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Deadspin: Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend Is A Hoax


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Based on what is known right now, I would say that its pretty clear he was not in on it and was fooled. There are so many others speaking of being duped by the same two people, including a guy on the Cardinals.

 

Many people are questioning Teo's comments of having met in person...well, when you are a 22 year old Heisman Candidate on a National Championship contending team, maybe its just a little embarrassing for him to admit they met online. I know people who did eHarmony and got great releationships and it was still hard for them to tell people how they met. So not unusual for a kid like him to just say they met first in person.

 

I tend to agree with you. When you add up all the little things like how Teo is supposedly very naive and rarely went out. Then you can see that this mormon kid (even as a super stud LB) probably fell easily for a chick online. Now add to this that a girl was alledgedly in on the hoax and spoke to him on the phone...so he has emails and chats/texts, twitter and has phone calls with a real woman. It all must seem pretty "real". Yeah i can see why he'd be embarrassed to admit he never met her in person. I'm just curious now about the timeline and if he lied about after he knew it was a hoax. Also, the longer he stays silent, the more it seems like he was in on it, at least to some degree. If he was a complete victim, he should just spill it, yesterday. Now it kinda' seems like he wants to get his ducks in a row and have his story down before coming out. If you're a victim just be honest, people will forgive him and probably feel sorry for him.

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ESPN OTL is reporting Manti Te'o was the Victims of the Hoax & that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo told a friend it was a Game

 

She said Tuiasosopo gave her the tearful confession and account of how he played what he said was at first a game on the unsuspecting Te'o. And, she said, he told her that it wasn't the first time he had done it

 

what he said was at first a game on the unsuspecting Te'o. And, she said, he told her that it wasn't the first time he had done it.

"He (Ronaiah) told me that Manti was not involved at all, he was a victim. ... The girlfriend was a lie, the accident was a lie, the leukemia was a lie," said the woman. "He was crying, he was literally crying, he's like 'I know, I know what I have to do.'

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http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8857057/friend-says-ronaiah-tuiasosopo-confessed-manti-teo-girlfriend-hoax

 

Looks like Tuiasosopo and his female cousin were behind this and other similar hoaxes.

Tweet history from 2 people who knew it was a hoax well before the dead spin article. I wonder if "ceeweezy51" is espn's source for this article. Jayr knew early as September, ceeweezy starts chiming in on dec-12, which would be consistent with the confession made to her early December

http://everyfacetofthegame.blogspot.sg/2013/01/catfished.html

Edited by Joe_the_6_pack
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Tweet history from 2 people who knew it was a hoax well before the dead spin article. I wonder if "ceeweezy51" is espn's source for this article

http://everyfacetofthegame.blogspot.sg/2013/01/catfished.html

 

i posted these accounts in full yesterday - so about 20 pages back. sounds like these are the people that keep getting mentioned as remembering the name and blowing it up. happened right before ronaiah/the girl caved on December 6th. likely heard the story in the lead up to the award shows.

 

links again for those curious

 

https://mobile.twitt...eweezy51/tweets

https://mobile.twitt.../jayRahz/tweets

https://mobile.twitt...AMM90745/tweets

 

Edited by NoSaint
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And there's the female that makes literally damn near any lie possible if teo wants to believe it. Male and female friends and family that know "his gf," a female for the phone etc... Coupled with who ronaiah was (son of a preacher and major player in the Samoan football world) and the other story that confirmed he also took a niece to a real life meet up to confirm his story and its elaborate enough that someone could get caught

All the blanks are starting to be filled in. Question I have now is why the female cousin phoned manti on dec-6 saying she wanted to continue the relationship? Did she just to mess with his mind some more? had she become attached to him? Did she feel guilty and want to fess up, especially since ronaiah was now confessing to others ?

 

A next shoe to drop will be exposing the name of that cousin.

Edited by Joe_the_6_pack
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Seems convenient, but maybe Te'o is that dumb and naive.

 

Yup...pretty much as dumb and naive as most people are at 21. Just because they appear to be larger than life on TV doesn't mean they are any more savy about life than any other college kid.

