I don’t follow football, but this whole Manti Te’o hoax thing has been fascinating. So many people have been blogging/facebooking it.
Manti Te’o was a star football player at Notre Dame, where he became one of their best players ever as a linebacker. He met an online girlfriend named Lennay Kekua a couple years ago, who was supposedly a student at Stanford. They fell in love, but she was involved in a car accident, and she eventually died of leukemia, just hours after his grandmother died. They never met, although they communicated through social media and (maybe) phone. This was the story communicated to the media.
As it turns out, the girlfriend never existed–she was a hoax. There are pictures of her, but it turns out that they are stolen pictures of a woman who never met or communicated with Manti. Some are accusing Manti of being part of the hoax, while he is saying that he was the victim of the hoax. As facts are unraveling, it looks like Manti told Notre Dame that he was the victim of the hoax in late December, and ESPN actually knew about the hoax before it burst onto the internet. Notre Dame says that it hired private investigators to get to the bottom of the story. The accusations are flying all over the place–some say Manti lied, some say he’s gay, and some say that he invented this story to place higher in considerations for the Heisman Trophy (he was eventually a finalist, but he didn’t win). Manti himself has admitted to lying/embellishing some of the story, but he maintains that he truly believed Lennay Kekua existed.
Since everyone is weighing in on this story, I will too: I believe Manti Te’o. I might eventually be proven wrong, but I’m going to throw a word of support in his direction. I think it’s totally possible for two people to fall in love over the internet who have never met, and I think it’s possible for a person to be so emotionally attached to another person that he doesn’t even ask for the physical part of the relationship. Timothy Egan says that the younger generation tends to emphasize online activity over real-life activity, and he references the millennial courting article that we discussed a few days ago. Honestly, I think it’s possible no matter what generation you belong to. From my days on the other blogs, I know at least two couples who fell in love online, more or less sight unseen, and who made it work. I heard it said that Gustave Flaubert had a “postal” relationship with a woman, and that he preferred it to a physical relationship. It had nothing to do with him being gay or asexual–Flaubert in fact had an active sex life outside of his postal relationship (if that makes sense), but he just preferred the emotion conveyed through writing.
So yes, I believe Manti Te’o. I hope the publicity from this incident doesn’t negatively affect his career as Tiger Woods’s publicity did. As a linebacker, his job relies more on speed, strength, explosiveness, and mass rather than fine hand-eye coordination, so I’m guessing it shouldn’t affect him as much, and I’m wishing him the best.
I believe Manti Te’O is an idiot.
Byron, this is treading on dangerous ground. Boys and young men need to be made aware about the realities of dating and courtship more than they need to know about the beliefs, values and fantastic stories constantly being fed to them by almost everybody.
There are entire groups of syndicates numbering in the tens of thousands dedicated to pulling off scams like these all over the globe. Eventually that unmet e-romance you’ve been spending so much time with will ask for money, gifts etc, and they’ll even have “groomed” you too, psychologically.
The Manti Te’O story is stupid, it is more likely that he is gay and needs to cover that up in the hyper-macho and anti-gay environment he is in.
I don’t know… it’s kind of hard for me to buy it 100%
Manti Te’o is the kind of guy who is very likely to have REAL LIFE women chasing him all the time. I mean, he’s young, he’s handsome, he’s famous, he carries a 3.3 GPA at an academically prestigious university, and he’s clearly headed to becoming a football millionaire within the next 3 years. Even if this guy did have a real girlfriend back home, that girlfriend would be understandably sick with worry that he’d eventually cave in to the pressure of pretty, young, coeds ready to do ‘anything’ to get on his scoreboard
So, a guy like that ends up with an online girlfriend who he’s NEVER MET? I might even get this if we were talking about the average male student who was busy studying and having trouble dating girls on campus. But come on, this guy could have literally held interviews for the line of girls willing to spend the weekend with him.
There has to be something else going on here.
If I were Manti I would like to change girlfriends like I change clothes every day…
Sure, Manti definitely has options, but sometimes people don’t fit the script. Look at Jon Bon Jovi. As far as we know (and I acknowledge that we might not know everything), the dude married his high school sweetheart while having a career that brought him all over the globe to play his music for hundreds of thousands of screaming women. The dude is rich beyond belief and has access literally the world over.
