Manti Te'o GF Dying Was A Hoax

[PossibleCabbage]

I think it's pretty clear that the leading theories here at this point are "Te'o's a moron" and "Te'o's ***", and I do think it's kind of funny that Te'o apparently believes that it's better to be perceived as a complete and utter moron than to be perceived as homosexual. This is probably accurate given the culture of football, but it's kind of funny (in a sad kind of way).

I don't think it has much to do with where he gets drafted.

If he falls in the draft it probably has more to do with the fact that he struggles to get off blocks, isn't very good in coverage, and doesn't have great range than any of this. But I can't completely put aside that NFL teams might be concerned with how being embarrassed like this would affect him on the field and in the locker room.

[Monomach]

****'s not adding up. A lot of us think he's *** because that's the simplest explanation for his reactions during and after the whole thing.

...and these voice mails are not proof of any kind. I'm not accepting anything Te'o says as true. After all, he's already admitted to doing a fair bit of lying and has in general acted very shady. For all we know, they could have been recorded two days ago after Manti's lawyer gave Roniakjshfkjsha a script to read from. Why won't he release his phone records? Why just hand out a spreadsheet that he claims accurately represents them? Why not just hand his cellphone to a reporter and allow them to listen to the voice mails directly so that we get the date/time info and proof that they haven't been edited?

Now that his handlers have had time to write a narrative, we're supposed to believe this story that takes more leaps of faith to believe than the bible.

[Monomach]

Gawker's put up some helpful videos for those of you who missed it.

This is a pretty funny highlight reel of the interview:
Watch Katie Couric Call Manti Te’o Stupid, Over and Over

Te'o protesting a little too much, with sound:
Manti Te’o Tells Katie Couric He Is Double Plus Ungay

[killxswitch]

Or he reacted like that because football players don't accept homosexuals, and because he's a Mormon and therefore his religion teaches against that lifestyle.

I still think he was in on the hoax and believe the reports that he was regularly with other girls. His teammates didn't buy the whole long distance thing, but more and more this version is being swept under the rug. He's not gullible, he's not secretly ***. He wanted to win the heisman and bask in the attention and sympathy.

[D-Unit]

I just heard the voicemail he got on the nightly news and I was cracking up. It really did sound like a girl! ahahahahaha! This story is so funny.

[WMD]

I thought he had a female cousin or friend or something do the voice? Now it was Ronaiah? I don't get it..

[D-Unit]

Originally Posted by WMD

I thought he had a female cousin or friend or something do the voice? Now it was Ronaiah? I don't get it..

Ronaiah said he had a female cousin do it... but he wouldn't lie, right?

[Monomach]

Originally Posted by D-Unit

Ronaiah said he had a female cousin do it... but he wouldn't lie, right?

Ronaiah's the one who said he did it on his own...just like a good beard would.

[FlyingElvis]

Seriously. *******. Awesome.

This story is so fantastically great. Perfect weirdness. Nothing illegal, hurtful or otherwise malicious/hateful. Great timing with the total lack of new news I care about due to the break from NFL games.

Just epic.

And the thread . . . oh, the thread . . .

[WCH]

I'm not sure if this was posted, but TMZ's "sources" say that Ronaiah fell in love with Manti:

Sources very close to Ronaiah tell TMZ ... he struggled for years trying to adapt to the expectations of his culture, his religion and his family. Ronaiah, we're told, never had a serious physical relationship with anyone and created a female persona online as a way to vent his feelings.

We're told Ronaiah used the female persona in many encounters, but so far there's no evidence he became intensely emotionally attached to anyone -- until Manti. We've confirmed when Ronaiah spoke with Manti as "Lennay Kekua" he used his own voice.

Indeed ... Ronaiah's feelings became so intense, he blew his cover on December 6 because it was hard to walk away. He never intended to reveal Manti was actually talking to a man ... he just wanted to reconnect with Manti, but still as a woman.

http://www.tmz.com/2013/01/24/ronaia...anti-teo-hoax/

So you see, Ronaiah isn't a malicious scammer. He's just a young man in love with another man who thought he was a woman.