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Yup...pretty much as dumb and naive as most people are at 21. Just because they appear to be larger than life on TV doesn't mean they are any more savy about life than any other college kid.

I suppose. I guess I work with sneaky, tech-savvy NYC college kids, though.

 

Chuck Klosterman killin' it on Grantland.

 

it's difficult to understand how Manti Te'o could travel to Hawaii to visit his "girlfriend" without actually seeing her, unless he's just a profoundly confused person. Going to Hawaii to see a girl and then merely texting with her (the whole time you're there) is the equivalent of taking the Wonderlic Test and scoring a negative 36.

Gladwell:

So what is so fantastic about the Manti Te'o story? It is all three narratives, all in one. It'sLove Story meets Icarus meets inspirational outsider. It wasn't enough that Manti's love affair be doomed, that his girlfriend had leukemia, and that he drew from her death the inspiration to go out and get 12 tackles in the crucial defeat of Michigan State. She also had to be severely injured in a car accident. It's a combo platter! It's so over-the-top I am in awe.

Klosterman:

The only things we know about "The Real Manti Te'o" are (a) what the media tells us, and (b) what he says about himself in public. We don't really view him as a person; he's more like a movie character who happens to exist in reality (and his words and actions are the plot of the film). As a result, our feelings about him tend to be devoid of nuance. We only know a handful of things about who he is, so that handful gets amplified. He becomes a metaphor for his actions. So we're not passing judgment on him, even though that's what it looks like; we're really passing judgment on the act itself (by directing our vitriol at the individual). In other words, if someone changes their personal opinion on Te'o (or Lance Armstrong) in the wake of new evidence, they're really just positioning themselves as being "against" the specific sin of lying to the public. It's only tangentially related to the man himself.
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It's one of the most, if not the most bizarre sports story I've ever heard. If Manti got duped, I feel so bad for him. It's about time he goes public with his story

Well he can take some comfort with his rebound girlfriend. Pretty solid!

http://m.nypost.com/p/blogs/collegesports/report_dated_actual_girl_shortly_e6Za5dt8t85hGjX3Xrw9dJ

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Well he can take some comfort with his rebound girlfriend. Pretty solid!

http://m.nypost.com/p/blogs/collegesports/report_dated_actual_girl_shortly_e6Za5dt8t85hGjX3Xrw9dJ

 

FAKE! I don't think they let girlfriends on the field during games, plus if you look close you can see where they photoshopped her next to him.

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I suppose. I guess I work with sneaky, tech-savvy NYC college kids, though.

 

Chuck Klosterman killin' it on Grantland.

 

 

Gladwell:

 

Klosterman:

 

I love Klosterman--- and Gladwell's no slouch! This Grantland correspondence piece is a gem.

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I tend to agree with you. When you add up all the little things like how Teo is supposedly very naive and rarely went out. Then you can see that this mormon kid (even as a super stud LB) probably fell easily for a chick online. Now add to this that a girl was alledgedly in on the hoax and spoke to him on the phone...so he has emails and chats/texts, twitter and has phone calls with a real woman. It all must seem pretty "real". Yeah i can see why he'd be embarrassed to admit he never met her in person. I'm just curious now about the timeline and if he lied about after he knew it was a hoax. Also, the longer he stays silent, the more it seems like he was in on it, at least to some degree. If he was a complete victim, he should just spill it, yesterday. Now it kinda' seems like he wants to get his ducks in a row and have his story down before coming out. If you're a victim just be honest, people will forgive him and probably feel sorry for him.

 

Transparency would be the best option, wouldn't it? Just confirm he never really met her face to face, etc. I would think he'd have been more pissed than embarrassed when getting a call from a "resurrected girlfriend". He may have embellished things along the way, but that embarrassment seems to pale (hugely) in comparison to realizing a person you had feelings for has made a public moron out of you, no? Perhaps he still is emotionally confused about how he feels about this woman.

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http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/manti-teo-girlfriend-hoax-tough-questions-will-come-from-nfl-scouts-011813

 

Another general manager who spoke Friday with FOXSports.com believes Te’o is one of the best inside linebacker prospects entering the league in some time. He also said Te’o will remain a first-round pick unless “something really, really messed up” is revealed about the hoax.

