🏈 Deadspin: Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend, the most heartbreaking and inspirational story of the colle

[CrimsonPirate]

Oh Snap!

Bonjour!

 

[doemasters]

i dated her before he did :icon_eek:

 

[planomateo]

Bonjour!

Finally someone caught it

 

[hawkman]

Brent Musberger thinks Teo's fake girlfriend is hot.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

This very situation screams for this tender ballad:

[video=youtube;sIc8krqspIc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIc8krqspIc[/video]

 

[Irish#1]

Greetings folks!

First let me say that at this moment I'm leaning towards the "Manti was duped" corner, but I'm not 100% sold yet. At what point did he realize he was a victim I don't know, but we should find out today as he is going to give an interview with Jeremy Schapp. The reason I'm leaning towards Manti was duped, is because of Jack Swarbrick's PC last night. Neither Jack or the university would stick their neck out like that just to cover one students butt. That's way too much to put at stake. Here's a link that might help. http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2013/01/17/hook-line-and-sinker-manti-teo-reeled-into-hoax/


I do question the media right now. Adrien Wojocasjricki (sp) of the four letter network said he couldn't find an obituary of her death or anything about her car accident back in October. Why didn't he dig deeper at that time instead of running the interview without checking his facts? We now have a player for the Cardinals who said she is real? Wow what a bizzare situation.

 

[PhillyGirl]

He and his family mentioned meeting her and visits to Hawaii. He also mentioned a meeting at Stanford.

Sounds like he couldn't keep his facts straight.

 

[Irish#1]

http://collegespun.com/big-east/not...dents-take-on-manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-hoax

 

[PhillyGirl]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/01/17/169591741/manti-teo-story-attributed-to-parents-hard-to-reconcile-with-hoax-report

Interesting read; looks at the initial story about the girlfriend.

 

[TerryP]

The guy who had a sit down interview with him for Game Day said that he couldnt find any record of a death certificate or a news report of the supposed massive car wreck and then when he asked Mentai to speak to the family he said they would rather stay out of it and when he asked for pictures he said they would rather not give those either... and he said that didnt raise any flags to him, yikes.

Am I the only one who finds this really funny? Just look at the coverage by the reporter? On ESPN today, Wojo said "We just all really wanted this story to be true." This was in response to Zarniacks question about following up on the story. Checking death records, photographs, car accident reports. Etc etc. He admitted essentially to not following due diligence because Manti more or less told him not to. We should not expect more from media types. ( No offense Terry. Not including you.) The general media cares more about it's agendas than it does truth.

I hope Wojo, Notre Dame, Manti (whom I believe is part of the hoax) and ESPN are massacred for this.

Sure, I'm a jerk. Still, I like to see liars fall.

You just have to chalk that up to good investigating reporting, yep.

Greetings folks!

First let me say that at this moment I'm leaning towards the "Manti was duped" corner, but I'm not 100% sold yet. At what point did he realize he was a victim I don't know, but we should find out today as he is going to give an interview with Jeremy Schapp. The reason I'm leaning towards Manti was duped, is because of Jack Swarbrick's PC last night. Neither Jack or the university would stick their neck out like that just to cover one students butt. That's way too much to put at stake. Here's a link that might help. http://www.herloyalsons.com/blog/2013/01/17/hook-line-and-sinker-manti-teo-reeled-into-hoax/


I do question the media right now. Adrien Wojocasjricki (sp) of the four letter network said he couldn't find an obituary of her death or anything about her car accident back in October. Why didn't he dig deeper at that time instead of running the interview without checking his facts? We now have a player for the Cardinals who said she is real? Wow what a bizzare situation.

Let me put this in a different context for a second.

I can't speak for you Irish, but I can speak to the Bama fans in this thread.

How many times have you seen a reporter covering a story not include details that we all knew were true? I'm not making light of this situation, but when there were current football players, and former football players, at that party in Auburn where people were killed did you really believe the constant, "this is not about Auburn football?" In retrospect, considering the implemented curfew and arrests, etc., it was about Auburn football. It was the culture that had grown down there—no, make that flourished.

People write things because they want to believe it's the truth.

It's confirmation bias. And, if you think about it in all contexts of life, you see it all the time.

Gene Wojciechowski wanted to believe the story. Even with evidence—the lack of evidence—not supporting the story he just wanted to believe the story.

Honestly, I can't blame him.

Should he have taken it to another level of research? Hell yes. Would it be logical to think a kid would have made all of this up? No. Not in the least.

 

[PhillyGirl]

http://collegespun.com/big-east/not...dents-take-on-manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-hoax

Thanks for the share. I find it fascinating that his own teammates were suspicious/weird about it so early on .. I didn't hear that side of the story. And the whole lei thing .. Wow.

You know, one weird theory that has been floating around is that Te'o was actually gay and that he DID have a relationship; just with a man. This relationship was real but the woman he met in person and talked about was a fabrication/someone paid off to pose as her. When the pressure began to mount (from himself, his parents, his faith, etc), he ended the secret relationship and either pretended he/she died to end it and go off with a big publicity stunt bang, or that the person actually did perish and Te'o was mourning someone .. just not the woman we were led to believe.

VERY strange and dark stuff floating around. There's even a rumor that he KILLED his girlfriend and tried to cover it up :chat_headscratch:

 

[PhillyGirl]

Let me put this in a different context for a second.

I can't speak for you Irish, but I can speak to the Bama fans in this thread.