[FlyingElvis]

Originally Posted by WCH

I'm not sure if this was posted, but TMZ's "sources" say that Ronaiah fell in love with Manti:



So you see, Ronaiah isn't a malicious scammer. He's just a young man in love with another man who thought he was a woman.

From the link:

Originally Posted by tmz

Our sources say Ronaiah has buried his feelings to the point he has little emotion about anything. We're told even the scandal has not produced intense emotions.

We're told, Ronaiah shut down emotionally at a very young age. He lived his life through fantasy.

Which directly contradicts earlier reports about Ronaiah's tearful confession to some chick he knew.

At this point, though, it's all just noise. Everyone and their uncle is calling in as a source and all these article just continue to cite "sources close to [insert player in this farce]" which is about as reliable as Manti's sense of good judgement.

[killxswitch]

Originally Posted by FlyingElvis

At this point, though, it's all just noise. Everyone and their uncle is calling in as a source and all these article just continue to cite "sources close to [insert player in this farce]" which is about as reliable as Manti's sense of good judgement.

This is why I tend to just believe most of the original Deadspin report.

[D-Unit]

The sources are only good if it tells you the story you want to believe. So classic. This is what makes the thread so damn good.

[dabears10]

So now Ronaiah's cousins are saying that Tino Tuiasopo who lives in American Samoa was the one who was on the phone and Ronaiah just wants to take the entire rap for it. This gets crazier.

[Malaka]

After watching the interview... I have come away with the impression that Teo is very naive and in a way quite stupid.

He did his fair share of playing up the story, but I think he genuinely believe she was real and died. He did also play with his grandmother dying so I feel like the emotion was genuine. However, after once December rolled around he definitely played the sympathy card to his advantage and once it was revealed she was fake his whole plot just came crashing down on him.

I do feel like Ronaiah is the true evil-doer here, but Teo having a barely functioning social intelligence level is scary in itself.

[FlyingElvis]

Originally Posted by D-Unit

The sources are only good if it tells you the story you want to believe. So classic. This is what makes the thread so damn good.

So that's what you're doing. Now it makes sense.

[D-Unit]

Originally Posted by FlyingElvis

So that's what you're doing. Now it makes sense.

Yep. If the story backs up what I believe, then I'm all ears.

[FlyingElvis]

Originally Posted by D-Unit

Yep. If the story backs up what I believe, then I'm all ears.

Everybody wins with this one. There's enough chatter to support either extreme and anything in the middle.

[Prowler]

That awkward moment when your long distance girlfriend who you have never met but talk to constantly turns out to die from car crash leukemia, then comes back from the dead chased by drug dealers, then is really a guy, and now it is on every news channel and everybody in the country has talked about it.

I'm waiting for Manti to slip up and say, "Yeah, Lennay was really my gf. We were serious. We had phone sex. Ronnie would say the sweetest things to me."

"Ronnie?"

"I said Lennay..."

[phlysac]

It was all Ronaiah. Manti tells the truth. He was never part of it.

I mean, it was all Ronaiah and Tino. Manti tells the truth. He was never part of it.



:rolls eyes:

[descendency]

This is exactly why you don't bring your personal life to the public's attention. You let the paparazzi do it.

If you have a fake dead girlfriend, no one is going to find out if you don't tell the she was alive in the first place. But if someone else leaks it to the media, then you can go all Alec Baldwin on them.

[Monomach]

Starts off slow, but his dad...Oh. My. God.

[bigbluedefense]

Originally Posted by Monomach

Starts off slow, but his dad...Oh. My. God.

OMG, when the dad started busting out the rhymes, I just died. Hahahhahaaa

[vidae]

Lost it when his dad came in, and lost it again when Roker busted in at the end. So good.

[Iamcanadian]

At this point who really cares except the haters who will never forgive him or believe anything he says.
The reality is, he will drop quite a few spots in round 1 and a very good team will get a player they never, ever thought they would get a shot at and he go on to dominate for them while all the loosers who made his drop possible, will cry in their milk as they have to watch him play for a top Super Bowl contender.