[Avarence]

Full expose link on Deadspin here.

Quote:

This week, we got in touch with a woman living in Torrance, Calif. We'll call her Reba, to protect her identity. She was initially confused, then horrified to find that she had become the face of a dead woman. "That picture," she told us over the phone, "is a picture of me from my Facebook account."

.....

There was no Lennay Kekua. Lennay Kekua did not meet Manti Te'o after the Stanford game in 2009. Lennay Kekua did not attend Stanford. Lennay Kekua never visited Manti Te'o in Hawaii. Lennay Kekua was not in a car accident. Lennay Kekua did not talk to Manti Te'o every night on the telephone. She was not diagnosed with cancer, did not spend time in the hospital, did not engage in a lengthy battle with leukemia. She never had a bone marrow transplant. She was not released from the hospital on Sept. 10, nor did Brian Te'o congratulate her for this over the telephone. She did not insist that Manti Te'o play in the Michigan State or Michigan games, and did not request he send white flowers to her funeral. Her favorite color was not white. Her brother, Koa, did not inform Manti Te'o that she was dead. Koa did not exist. Her funeral did not take place in Carson, Calif., and her casket was not closed at 9 a.m. exactly. She was not laid to rest.

Lennay Kekua's last words to Manti Te'o were not "I love you."

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.

The sheer quantity of falsehoods about Manti's relationship with Lennay makes that friend, and another relative of Ronaiah's, believe Te'o had to know the truth. Mostly, though, the friend simply couldn't believe that Te'o would be stupid enough—or Ronaiah Tuiasosopo clever enough—to sustain the relationship for nearly a year.

Since Notre Dame was blown out in the BCS national championship game, Te'o has kept a low profile. He has tweeted sparingly, and he declined an invitation to the Senior Bowl.

These are just some excerpts - the entire story is massive.

For the TL;DR crowd: Essentially this was one of the biggest and most inspirational stories of the college football season. The media ran entire specials on this story. The head coach awarded a game ball in his supposed girlfriend's honor, and tens of thousands of dollars were collected for charities supposedly for her benefit. This is a story that has gone on for over two years, but is entirely a hoax.

For those familiar with college football, this will be shocking.

[germanico]

He should have used some of those charity dollars to commission some pictures of an amateur from some other country, then get some pro to alter those pics so that they couldnt be traced. In this day and age, did he seriously thought he could lift a picture from a Facebook profile and not get caught?

His stupidity was his undoing.

[Timoteo]

ESPN is having a field day with this today. Te'o released a statement basically saying that he was duped, and that ND officials, with the cooperation of his family, are investigating this "hoax" to determine if there were sinister intentions towards him, or if it was just for sick amusement. I didn't know the details of the story of his "girlfriend" dying, because I don't pay as much attention to college football as I used to. I only knew of Te'o's exploits as a player - not the off-the-field stuff. It's hard to believe a dude of his stature got played this hard, and that he was referring to a chick he met online, but never met or fucked as his girlfriend. Either way, he loses. He either comes off as a liar and a fraud, or a soft-headed chump.

[scorpion]

There's no way he could have been fooled for that long. Plus the story mentions how he talked about meeting her at Stanford and going on vacation with her.

Sounds like he was in on it the whole time. But why? Publicity? If so, that's really fucking low. The story says he is a devout Mormon. It's also possible he invented her to give him cover for being a Tebow-like virgin and to give him a reason to avoid the female groupies. It's also possible he's gay and invented her to give him cover for his cockloving on the side.

Like Timoteo said, it's impossible for him to come out of this looking good under any of the scenarios. The truth will come out though.

[Jaydublin]

Why is a starting linebacker at ND, who was in the Heisman running most of the season, dating a girl online??? Who he hasn't even met, apparently.

Seems like a cover up......

The vets in the NFL are going to hassle him so bad.

[Timoteo]

(01-16-2013 08:56 PM)Jaydublin Wrote:  

Why is a starting linebacker at ND, who was in the Heisman running most of the season, dating a girl online??? Who he hasn't even met, apparently?????

Seems like a cover up......

The vets in the NFL are going to hassle him so bad.

It's going to start with the NFL combine interviews with management types from teams. They dig DEEP into off-the-field and character issues a player may have had. This kid's stock already fell a little with ND getting smoked in the National Title game, and him and his teammates on defense played like they were scared to tackle anyone. Add to it THIS mess, and some teams might be scared off from picking him. He's still a hell of a football player, but as a personnel man looking to invest in a player, you're going to need some answers from this kid as to what happened here. Once he makes it into a locker room...yeah, he's gonna get fucked with. Then on the field, opponents are going to talk even MORE vicious shit.

