this is from the ESPN article. it doesn't have any direct quotes from Manti or his family members. One cannot know how the ESPN writer came to know these details. "Two months ago, Teo's 72-year-old grandmother, Annette Santiago, died of natural causes. His 22-year-old girlfriend, Stanford student Lennay Kekua, died of leukemia just eight months after surviving a life-threatening car accident. Te'o's family was originally set to meet Kekua for the first time this Saturday, and the emptiness probably will be felt in the same way it has been every day since her passing, when the couple's ritual of falling asleep on the phone together came to a tragic end. Kekua made Te'o promise he would not leave Notre Dame should anything happen to her, requesting only a few white roses. So he responded three days after her death by recording 12 tackles in a prime-time win at then-No. 10 Michigan State. And a week later, on the night of her funeral, he notched two interceptions and forced two more in a win over Michigan, later saying that he sent the pair of picks to her along with the roses." as far as the SB Tribune article that references the two of them meeting after the stanford game, the article is down. but here's what it says according to deadspin: "Te'o and Kekua meet after Stanford's 45-38 victory over Notre Dame in Palo Alto, according to the South Bend Tribune: 'Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te'o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes.'" again, this is not enough to conclude how the SB Tribune found this out. I thought I heard on the radio this morning that this info apparently came from Manti's father, but I'm not 100% certain on that.
Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130117/manti-teo-girlfriend-hoax-quotes/#ixzz2IH3BedSZ To me this removes any doubt. You cannot know someone for four years and date them for a year and not know they do not exist. And he is uncertain about so many of the details the SI reporter asks him about (his girlfriends major, the extent of her injuries, ...) that it's quite amazing he got away with it for as long as he did...
doesn't necessarily remove doubt in my mind. I honestly don't know if any of YOU exist, or if it's just Ismitje posting under different aliases. Lennay supposedly lived far away from him, it wasn't like he could just come over any time and see her. initially he may not have had a desire or felt the need to see her if they were just friends. and if the dating developed slowly (over 4 years), that could have been something that he figured would happen down the line. over 4 years, if you're in frequent communication and you believe that person to be real, you have no reason to suspect that they're feeding you a line.
How can you claim to love someone and then not even know their major, if they graduated or not, what the nature of their injuries was after a car accident?
the one way I can see this as being that Te'o was in on it is if this started early on (4 years ago I guess) as a prank that he didn't think would amount to anything big. just harmless fun. but as his celebrity continued to grow this year, various media sources picked up on the story, and at that time he felt that he had to perpetuate the hoax or risk losing his spot on the ND football team (I can't imagine that he would not have been disciplined - possibly kicked out of the university) and his chances at a Heisman.
The most logical explanation: he created a lie that eventually got much bigger than he had originally anticipated, so he was left with the choice or either fessing up or trying to sustain it.
Point taken. It's true that this story is getting an absurd amount of coverage (much of it is Schadenfreude I would guess?). Still doesn't make the continued denial of being in the know any less ridiculous.
I know that athletes aren't very bright, but you have to be the biggest shithead in the universe if you go FOUR years of "being in an online relationship", and you still have the wool pulled over your eyes. Also, according to the Deadspin article, Manti and his parents said that Lennay actually came to Hawaii on several occasions to meet with Manti whenever he was home, so, in that instance, someone is very full of shit. All of this, "Oh Em Gee! I was done hoaxed!" bullshit is a PR pull to try to help Te'o save face. He knew what he was doing.
also have to be a pretty big shithead to think that you can get away with something like this. it's never the initial lie. it's always the cover-up.
The thing that gets me is how everyone in the media, except for the original site that reported this, is falling in line with the whole "We were duped/He was duped/It was one guy pulling a prank/He's too nice of a kid to do this" line of shit. No one knows why he did it, but he began the lie, then perpetuated it, then his family kept it alive, and the media took hold of the story, even though it had serious holes. While it's funny to point and laugh at Manti Te'o for getting caught, this is more frustrating with regards to a lazy media in this country who would rather tell someone's story, whether true or not, than do any fact checking or background work.
sucks for ND that they hitched their wagon to the "he was the victim of a hoax" line. apparently ND is the biggest dope who got duped in all of this. in journalism, as in all walks of life, people take shortcuts. he's a nice guy, so we will just take his story at face value and not fact check. as for why Manti would have done this, it's just speculation, but I cannot imagine that he did it knowing or intending for it to become as huge of a story as it has. but once the media picked up on the story, his options became to fess up and be kicked off the team, possibly out of college, or try to keep it going. I hope he watches the Lance Armstrong interview tonight and realizes that keeping the lie going will only get more and more difficult and will only make him look more and more ridiculous. he needs to save what shred of credibility he has right now and stop the charade.
It's my forum. I have to read this crap. Now go back and enjoy gossiping like hens. Just leave your man card at the door.
Oh, I'm sorry. Perhaps you'll have enough time left over after washing the sand out of your lady parts to turn in your mod duties if you don't feel like reading what is posted on the football forum, y'know, since you are forced (FORCED!!!!!) to read what is written here.
Well, then anything off the field isn't sports. Michael Vick dogfighting isn't sports, Hope Solo basically saying the Olympic Village is an orgy isn't sports, but all of that stuff sure does get chatted up on sports shows. It becomes sports when ESPN talking heads say thing like this: Skip Bayless is a moron, but when you're on ESPN and have nearly a million twitter followers you're part of the conversation. So now one of the most famous people on the network is saying this hoax contributed towards his team losing a national title, it become sports.
The Eagles are going to suck this year. I hope they don't draft this liar. Does this satisfy your football discussion quota, princess?