I think I'll wait for the Cliff Notes version whenever the facts are known
imbondz (01-17-2013)
This story will one day soon become an incredible case study in a J-School. For the time being though its one of the most bizarre and weird stories Ive read in a long time.
COMING SOON...
Originally Posted by Dr.Lecter
coastal (01-17-2013)
even the cliff notes don't make sense
My faith doesn’t make me perfect, it makes me forgiven.
Even if it is proved that Te'o was the victim of a hoax (doubt it), going by the date that both Te'o and Notre Dame said he found out about it, Te'o continued to bring up her death in interviews after that date.
From what I've been reading they tracked down the hoaxer through the girl's picture. The hoaxer is someone KNOWN to Manti Teo. (there's a picture of the two of them together, and they communicate on Twitter) So either Manti was originally in on it (and it got out of hand), or someone he personally knows is hoaxing him. (Doesn't really explain why Manti's DAD confirmed that his son and the imaginary girl got together several times) Questions about this were swirliing PRIOR to the Heismann ceremony, at which he was asked his most memorable moment that year, and he AGAIN mentions the non-girlfriend.
Interesting tidbit, apparently Joe Theismann's name was pronounced THEES-Man, until Notre Dame has him change it to THIGHS-Man in 1971 when he was in the running for the award. (He came in second.)
Patti
He never mentioned to the media that his relationship with the love of his life and the girl his parents thought he would marry was strictly online/over the phone? Seems like something he would've brought up if it were true.
Well, scam or hoax, after it was out there he couldn't ignore it. I don't think mentioning it after he told ND he was scammed makes a difference one way or the other. He had to stick to the story publicly.
Mouldsie (01-18-2013)
If he was tricked into an "emotional relationship" through a series of online conversations, and phone conversations with a woman pretending to be the girl in the pictures, he may have talked about the girl to his parents before he knew it was a hoax. In which case, he could have told them a "story" about how they met b/c he was embarrassed to admit to having met online.
IF this was a hoax, then he didn't make up the car accident or dying part. So the answer to your "why?" question, if it was a hoax, was the same reason he would have told his parent the story about how they met. To avoid embarrassment. The story had been all over the national news by the point he was supposedly aware it was a hoax. The story "was the truth" in the eyes of the media.
I'm starting to wonder what role Notre Dame had in putting out the PR surrounding the girl friend tragedy. It would be interesting to see the university's PR correspondence with the national media. Were they the Big pimps of the story to get the university more attention?
If he was tricked, his lies about the length and nature of the relationship would have been "white lies" from his perspective to avoid having to admit he met online. Then after finding out, he would perhaps continue to going along with it to avoid embarrassing the university as much as himself.
Remember, the university knew before the BCS game. Why didn't they hold a press conference to admit the truth? Why did they wait until after the story broke? You have to think they were holding their breath hoping it would never come to light. The university was the recipient of just as much media attention as Te'o. And there's no doubt Notre Dame's PR staff has far greater reach than Te'o, if "his people" were involved in originally pimping the story at all.
Last edited by K-Gun; 01-18-2013 at 12:32 PM.
[W]e are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace...
[F]or no one chooses to be at war, or provokes war, for the sake of being at war; any one would seem absolutely murderous if he were to make enemies of his friends in order to bring about battle and slaughter...
- Aristotle
OpIv37 (01-18-2013)
OpIv37 (01-18-2013)
Maybe he should have thought about that before capitalizing on a story that wasn't what he told us it was.
IF he got played by this online person, and he was honest about how he'd never actually met the person that died just 6 hours after his grandmother died, adding the fact that he got 'catfished' would have just added to everyone feeling sorry for him. It wouldn't be the same story that it is now. But he lied, and now we're here.
kishoph (01-19-2013)
The sports talking heads don't think it will hurt him in the draft at all. It's an embarrassment but certainly no crime.
A friend of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo told us he was "80 percent sure" that Manti Te'o was "in on it," and that the two perpetrated Lennay Kekua's death with publicity in mind. According to the friend, there were numerous photos of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and Te'o together on Tuiasosopo's now-deleted Instagram account.
Website That Broke The Story Ahead of ESPN
Patti