saying you've met her.

[CS85]

This whole story is really confusing and it really doesn't make sense as to why Teo would make this up.

But I just don't believe he was a "victim" of this. His interviews are just too inconstant IMO. I mean in some interviews he says that they met and all this crap. Besides, how could he be so emotionally attached to a person he met over the internet.

This is the least controversial part of this story, IMHO. People do this all the time in today's world.

Even if there is some chance that he really believed this girl was real and was not apart of the hoax, than he played it out. If he only knew her through the internet and phone, then why was he playing out this relationship so much in interviews? I mean he plays it out like they had this really close relationship and all this garbage. I think hes in on it 100%.

I don't understand why he would do this, its not like it really helps him even if it is true, I mean the media would have soaked up his grandma's death either way, so I just don't see what his motive is behind this unless he is a closeted attention whore.

Pride's the only rational reason I can think of.

One thing is for sure.... AJ McCarron's girlfriend is very real and so is his National Championship ring .

[bigmike]

Well I get that people talk over the internet and people get attached, but I just find it bizarre that a Heisman candidate linebacker who plays for Notre Dame, and is literally one of the most well known people in sports this year would become so emotionally attached to a person on the internet, I just find that odd. I mean where exactly did he have the time to just connect with this person over the internet constantly?

The whole story is crazy and confusing. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of it.

Edit: Just found this article about what a teammate thinks about it.

http://www.chatsports.com/notre-dame-fighting-irish/a/Notre-Dame-Teammate-Says-Manti-Teo-is-a-Liar-and-Very-Good-Actor-1-7250779#

Even if Teo was duped at some point, he decided to buy into the publicity for some reason and play the story out.

I'd find it hard to believe that his draft stock would drop because of this, I mean its freaking crazy and all but he is a good football player and its not like he has your normal drug/DUI character problems (although its clear he may have some character problems anyways).

[CS85]

It's beyond odd that he seemingly didn't have the common sense to sniff out the BS, but again...maybe plausible deniability was the plan all along.

[dfwabel]

This changes everything regarding his draft status. The guy's mental faculties are now in severe question, and I'm hoping he comes out tomorrow and does a press conference for his own sake. The mishandling of this by T'eo, his family, Notre Dame, and hell - everybody involved has been incredible. Damage control is an impossibility. Now there's nothing left but salvaging the final bits of dignity and showing some level of transparency, if any.

edit: I didn't realize that T'eo had released a statement. From what it sounds like he's throwing up his hands and saying that he was a victim of somebody's "sick joke," and was totally duped from the start. If this is the case, it wouldn't be the first time an athlete has been proven to be an absolute idiot in regards to women.

However, there are too many holes that weren't addressed.

• What is his connection to Tuiasosopo?
  
• Why didn't this come out earlier? What did he have to lose besides his pride?
  
• Was there money involved? Was he part of a scam? If so where did the money come from?
  
• Why didn't ESPN break this story earlier? Did Deadspin just do the legwork they weren't willing to do?
  

From the press conference (full transcript):

Q. Did Notre Dame notify any law enforcement agency or the enforcement arm of the NCAA?

JACK SWARBRICK: No, there's no factual predicate for an NCAA violation we could find. That, of course, was one of our important focuses early on. And, no, we did not refer this to criminal authorities. We shared, as I said, all of our information with the Te'os, who in turn shared it with their representatives to consider it further.

Q. Well, considering at the very least someone was harassing a star player for the university, and potentially there could have been an extortion component of it you said you didn't know at the beginning of it why didn't Notre Dame contact law enforcement?

JACK SWARBRICK: Well, because we believed that was the victim's decision to make, and Manti was the victim here. And he and his family, in consultation with whomever they choose to consult with, had that decision to make. We were not the victim. We've been impacted, but I don't want to confuse this at all. Manti Te'o was the victim of this scam.

Q. Was there a discussion about contacting law enforcement?

JACK SWARBRICK: Yes, there was a discussion of anything any response that might be appropriate.

Q. Do you still think that was the right decision based on what's happened to this point?

JACK SWARBRICK: I do.

Q. Thank you.

Q. Hi, Jack. Sorry to have to have this press conference tonight, but at any point during any investigation, was there anything uncovered where there may be at some point any extortion or money asked from Manti or the university?

JACK SWARBRICK: Nothing in our investigation revealed an ask which had been made. We're sensitive to the fact that one might be forthcoming in the future, and that's one of the things that impacted considerations of how to proceed.

As far as Deadspin is concerned, a co-author of their story, Timothy Burke, told LeBatard on radio that they were tipped off last week via an email. Burke said the email was very vague, but indicated that the story does not check out. When they did their first Google search of her name, they noticed that everything about "Lennay Kekua" was that she had died; nothing to indicate that she did anything alive and that the used were traced to a woman who was alive and it went further and further.

Plus, keep in mind the woman who is online "Lennay Kekua" was unaware that her likeness was being used for at least four years.

[CS85]

Ah, thanks for that, dwafbel. I went to sleep maybe 30 minutes after this story broke and have been trying to play catchup over the last 2-3 hours.

What I'm left with then are these questions:

1. What was Manti T'eo's involvement/motivation for this, if he indeed was a co-conspirator?
   
2. ...Why? An all-encompassing WHY for this whole situation. A prank gone bad? Fabricated narrative to glean national praise? Hush-hush campaign to hedge his bets for awards?
   

[dfwabel]

Text from The Big Lead:

Manti Te’o discussed Lennay Kekua in

on November 13. He told the interviewer he received the last letter from her before the Stanford game on Oct. 13. The game was 31 days after her supposed death on Sept. 12. If we can assume he didn’t forget Notre Dame’s schedule, it seems he believed (or pretended to believe) she wrote the letters ahead of time?

His agency, CAA, must be working so many hours tonight. Poor folks.

[Island_Style]

Does no one fact check anymore? All of these reports this football season and not one network did their homework.

[CS85]

Jack Swarbick was breathing like a winded clydesdale during the Notre Dame press conference yesterday evening.

[Viper]

[leopard88]

I did some digging and found this exclusive picture of Teo's girlfriend --