Think about this situation. First, Manti is religious (like Bon Jovi used to be), so already he may not be thinking as much along physical lines. Second, his “girlfriend” was supposedly of the same cultural background–possibly this is of importance to him? Notre Dame probably doesn’t have a significant Samoan female population. Third, the athletic director said that he withheld information about this because Manti wanted to speak to his parents first. This would be totally consistent with the first two points of religion and culture.
Again, I could be totally wrong, and I acknowledge that it’s not totally typical. But it could be possible!
The perils of e-romancing. The hot chick you went on the PHONE with could actually be a man using falsetto.
Why do they keep calling it a “hoax” and not something more serious? If this were genuine, there would be some very serious psychological grooming and conditioning going on. Unless of course, they want to downplay the whole thing, and move on. Yes, that’s right folks. There’s nothing to see here.
Moreover, let me get this straight. Manti Te’o was parcelling out fake info and news about his fake girlfriend to sports news outlets to pass off as the real thing. And at one time he even “massaged” his story to make it seem like he had really met her before.
Well let me see. Let’s say I’m a star athlete, who for some reason is totally unattracted to women, for whatever reason. Let’s say, it’s because I want to concentrate on the GAME. (lol)
Think about all those pesky women trying to get my attention. If I ignore them, there will be whispers that I am gay. Because even a guy totally concentrated on the GAME wouldn’t mind the occasional one night stand, right? When he goes partying and gets drunk, that’s when some of those girls can swoop in. But let’s say I don’t want to have sex EVER because it affects my sports performance.
How would I avoid those annoying, pesky women shoving their perfumed breasts into my face? Oh, woe is me. I know, I can get a girlfriend. Then I can say, “Hey, I’m just really in love with her”. (The irony is I use the girlfriend excuse for fake drunken one night stands) But guess what’s the problem??? I don’t actually have a girlfriend! All my buddies, all my mates, the people in my dorm, my classmates, the waitress where I eat, all of them know I AM SEEN WITH NO GIRLS. What shall I do??!
I know! I’ll have an E-ROMANCE. I’ll have an excuse to give all my buddies and all those annoying revolting women. I will look honorable, reliable, loyal. This plan is so perfect I could even use it to handle the annoying international sports press. But hey, a real girlfriend may need something more than this, real life relationships are not predictable. HOW CAN I MAKE SURE THIS DOESN’T AFFECT MY GAME? Maybe I’ll just carry this white lie a little bit further. Nobody will know, tee hee.
*facepalm*
I’ve just known too many religious, family-types who are like this, especially at the young age of 21. Not nationally famous football players, of course, but people for whom religion and family life has dominated how they react and interact to the opposite sex. The story does check out!
http://espn.go.com/new-york/college-football/story/_/id/8860228/manti-teo-wondered-2010-lennay-kekua-situation-was-prank
Here’s more from ESPN:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8859315/manti-teo-interview-leaves-incredulous-taste-college-football
“Yet some of the speculative detritus was swept away Friday night when Te’o sat down with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap for a 2½-hour, off-camera interview. The sprawling dialogue answered many questions but made the shocking turn of events no less dumbfounding.
What did seem to emerge is that Te’o was not complicit in the hoax that created a fake girlfriend for him so she could die a fake death and inspire Te’o and others who heard the fake story. “No, never,” Te’o said when asked if he had any part in the ruse.”
@ Byron
“So yes, I believe Manti Te’o. I hope the publicity from this incident doesn’t negatively affect his career as Tiger Woods’s publicity did”.
You believe he was duped and you provided the ESPN interview between him and Jeremy Schaap to prove your point. There are so many unbelievable events in his story that it’s hard to believe him.
From the interview, are we are to suppose to believe his involvement with the hoax is innocent after reading this?
“What did seem to emerge is that Te’o was not complicit in the hoax that created a fake girlfriend for him so she could die a fake death and inspire Te’o and others who heard the fake story. “No, never,” Te’o said when asked if he had any part in the ruse.”
When the events leading to this seem to be quite the contrary.
First, he never met this online girlfriend for 3 years.
Second, he never visited her when she had a serious car accident.
Third, he never visited her when she was diagnosed with Leukemia.
Fourth, she ended up in the hospital because of this, and he still has not seen her in person when she was being treated.
Fifth, she dies and he still has not seen her in person, and even skips her funeral. He sends White roses to her family, which turns out to be the perpetuator’s home.
Sixth, do we have any phone records of him calling her leading up to her fabricated death? It seems like we do not.
All of this is a poorly crafted story which doesn’t belong in reality.
