The Manti Te'o Girlfriend Hoax

Stringer

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Cliffnotes: Manti Te'o is the star linebacker who led Notre Dame to the national championship game against Alabama. He finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting and was widely regarded as the best defensive player in college football. His public stature really started growing in September, as the Irish were winning behind Te'o's great leadership and play. Also in September, his grandmother and "girlfriend" died on the same day, and Te'o continued to play great and inspired football because of them. His legend started growing - a great feel good story, right? He was interviewed and questioned repeatedly throughout the season about how the remembrance of his girlfriend propelled him to win. He had every reporter in the country duped even without one photo with or of Lennay Kekua, said girlfriend. Well, every reporter except for those at Deadspin.com. Here is the article that debunked everything:

Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax

After this story blew up yesterday, Manti admitted that she wasn't real, and that HE was the victim of a sick hoax. That's great Manti. You played along souping up this story in every interview this year talking about how she was the love of your life. In short, he's one of the biggest frauds that America has seen in a while. The most likely scenario is that this was drawn up by Te'o [and his family] to draw attention and publicity. Well, it worked, for four months at least.

How pathetic that we are in a time that even these feel-good stories need to be questioned.
 

KTF40

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He said his girlfriend died of leukemia in September.

And now he admits she didn't exist.

Garnering public sympathy like that is pretty low.

While there is much reason to believe he was lying the whole time, Notre Dame hired a firm to investigate his story and deemed him to be credible.

We don't know all the facts yet to know for sure what the deal is.
 

thirteenbyseven

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Sports talk radio is burning out here in Southern California with the story. Some people are theorizing that Manti Te'o and Ronaiah Tuiasosopo created the girlfriend hoax to cover there own gay online relationship. The Tuiasosopo family are a prominent football family at USC. Several went on the NFL but Ronaiah is a 22-year-old Christian musician.
 

mikeyh9in

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Agreed that we don't know all of the facts, but --

From the facts that have been presented, it is pretty certain that he was aware that this girl did not exist. He (and his family) said that he met her after a football game in Fall of 2009 in Palo Alto (An obvious lie in hindsight). Also it was said that he talked to her all the time on the phone when she was ill in the hospital (again, an obvious lie). These are words from his mouth. So he *knew* she was fake.

What possible reasons does one have to make up a fake girlfriend?

1. Garner sympathy for when she "dies"... may look good for the press, Heisman Trophy selection committee. Hmmm. Maybe. This looks absolutely disgusting and makes him look like a horrible human being.

or

2. His is Morman going to Notre Dame. A Fake girlfriend is a easy diversion to deflect the "gay" question. "Why isn't Manti fucking every chick on Campus?" -- "Oh, that right, he has a girlfriend".

Time will tell.
 
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LargeSide

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Supposedly, his alleged "girlfriend" was created by a somebody in California. Now this would lead one to believe that he was a victim of an elaborate scheme of potential blackmailing. But it is also said that he is a friend of the alleged person behind his "girlfriend" which then turns the story to make you believe that this could have an elaborate scheme he was in on in order to gain national recognition for the draft.

I'll come back with the sources if I have the time.
 
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516778

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Me and a friend earlier spoke about this issue. I tend to side with Stringer on this one. You are a Notre Dame student and have a gf that part I'm okay with. You are a Notre Dame student and have a girlfriend who has cancer or what not that I'm okay with and understand(not okay with her having cancer or whatever she had but you guys understand what I'm saying).

What I'm not okay with is IF Manti Te'o is going to play like he didn't know she was real or not then don't say you have a gf. Don't even mention it to anyone. Not the press. Not college football. Don't mention it at all. Because as soon as you mention it people are going to become interested especially if she's sick. That's how college football is they glorify stories to get the player attention.

On the other hand if you have a gf you should be able to meet that girl face to face, hang out with her, go to dinner, go to a movie, if she's in the hospital then go see her in the hospital. If you can't do these things with this girl then chances are something is fishy with the situation. I'm guessing the girl lived in a different state which is never a good idea anyway because you can't physically see this person. If she lived in California then that's even worse. You can't physically see her and long distance relationships never work. I don't believe any part of this whole story. I doubt they ever met and I would imagine whomever Te'o met after the USC wasn't either of these people.

It's crap like this that make people skeptical about any sort of relationships and/or meeting someone online. We should live in a world that if you are who you say you are then that should be enough and I should trust you in saying it. To deceive others into thinking you are someone you aren't puts people into a state of mind where they can't trust anyone and who wants to live like that.
 
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798686

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I'll reserve judgement on this one.

While it's low to invent stuff to get attention - it's sad when it bites people on the ass and they're left in the shit. :/
Oh well.
 

nudeyorker

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I think this whole thing is very sad. If in the future he decides to have an imaginary wedding I'm probably going to be busy with a unicorn bar mitzvah or a leprechaun christening and won't be able to attend but I'll send an pretend gift from wherever they imagine they are registered.