[maccc]

I don't think he has deep character issues.

He's just gay, and needs a cover up because of his profession. Can't really blame him.

[Timoteo]

(01-16-2013 09:27 PM)maccc Wrote:  

I don't think he has deep character issues.

He's just gay, and needs a cover up because of his profession. Can't really blame him.

Maybe, but he wouldn't be the first gay profession athlete that managed to cover up their sexuality. He did the opposite of what all those others did (and we can assume there have been more than a few). They acted in a way that didn't attract additional scrutiny. He INVENTED A PERSON AND A WHOLE RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM, INCLUDING AN AUTO ACCIDENT, ILLNESS AND DEATH. He concocted that she was a student at Stanford, and graduated. All of these things could be checked and verified. At some point, people would come forward saying they had never met this person. Tim Tebow simply said he's a virgin because of his faith (I'm not insinuating that Tebow is gay, but religion is a good cover, at least for a while, if you are gay).

[Jaydublin]

(01-16-2013 09:41 PM)Timoteo Wrote:  

Maybe, but he wouldn't be the first gay profession athlete that managed to cover up their sexuality. He did the opposite of what all those others did (and we can assume there have been more than a few). They acted in a way that didn't attract additional scrutiny. He INVENTED A PERSON AND A WHOLE RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM, INCLUDING AN AUTO ACCIDENT, ILLNESS AND DEATH. He concocted that she was a student at Stanford, and graduated. All of these things could be checked and verified. At some point, people would come forward saying they had never met this person. Tim Tebow simply said he's a virgin because of his faith (I'm not insinuating that Tebow is gay, but religion is a good cover, at least for a while, if you are gay).

I cant imagine he didn't hit it

[HotLava]

What a stupid publicity stunt. Isn't someone at his level (Heisman candidate) supposed to have a PR agent? I mean guys on first rate teams like ND are usually coached on how to deal with the media.

[GameTheory]

sounds like fraud to me

[Eldon]

Assuming he got played, he was calling a girl he never met his girlfriend??? Whawhawhat?

[maccc]

Timoteo

Tebow isn't called out as gay because he has a strong frame, and he's always photographed with hot chicks.

Teo is never photographed with chicks. He's also had other gayish issues over the last few years that are now starting to make sense.

Teo didn't create this huge hoax out of thin air. What I bet happened is that he originally made a small lie to a few people about a girlfriend that he had to qualm any rumors of him being gay. Once that lie was dissected, he said she either had cancer or died so people would shut up and leave him alone. Eventually some student newspaper reporter heard the rumor, and the lie got out of control.

[Excelsior]

And he actually expects us to believe that he was "tricked" into all of this?

How good is the weed up there in South Bend?

Good luck enduring rookie hazing and fan heckling at away games, Manti. You just gave them a hell of a weapon to point at your head each and every chance they get. I can already see the waves of memes that will soon follow.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame has probably earned itself even more hate than it already had, despite a good season. I didn't think it was possible, but the continued mythmaking/hype-machine surrounding that program seems to justify it.

[maccc]

This is only the beginning. Over the next month I expect it to blow up like the Tiger Woods scandal.

It looks like the only way he can save face here is by coming out of the closet. He'd go back to being the victim, and he'd end up being the most interviewed athlete of the next decade.

Charles Barkley always said the first athlete in team sports to come out as gay would have to be a star.

[Timoteo]

(01-16-2013 10:56 PM)maccc Wrote:  

Timoteo

Tebow isn't called out as gay because he has a strong frame, and he's always photographed with hot chicks.

Teo is never photographed with chicks. He's also had other gayish issues over the last few years that are now starting to make sense.

Teo didn't create this huge hoax out of thin air. What I bet happened is that he originally made a small lie to a few people about a girlfriend that he had to qualm any rumors of him being gay. Once that lie was dissected, he said she either had cancer or died so people would shut up and leave him alone. Eventually some student newspaper reporter heard the rumor, and the lie got out of control.

With Te'o being a Mormon, not being photographed with chicks actually fits the mold for the very devout, so that in itself wouldn't raise the gay flag. At BYU, you can't even have a girl in your room after a certain time, or at all. The only way to get some is to marry her, then live off-campus. Devout Christians can actually enjoy the company of women, just not bang them. I'm not questioning why Tebow hasn't been called out, because I myself don't believe he's gay. I'm just suggesting that it's incredibly far-fetched that Te'o went to these lengths to cover if HE is - his religion would have been enough. Something else is going on here.