Well I don’t really want to crucify this guy or throw mud at him, so I’ll say no further.
I don’t trust the stories floating around, though.
If anything this should serve as an abject lesson to boys, young men, parents. Do not do that online or long distance nonsense.
Where’s your 2o positive statements, you lousy bastard? Did you think you could just weasel in after playing limp and dead and start all your usual shenanigans again? Take a hike, creep.
Aight, Chr, I’ll approve your comment.
There are such things as emotional connections that have nothing to do with people meeting or not meeting in person. Yeah, it’s not conventional, but if you were in his situation, assuming he’s telling the truth, would you meet with a girl AFTER she was dead if your entire relationship took place in cyberspace? It seems like your objection–and everyone else’s objection, to be fair–revolves around the fact that they never met. But that’s the nature of online communication. There are even people who come here every day who probably would never want to meet you or me in person.
I think Chr… brings up the 3 main points that make the story suspect:
1) He never visited her once when she had a serious car accident
2) He never visited her once she contacted leukemia
3) He never went to her funeral
That is a bit much to believe from ANYbody who didn’t know that she was not real all along. Even long-distance online relationships have their breaking points. If someone you supposedly love is DYING, you mean to tell me that you would NEVER get the urge to try and see her alive even once before she might pass away? That’s just not credible, and not the way that people act in the real world.
If you truly fell in love with someone online, and they contracted a deadly disease, that was getting progressively worse, there is no way that you wouldn’t find some way to make the $250 round trip to see her, if even for a single day. It just doesn’t pass the smell test. I think that Manti Te’o clearly knew that the girlfriend didn’t exist. Now as to why he would do this, I don’t know. I don’t want to jump on the “He’s gay” bandwagon, because its become so common for people to assume that if a guy doesn’t seem to have a girlfriend that he MUST be gay. I think that’s a rush to judgement, but I think that whatever the reason, he clearly knew.
@ King
Not only is his story suspect, the incredulous events described by him gives us the notion that he might be in fact a co-consipirator of the hoax. It could be that he and the perpetuator wasn’t in sync with each other when it came to executing it, and whatever he said was just random nonsense to cover his tracks.
It is also believed that the perpetuator is a friend of his.
He has more explaining to do, besides what you said about his sexual orientation.
At the end of the day, no one was actually harmed from all of this, except a tarnish on his image. The perpetuator maybe indicted for criminal charges of false impersonation and libel, but I have my doubts.
It is kind of strange to be a star athlete and say you have a girlfriend when you do not. I can understand if it’s some PUA student or guru making things up like that but not a star athlete.
Did he not know he would get caught? What does he have to gain by telling the world he has a girlfriend who died?
Unless you are hiding something, I don’t know why there would be any reason. To curry favor for Heisman voters? But if he was hiding his homosexuality, why did he have to kill off this girlfriend? Wouldn’t he just continue with the hoax? There are many athletes who are religious who do not have girlfriends who no one accuses them of hiding their homosexuality, the most famous may be AC Green of the Lakers who was abstinent into his late thirties.
Lots of things just doesn’t add up.
I really don’t think this is as big of a deal as everyone is making it to be. It has been captivating the country for days now.
bigwowo wrote: There are even people who come here every day who probably would never want to meet you or me in person.
Amen to that. You don’t have to say who for us to know who you are referring to.
Why does Chr continue to try posting on this board when he is continually censored. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this.
If you look at any threads Chr is a part of in the past, all of them mentions that Columbia University Experiment. It is incredibly weird and boring.
This guy needs to posts something positive. Bigwowo, is doing him a favor by making him. Maybe his life will get better.
There are a lot of people who get suckered by online romances. MTV has a show called Catfish which deals with scam online romances.
In this case the simplest answer is probably the right one: Manti Te’o is a football player, not an expert detective in identity theft and impersonation. The fact that the hoax was probably perpetuated by a dude makes it little bit more strange and insidious, but hey… Te’o is one of those athletes more concerned about making sacks than getting his online GF in the sack. Yes, there does exist people so devoted to their sport / craft that they really don’t care about anything else.
Speaking of football. This was in the news today. Interesting story.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8903855/nflpa-wants-david-chao-san-diego-chargers-team-doctor-replaced
He’s been working for the Chargers for awhile and they still haven’t let him go.
Kind of like an Asian version of House MD.
http://www.thefix.com/content/tackled-dea-and-ethics-charges-san-diego-chargers-team-doctor-stays8010