 

The GM, though, is curious to see how Te’o handles explaining what has transpired.

 

“Part of me wants the kid to come out, be a man and say, ‘Hey, it ended up being a hoax. I’m a linebacker. At my core I’m a meathead ball-buster. I got carried away and I apologize,’ ” the general manager said. “Maybe that would be simplifying it, but instead so far he’s trying to come across as naïve. That’s a little funky in itself.

 

“You’ve got to look through all this and make a judgment. If it’s a lying and major fabrication issue, you need to determine the depth and duplicity of it. In light of what’s going on with Lance Armstrong, we all know the best way to do this.”

 

http://deadspin.com/5977235/heres-a-photo-of-manti-teo-with-ronaiah-tuiasosopos-sister-the-night-before-the-notre-dame+usc-game?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

 

Here’s A Photo Of Manti Te’o With Ronaiah Tuiasosopo’s Sister The Night Before The Notre Dame-USC Game

 

This photo, provided to us by a friend of the Tuiasosopos, was taken on Nov. 23, 2012—the night before the Notre Dame-USC game. It shows Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's
,
, with Manti Te'o. (According to Manti's uncle Alema Te'o,
.)

 

Geeze...

 

http://deadspin.com/5977243/newspaper-lennay-called-manti-teo-in-december-and-said-shed-faked-her-death-to-elude-drug-dealers

 

Manti Te'o has told family and friends that the woman who was the voice of his fictitious girlfriend "Lennay Kekua" called him in December and said she had to fake her own death months earlier to elude drug dealers
, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has learned.

The woman, who has yet to be identified, tried to re-engage a relationship with Te‘o months after she supposedly had died of leukemia in early September, the Notre Dame All-American linebacker has told the people close to him. The account was shared with the Star-Advertiser by a source close to the Te‘o family.

 

According to the account, Te'o asked the woman to transmit a photo to him with a date stamp, which she did, but this did not allay his suspicions and he later told his family and Notre Dame officials about being scammed.

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This photo, provided to us by a friend of the Tuiasosopos, was taken on Nov. 23, 2012—the night before the Notre Dame-USC game. It shows Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's
,
, with Manti Te'o. (According to Manti's uncle Alema Te'o,
.)

 

Geeze...

 

http://deadspin.com/5977243/newspaper-lennay-called-manti-teo-in-december-and-said-shed-faked-her-death-to-elude-drug-dealers

 

Manti Te'o has told family and friends that the woman who was the voice of his fictitious girlfriend "Lennay Kekua" called him in December and said she had to fake her own death months earlier to elude drug dealers
, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has learned.

The woman, who has yet to be identified, tried to re-engage a relationship with Te‘o months after she supposedly had died of leukemia in early September, the Notre Dame All-American linebacker has told the people close to him. The account was shared with the Star-Advertiser by a source close to the Te‘o family.

 

According to the account, Te'o asked the woman to transmit a photo to him with a date stamp, which she did, but this did not allay his suspicions and he later told his family and Notre Dame officials about being scammed.

 

Geez, faked her death to evade drug dealers? So, even drug dealers were after a fake person. This just cannot get any stranger.

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... why the female cousin phoned manti on dec-6 saying she wanted to continue the relationship? Did she just to mess with his mind some more? had she become attached to him?

 

Reverse Stockholm syndrome I see.

 

 

I have a feeling the drug dealers may have been fake too.

 

Yeah, I know. But if one really did have drug dealers after them, why would like choose a long, painful death (with a bone marrow transplant added in there as a get out of jail card) as a way to evade them?

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Reverse Stockholm syndrome I see.

 

 

 

Yeah, I know. But if one really did have drug dealers after them, why would like choose a long, painful death (with a bone marrow transplant added in there as a get out of jail card) as a way to evade them?

 

I imagine you probably wouldn't....

 

That's a lingering question for you now that we know its fake?

Edited by NoSaint
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Yeah, I know. But if one really did have drug dealers after them, why would like choose a long, painful death (with a bone marrow transplant added in there as a get out of jail card) as a way to evade them?

 

Maybe the imaginary drug dealers were banned from the imaginary cancer ward at the imaginary hospital.