[txtraveler]

All I can say is, what a loser. Why would a star LB(assuming he's not gay) do this. I mean...He could tap all he wanted being a STAR LB, at ND.

Only way out of this(if he is gay), is to come out of the closet and say he was embarrassed.

[germanico]

I would have thought that the Gay Linebacker stunt would have attracted more publicity than a Dead Girlfriend stunt.

[UgSlayer]

Maybe he's trolling, maybe he's gay.

The first question that comes to my mind is: can America become more feminized than it is now? It has come to the point that even masculine traditions (team sports) are being dragged down into the black hole of this sick TMZ-esque culture.

This is an online forum for men to share knowledge and become masculine and even we can't escape that which used to be exclusive to women: gossip.

Notice I say "we". I'm sure I've made that mistake on here as well.

Gay or not, in his early twenties he is already a great man and has accomplished something 99.9999 percent of the male population could not. Let us not contribute to the downfall of yet another great man at the hands of zeros who would like to see his life crumble because it makes said zeros feel better about their shitty lives.

Did he do something stupid and get in over his head? Yes. Who here hasn't?

[scorpion]

Even in the year 2013 this dude would have a hell of an uphill climb coming out of the closet in his situation.

Remember, he's not the kicker or the punter here. He's a middle linebacker. He's basically the on-field leader of the defense. He has to command the respect of his teammates in order to be effective.

Pretty tough to do that in the most masculine and homophobic sport in the world if your teammates know you're a fairy. At best, I think he would be grudgingly tolerated. His presence alone as openly-gay would create a lot of problems off the field with the rest of the team and be a huge distraction.

If it turns out he's gay this story will be fucking huge though.

[maccc]

(01-17-2013 12:14 AM)scorpion Wrote:  

Even in the year 2013 this dude would have a hell of an uphill climb coming out of the closet in his situation.

Remember, he's not the kicker or the punter here. He's a middle linebacker. He's basically the on-field leader of the defense. He has to command the respect of his teammates in order to be effective.

Pretty tough to do that in the most masculine and homophobic sport in the world if your teammates know you're a fairy. At best, I think he would be grudgingly tolerated. His presence alone as openly-gay would create a lot of problems off the field with the rest of the team and be a huge distraction.

It will be tough, but the first person who comes out will either be him, or someone like him. Someone who is a great player, tough, and respected. If it were a kicker or punter he'd just get cut.

The issue I'm fascinated about is how this impacts his draft status. I don't see how he could hide this for the next 3 months until the draft.

[Avarence]

He sounds like he's in damage-control mode. Some of the things don't add up.
I think he's lying about it all.

Side note:

Nice job, phpBB/myBB/whatever, for setting the default limit on subjects at 85 characters yet at the same time automatically adding 3 to any subject line making it 88. Apologies for the long-ass thread title, but I didn't forsee it being a problem.

[maccc]

(01-17-2013 01:46 AM)IQVX Wrote:  

He sounds like he's in damage-control mode. Some of the things don't add up.
I think he's lying about it all.

Only some of the things don't add up??? He said he met her at Stanford in 2009. Now he claims to have never met her.

He's got two options:

1) Come clean that he made the whole thing up to boost his Heisman candidacy.

2) Come out of the closet.

I think the second option may be easier. If he admits to creating the hoax, then all his contemporaries are going to assume he's gay anyway, and he won't be able to hide behind religion this time.

[Avarence]

Te'o and Ronaiah Tuiasosopo know each other and have been friends - mutual friends speculated that Te'o was in on it... I think it's pretty obvious Te'o is in damage control mode. No way he's innocent when there's so many revelations that suggest the opposite and so many things that wouldn't add up if he supposedly were. On the other hand, it does make sense that he would lie about meeting her at certain times, given that he would be embarrassed to say she was an online girlfriend. But I think his relationship and connections to Ronaiah who is 100% behind the fake gf renders that nothing more than wishful thinking. I think he knew.

But there is also this tweet from a Stanford player which adds some credit to Te'o's claim he was duped:

Quote:


Matthew Masifilo
‏@MMasifilo

Got to believe Te'o was the victim here. He would always ask us if we knew his mystery girl after we'd play them....

Hopefully the truth comes out in one way or another soon.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

And people believed it based on just a picture - Facebook or no Facebook? No one asked for hospital documents, death certificate, police logs or something?