Manti Te'o got ate by a catfish or something

[MrSaigon]

I don't have any vested interest in this, since I don't follow college football and hadn't heard of the guy before the story broke. But from the outside it sure seems like the story is being blown out of proportion. I honestly wouldn't expect the school or the media to look into a story like this until there's some reason to think it's not true. Even then, I wouldn't expect much effort. I'm hard pressed to see how it matters. I've also got my issues with Deadspin, and the only reason this was uncovered was probably because of the kind of site Deadspin is. I can't complete this train of thought now - might elaborate later.

Deadspin is a lot of weak journalism and hardly ever objective. It's ironic to see their daily 'ESPN is poor at journalism' story right next to their own daily TMZ photo. I enjoy the site sometimes, and they come up with interesting stuff, but they write like petulant children.

[pioneer98]

ndistops says that there was no sex thus no rape.

Then it must be true..

You can ask the county prosecutor if you'd like.

St. Joe County prosecutor Mike Dvorak said Seeberg alleged that the player touched her breasts which prosecutors were investigating as a potential sexual battery charge

Then again, that would be inconvenient to people that like to toss around the word rape haphazardly, wouldn't it?

As bad as rape is, it is kind of secondary in the Lizzy Seeberg incident, because she committed suicide. Being dead is worse than being raped.

The reason the Seeberg thing is so much worse than the Te'o thing is because the allegation is that she killed herself after being put under pressure to "do the right thing" and keep quiet about the incident. It really doesn't matter whether the incident was rape, or fondling or whatever. It was the threats they allegedly made against her that there would be consequences if she spoke about it that ALLEGEDLY caused her to kill herself. The cover up may have been worse than the crime.

[pioneer98]

ndistops says that there was no sex thus no rape.

Then it must be true.

Also, it's odd to toss the phrase "conspiracy theory" around when we know for a fact there was a conspiracy, we just don't know for sure who was in on it.

I think it's pretty clear what I meant, but I will clarify. If people still believe that Te'o freely participated in the "conspiracy" just for the publicity, then they are as naive as he is.

To clarify...are you saying that people who think he masterminded the "conspiracy" are "naive", or that people who think he somehow, at some point, played along are "naive"?

Anybody who thinks that this was his idea is silly, I think.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say he "played along". Did he embellish the relationship? I think he probably did. But I don't think he did it to win a Heisman, or improve his draft leverage, or whatever the theory is. I suspect it felt like a very good story (and a very real story) to him, and so he shared it................... probably for attention. It's not unusual for guys to want attention. I'm not a big fan of it, but it certainly doesn't make him Lucifer.

Notre Dame should have used that as their tagline in their Heisman campaign for Te'o: "VOTE TE'O! HE'S NOT LUCIFER!"

[ndistops]

Jarvis Jones plays in hands down the toughest conference on a team that came up five yards short of being the one to expose Notre Dame in the title game. He led the entire country in sacks, tackles for loss and forced fumbles. Sounds pretty good to me. Why wasn't he in New York? Not enough media on his nuts? Not enough characdership? Man, if only he pretend cared about a fake girlfriend not dying he could have gone down in history.

This is way off topic, but if you watched the SEC title game, Jarvis Jones was just as embarrassingly bad against Alabama's running attack as Te'o was. There are certainly defensive players who could be considered better than Te'o last year, though, and I told anyone who asked about it the same thing all year.

[Socnorb11]

Who was harmed by Te'o's deal?

You honestly don't have a problem with someone lying over and over to boost their popularity? Manti Te'o became a household name and almost became the first defensive player in something like 50 years to win the Heisman. If Johnny Manziell didn't beat Alabama then Te'o has the trophy.

We were told in countless breathless media accounts that he led the country in leadership and character and faith and Notre Dameness. He sure as [expletive] didn't lead in anything related to on field production. I could name ten better defensive players off the top of my head just from this year, let alone the last 50.

Jarvis Jones plays in hands down the toughest conference on a team that came up five yards short of being the one to expose Notre Dame in the title game. He led the entire country in sacks, tackles for loss and forced fumbles. Sounds pretty good to me. Why wasn't he in New York? Not enough media on his nuts? Not enough characdership? Man, if only he pretend cared about a fake girlfriend not dying he could have gone down in history.

Again, I don't think whether he was originally hoaxed or not comes close to absolving him.It's pretty clear from what is out there that this girl didnt matter nearly as much as he let on, so the "tragedy" was fake in either instance. He has admitted to lying about the story all along to give the media what they were salivating for. I think even you have conceded that he wanted attention. I also believe you said he's about like any other athlete. The problem is we were told repeatedly that he was something different.

Here's the point: you can't cop to being a me first attention whore and still expect me to buy any of that leadership, character and faith narrative. That's some mental gymnastics that even Gabby Douglas can't help me with.

One last hypothetical to chew on: what if deadspin didn't get that original tip? When exactly did Te'o plan on voluntarily disclosing this? After the draft? After the ink was dry on the endorsement deals? Never?

Crap! That's way longer than a paragraph!
/totally kidding

He admitted to lying about this all along to pacify the media? That's news to me. Maybe I'm not up to speed.

You're basically saying the same thing that I keep saying. He got duped into a relationship. We don't know what feelings he had for this "girl", but he says that the feelings were real. Whatever. At some point (we don't really know when), he embellished the story, probably for attention, and maybe out of embarrassment. Whatever........ I see it as almost a non-story, at this point.


As for Notre Dame, of course they are media darlings, with or without heartwrenching girlfriend stories. That's nothing new.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

This is way off topic, but if you watched the SEC title game, Jarvis Jones was just as embarrassingly bad against Alabama's running attack as Te'o was.

IIRC, the O-linemen for Alabama were blocking (and running over) Jones. It seems like the running backs were making Te'o miss and/or running over him themselves. But, yes, Alabama certainly targeted Jones to run at.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Also, the face of an undefeated team is going to get more Heisman attention, regardless of skill, than just about anyone in the country. It took an amazingly talented quarterback with both his arm and feet who was on a team that got better every week and happened to beat the best team in the nation to pass Te'O.

The Heisman has never been about who is the best player. Just look at Adrian Peterson and/or Peyton Manning to prove that.

[TimeForGuinness]

I don't know what's more depressing: that Te'o fell for a hoax, that Te'o lied to boost his stock, that people fell for Te'o, or that people are upset about the Te'o fallout.

I still don't know why people are getting so emotionally involved in this whole thing.

[Freed Roger]

I don't know what's more depressing: that Te'o fell for a hoax, that Te'o lied to boost his stock, that people fell for Te'o, or that people are upset about the Te'o fallout.

I still don't know why people are getting so emotionally involved in this whole thing.

+

I'm kind of happy to see the sports media get duped. This saga exposes it for the generally reactionary-oversaturating-hyping-crapola machine that it is. Hooray fake girlfriend!

TBH, I don't think I knew of Manti Te'o grandma/GF dying and brother losing his leg in a tragic bass fishing accident, until after this whole fake girlfriend thing came to light. I rarely listen to sports commentators anymore -I'm either DVRing and using fastforward with sports, watching them in bars, and/or have the sound down. ESPN is almost never on in our house.

[ghostrunner]

I don't know what's more depressing: that Te'o fell for a hoax, that Te'o lied to boost his stock, that people fell for Te'o, or that people are upset about the Te'o fallout.

I still don't know why people are getting so emotionally involved in this whole thing.

Usually with a story of this tone, there's some sort of potential prosecution. In this case, at worst he's a shameless self promoter and a liar. A liar about to enter a league probably still full of PED users. Plus he already lost the Heisman and the championship. It's odd.