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He met a girl online. He fell for her. He found out she was not real, and he got embarrassed. I don't get why that is so hard for people to believe. He wasn't around at parties because he was in his room chatting with the hoaxster. When he pressed to see her in person all if sudden she's sick and dies. This is by far the most plausible scenario.

 

Problem: He and his family said that HE MET HER IN PERSON. He was in on it.

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Funny how all those who supposedly were dupping or been dupped are samoan,hawaian ect. My belief is Teos frantically in touch with these people to help get him off the hook. By promising his friends a bit of $ in the future to help him get out of this mess seems like a good idea now, but it will make it worse when others figure this out. Pure speculation of course, but right now they must be scrambling to brush this under the rug.

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Ok. I've had a couple days and currently 3 Dog Fish Head 90 minutes to think this over. And here's my current thoughts on it. In other words, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED in the mind of stevestojan:

 

Manti, a Mormon who doesn't drink, and is a good kid, goes to what is the equivalent of South Buffalo when it comes to a drinking school.

 

He wants nothing to do with the party scene for the above reason. He stays home as his friends/teammates go out. Therefore, he's labeled an introvert.

 

For reasons that all of us with a penis know, Manti still wants female contact. Gets an email from a girl who said "hey we met/we made eye contact after the 'fill in the blank' game and I'd love to talk")After god knows how many emails, IMs, whatnot he develops a relationship.

 

Not wanting to be the "most available man in sports without a girl" he tells friends that he has a girl that, as others have joked, "goes to another school." (Or lives somewhere else)

 

Manti, in an attempt to keep his "manhood" asks his dad "Hey pop, if someone asks about my girlfriend be a pal and just say 'yeah we've met her, great girl' just so I don't have to explain anything."

 

Many lies are told to Manti, from why she can't Skype to why he can't come visit her, but being a trusting man of God (whichever one he chooses to believe it) he "falls" for it. THIS point is obviously, and with good reason, is the toughest one to believe. But again, love turns us stupid.

 

She "dies."

 

He's as upset as you could think, especially since the scammers picked her death date to be the same day his grandma died.

 

Yes, he finds out he's been scammed and doesn't go to Notre Dame and/or ESPN immediately, which pisses some people off. Weird how he doesn't want to tell the world his "love life" was nothing but a sham.

 

Naive? You bet.

 

This is me giving the benefit of the doubt after reading everything I can about this.

 

Do what you will.

 

 

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Only part of this story I can support is the part about the 90 minute ipa's...fwiw I had a bunch of the stone 'enjoy before 02.15.13'....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

 

Ok. I've had a couple days and currently 3 Dog Fish Head 90 minutes to think this over. And here's my current thoughts on it. In other words, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED in the mind of stevestojan:

 

Manti, a Mormon who doesn't drink, and is a good kid, goes to what is the equivalent of South Buffalo when it comes to a drinking school.

 

He wants nothing to do with the party scene for the above reason. He stays home as his friends/teammates go out. Therefore, he's labeled an introvert.

 

For reasons that all of us with a penis know, Manti still wants female contact. Gets an email from a girl who said "hey we met/we made eye contact after the 'fill in the blank' game and I'd love to talk")After god knows how many emails, IMs, whatnot he develops a relationship.

 

Not wanting to be the "most available man in sports without a girl" he tells friends that he has a girl that, as others have joked, "goes to another school." (Or lives somewhere else)

 

Manti, in an attempt to keep his "manhood" asks his dad "Hey pop, if someone asks about my girlfriend be a pal and just say 'yeah we've met her, great girl' just so I don't have to explain anything."

 

Many lies are told to Manti, from why she can't Skype to why he can't come visit her, but being a trusting man of God (whichever one he chooses to believe it) he "falls" for it. THIS point is obviously, and with good reason, is the toughest one to believe. But again, love turns us stupid.

 

She "dies."

 

He's as upset as you could think, especially since the scammers picked her death date to be the same day his grandma died.

 

Yes, he finds out he's been scammed and doesn't go to Notre Dame and/or ESPN immediately, which pisses some people off. Weird how he doesn't want to tell the world his "love life" was nothing but a sham.