How many times have you seen a reporter covering a story not include details that we all knew were true? I'm not making light of this situation, but when there were current football players, and former football players, at that party in Auburn where people were killed did you really believe the constant, "this is not about Auburn football?" In retrospect, considering the implemented curfew and arrests, etc., it was about Auburn football. It was the culture that had grown down there—no, make that flourished.

People write things because they want to believe it's the truth.

It's confirmation bias. And, if you think about it in all contexts of life, you see it all the time.

Gene Wojciechowski wanted to believe the story. Even with evidence—the lack of evidence—not supporting the story he just wanted to believe the story.

Honestly, I can't blame him.

Should he have taken it to another level of research? Hell yes. Would it be logical to think a kid would have made all of this up? No. Not in the least.

Agreed. I mean, who would think someone would do that? Quote from Wojciechowski (wow, I am Polish but even I have trouble with that one!!):

"Well, I sat across from him and I was moved by his story and it was heartbreaking and heartwarming and as it turns out totally untrue. But short of asking to see a death certificate, I'm not sure what most people would do differently in that case. But in researching it before I wrote the script, I remember trying to find an obituary for his girlfriend and could not. And couldn't find any record of this car accident. But we asked Manti, could we contact Lennay's family and he said the family would prefer not to be contacted. Could we have some photos of Lennay? He said the family would prefer not to provide those. And so in that instance, and at that moment, you simply think that you have to respect those wishes. But in retrospect, you can see where some of those things simply were not adding up to make sense. Easy to say now. At the time it never enters your mind somebody was involved in that kind of hoax."

 

[psychojoe]

Am I the only one who finds this really funny? Just look at the coverage by the reporter? On ESPN today, Wojo said "We just all really wanted this story to be true." This was in response to Zarniacks question about following up on the story. Checking death records, photographs, car accident reports. Etc etc. He admitted essentially to not following due diligence because Manti more or less told him not to. We should not expect more from media types. ( No offense Terry. Not including you.) The general media cares more about it's agendas than it does truth. I hope Wojo, Notre Dame, Manti (whom I believe is part of the hoax) and ESPN are massacred for this.

Sure, I'm a jerk. Still, I like to see liars fall.

My name is Psychojoe and I approve of this post.

 

[PhillyGirl]

Dunno if anyone has heard this aspect of the story, but apparently an NFL player is claiming the girlfriend was real?

Reagan Mauia, an Arizona Cardinals fullback, said he believes Kekua existed because he met her in person when he and other Polynesian teammates and Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu went to do charity work in American Samoa in June 2011.
"This was before her and Manti," Mauia said Wednesday evening. "I don't think Manti was even in the picture, but she and I became good friends. We would talk off and on, just checking up on each other kind of thing. I am close to her family. When she was going through the loss of her father, I was -- I offered a comforting shoulder and just someone to bounce her emotions off. That was just from meeting her in Samoa."
Mauia said Tuiasosopo -- whom Mauia believes is Kekua's cousin -- introduced the two. After the initial meeting, Mauia said he met her at an "after-party" for all of the athletes involved in the camp.
"She was tall," he said. "Volleyball-type of physique. She was athletic, tall, beautiful. Long hair. Polynesian. She looked like a model ... "
When reached by ESPN.com on Wednesday night, former University of Washington and NFL quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo acknowledged that he is a cousin of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo but said he never had met or heard of Kekua.
Mauia said it is his understanding that Kekua's mother is operating her Twitter account. He said he'd never met her mother. When told by a reporter that she apparently might not have existed, Mauia said: "No, she is real."

- ESPN (http://espn.go.com/college-football...ry-manti-teo-girlfriend-death-apparently-hoax)

 

[TerryP]

Agreed. I mean, who would think someone would do that? Quote from Wojciechowski (wow, I am Polish but even I have trouble with that one!!):

If I've spelled Wojo's name once, I've spelled it 1000 times.

---

---

After thinking about this for almost a day here's my thoughts on this whole story.

How it started I haven't a clue. But after it started is where I begin...

I recall, vividly, the amount of publicity Te'o received when he "spurned" USC and committed to Notre Dame. If you followed recruiting back then you'll remember his story was talked about for weeks after it happened and then further on after NSD. He was in the spotlight like he'd never been before.

That kind of attention is addictive. Especially, and here's a key here, where they are psychological issues. I truly believe Te'o needs psychiatric help.

That "beast" he's wrestling with was fed: fed to the point of over indulgence. The more it was fed, the more it grew.

When it gets to the point, assuming part of this is true and the story was revealed in Dec., the attention was too much for him to avoid talking about it in Miami. Even given opportunity to squash it, or at least say, "this is something I don't want to discuss," he did nothing but continue to feed the beast.

Now, he'll never live this down.

However, in his near future one truth exists. The majority of NFL teams care more about his 40 time than they do some psychological issues he's fighting.

In a sense, even with this being exposed right now, that inner beast is still being fed.

 

[TheChief]

Clint's interview with Teo's girlfriend.

 

[TheChief]

Really though, why should this surprise anyone. I mean, half of America was duped by a fake Hawaiian.

 

[PhillyGirl]

Really though, why should this surprise anyone. I mean, half of America was duped by a fake Hawaiian.

Can we please avoid making this into a political conspiracy thread, and keep it on the topic at hand: Manti Te'o and the girlfriend hoax? Thank you, roll tide! :smile:

 

[planomateo]

Maybe Manti's been hit in the head too many times...how soon before we hear this reasoning.

 

[PhillyGirl]

Soon. I'm on my break watching CNN on TV, i believe i just heard them say his press conference should be within the hour. (lol how many college kids have press conferences to address claims of a fake GF hahah this world, I swear)