 

Naive? You bet.

 

This is me giving the benefit of the doubt after reading everything I can about this.

 

Do what you will.

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Only part of this story I can support is the part about the 90 minute ipa's...fwiw I had a bunch of the stone 'enjoy before 02.15.13'....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

I love IPAs. And I have yet to have a 120 minute. It is supposed to be the holy grail of DFH but I honestly enjoy the 60 minute more than the 90 minute. The 90 has a sweet aftertaste (to me at least). So knowing that, my assumption is that 120, despite its ~14-17%ABV, will be very sweet.

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I love IPAs. And I have yet to have a 120 minute. It is supposed to be the holy grail of DFH but I honestly enjoy the 60 minute more than the 90 minute. The 90 has a sweet aftertaste (to me at least). So knowing that, my assumption is that 120, despite its ~14-17%ABV, will be very sweet.

Now we're getting somewhere. Try the Southern Tier 2xIPA if you haven't already. They got a nice little thing going down there in Lakewood.

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Problem: He and his family said that HE MET HER IN PERSON. He was in on it.

How do you know he didn't meet someone? Reagan said early on there was someone and he described her as off the charts hot looking. Who ever she was sounds like she made quite an impression within the Samoan football fraternity. I could see renaiah exploiting that and telling people that was his cousin "lennay". Shes a huge fan of yours , talks about you all the time. She's at Stanford now, bright girl. Here's her mobile. Give her a call or send a txt.

 

Putting pieces together I've thought this was the most plausible to explain that element of the story

 

And if he never met or saw anyone at a party, so what? So he embellished the bond because he we a little embaressed telling people it was only online/phone, given how attached he'd become.

 

Minor detail I could give a hill of beans about.

 

To say he was "in on it" over that, as if he knew lennay wasn't real from the start, and that he concocted the whole thing with renaiah is crap. Not supported by the overwhelming bulk of info that's coming out, and wholly illogical.

 

For you to conclude he was "in on it" based on that, merely speaks to YOU having a combinationof ignorance and agenda.

Edited by Joe_the_6_pack
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I love IPAs. And I have yet to have a 120 minute. It is supposed to be the holy grail of DFH but I honestly enjoy the 60 minute more than the 90 minute. The 90 has a sweet aftertaste (to me at least). So knowing that, my assumption is that 120, despite its ~14-17%ABV, will be very sweet.

The 120 minute is a tasty beverage. I didn't realize the alcohol % until I was a six pack deep. My wife told me I was flexing in the mirror and quoted me as saying "I don't even work out". Ah...the wonders of alcohol.

 

As far as Schapp's interview, I'm still skeptical. Did tuiossosopo's sister stay on the phone all night with Manti to perpetuate the hoax? Smoking crack sounds like more fun.

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ESPN reporting Te'o is going to be on Sportscenter tonight with Schaap.

 

"I wasn't faking it," he said. "I wasn't part of this. When they hear the facts they'll know."

 

Te'o did say the ordeal weighed on him during Notre Dame's 42-14 loss to Alabama in the BCS title game, in which he played arguably one of the worst games of his career.

 

"It affected me," Te'o said. "When you're stuck in big game like that... people depend on you. You need to perform."

 

And as for the story of meeting Kekua on the field at Stanford in 2009, a tale retold by his father in October, Te'o said: "I kind of tailored my stories to have people think that, yeah, he met her before she passed away."

 

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-74082884/

Edited by Joe_the_6_pack
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"I wasn't faking it," he said. "I wasn't part of this. When they hear the facts they'll know."

 

Te'o did say the ordeal weighed on him during Notre Dame's 42-14 loss to Alabama in the BCS title game, in which he played arguably one of the worst games of his career.

 

"It affected me," Te'o said. "When you're stuck in big game like that... people depend on you. You need to perform."

 

And as for the story of meeting Kekua on the field at Stanford in 2009, a tale retold by his father in October, Te'o said: "I kind of tailored my stories to have people think that, yeah, he met her before she passed away."

 

http://my.chicagotri...e/p2p-74082884/

Poor kid!! Probably still misses her. How about a little sympathy for our first round pick in April :doh:
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