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Deadspin: (Notre Dame football player) Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend is a hoax

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Someone on ESPN made a good point before. When he claims he sent flowers to her in the hospital and no one existed there with that name, you'd think the flower company would call him back letting him know that she wasn't at the hospital.

"Supposedly" the family gave him an address to send the flowers to, which was the address of a relative of the hoaxer. I'm sure Manti didn't think twice about why he wasn't sending the flowers to the hospital directly or whatever.
 
Well said. This entire debacle is now borderline unreal. Lets assume he -was- duped. That this idiot somehow got tricked by some psycho - seemingly for his own entertainment purposes, and spent countless hours on the phone with him. Even going as far as faking a death; complete with a hospital, doctors, and ventilators.

If that's true, then this sociopath is a fucking genius and needs to write a book / screenplay right now. Otherwise, Te'o is complicit in all of this, and loved the attention and fame. Sources are telling ESPN's Bob Holtzman that there were many people around campus that suspected the entire relationship to be fake. With Manti basking in his own "celeb status".

I find it pretty hard to believe his friends/teammates wouldn't have called him out on it too if he was really getting duped and never met the girl.
 
I just can't believe that Manti is that good of an actor. If you read the full transcript they are describing him as immensely distraught and emotional about his girlfriend. And even in the interview, the interviewer was saying how emotional he was. It really reads to me like a guy who believed that the love of his life just died.

If it is not, and Manti's NFL career never materializes, than he needs to head to Hollywood.

So someone hired an entire fake family to fake being this girl and her parent and her brothers and sisters to talk to him constantly, including 8+ hours a day. And had fake doctors talk to him with fake hospital noises in the background? And fake being in a coma for 10+ hours a day just breathing into the phone with coma beeps in the background. I mean that is impossible.
 
I just can't believe that Manti is that good of an actor. If you read the full transcript they are describing him as immensely distraught and emotional about his girlfriend. And even in the interview, the interviewer was saying how emotional he was. It really reads to me like a guy who believed that the love of his life just died.

If it is not, and Manti's NFL career never materializes, then he needs to head to Hollywood.

His Grandmother actually died.
 
It makes a ton of sense if you know Mormons. They're super big into families, which means they really like young people to get married early and start having babies. At this point Te'o is probably, what, 22 or 23 years old? I'm sure he was pressured by his family to find a nice girl to settle down with, so he created this imaginary girl, who, conveniently enough, was a long distance relationship.

And that jumps to the gay conclusion, how?

He also just as easily could have been being a college kid.. sleeping around.. and instead of telling his family that, invented the convenient out of State girlfriend.

Reports are that he hooked up with lots of girls. Doesn't mean he isn't gay, but jumping to that conclusion seems pretty off base.
 
For his sake I almost hope he was just in on the thing the entire time and admits to it.. because if he was hoaxed into having a fake girlfriend and then came up with all of these exaggerations he's an idiot and a liar.. lol.. the former just makes him a liar.
I think people will be much more willing to forgive the naivete of a young man in love than a liar who makes them feel sad about non-existent cancer victim.
 
I just can't believe that Manti is that good of an actor.

But the (at least) half-dozen or so people who had work their asses off to perpetuate this ruse to fool him are?

So someone hired an entire fake family to fake being this girl and her parent and her brothers and sisters to talk to him constantly, including 8+ hours a day. And had fake doctors talk to him with fake hospital noises in the background? And fake being in a coma for 10+ hours a day just breathing into the phone with coma beeps in the background. I mean that is impossible.

Exactly!
 
So someone hired an entire fake family to fake being this girl and her parent and her brothers and sisters to talk to him constantly, including 8+ hours a day. And had fake doctors talk to him with fake hospital noises in the background? And fake being in a coma for 10+ hours a day just breathing into the phone with coma beeps in the background. I mean that is impossible.

Obviously, he exaggerated parts of the story. But I still think he was fooled into thinking this girl existed and then died.

But the (at least) half-dozen or so people who had work their asses off to perpetuate this ruse to fool him are?

It's a lot easier to act through a computer screen and text messages.
 
So someone hired an entire fake family to fake being this girl and her parent and her brothers and sisters to talk to him constantly, including 8+ hours a day. And had fake doctors talk to him with fake hospital noises in the background?

Manti Te'o is the subject of the most elaborate episode of Scare Tactics EVER! How will this Notre Dame football player react when, after four years of tireless set-up, the love of his life returns from the dead??
 
And that jumps to the gay conclusion, how?

He also just as easily could have been being a college kid.. sleeping around.. and instead of telling his family that, invented the convenient out of State girlfriend.

Reports are that he hooked up with lots of girls. Doesn't mean he isn't gay, but jumping to that conclusion seems pretty off base.

Yeah but if he was gay it would make the inevitable movie so much better.
 
I just can't believe that Manti is that good of an actor. If you read the full transcript they are describing him as immensely distraught and emotional about his girlfriend. And even in the interview, the interviewer was saying how emotional he was. It really reads to me like a guy who believed that the love of his life just died.

If it is not, and Manti's NFL career never materializes, than he needs to head to Hollywood.

It's classic Maunchaussen by proxy, with an online fake girlfriend twist.

People who invent things like that for attention actually do really get into feeling all of the emotions surrounding their fantasy.
 
It's classic Maunchaussen by proxy, with an online fake girlfriend twist.

People who invent things like that for attention actually do really get into feeling all of the emotions surrounding their fantasy.

This is much more likely than him being fooled. Sorry gutshot, but I just don't think the prank angle holds up anymore.
 
Obviously, he exaggerated parts of the story. But I still think he was fooled into thinking this girl existed and then died.
But that would still leave him with making up the existence of her family and talking to them, him talking to her for 8 hours straight every day, him making up listening to her in her coma breathing into the phone all day every day, making him him talking to doctors, making up him getting letters from her read to him by her family...etc.

That make him still a unhinged pathological liar in your scenario.
 
I think people will be much more willing to forgive the naivete of a young man in love than a liar who makes them feel sad about non-existent cancer victim.

He's obviously a liar either way.

Which was my point.

He was either hoaxed and then lied.

Or just straight up lied.

I'm not sure either one is going to get sympathy. He clearly made up large aspects of his story, including the things about her comas, the hospital.. being the "first to hear her speak", etc."

So a liar either way IMO.
 
SI: Where did you meet her in California?

TE'O: She actually came to one of the games. She saw me at one of the games.

SI: October 15, I assume is USC?

TE'O: That was in November. But she saw me at the USC game of my sophomore year. We were still just friends, we were acquaintances.
 
And the hoaxer got an entire fake family, a sister, brother, parents to all call T'eo? And T'eo was able to hear her when she was in a coma with the hospital beeps all around and everything?

T'eo is making this up. No one can fake all that to someone.

It all seems so absurd.

Like what is the end-game for the guy doing the hoax? Money when he goes pro?
 
His Grandmother actually died.

Allegedly.

And that jumps to the gay conclusion, how?

He also just as easily could have been being a college kid.. sleeping around.. and instead of telling his family that, invented the convenient out of State girlfriend.

Reports are that he hooked up with lots of girls. Doesn't mean he isn't gay, but jumping to that conclusion seems pretty off base.

It could be that, but it doesn't seem as necessary to create such a ruse in that scenario.
 
It all seems so absurd.

Like what is the end-game for the guy doing the hoax? Money when he goes pro?

He would likely have to pay the half dozen people good money who kept in constant contact with Te'o as is, especially a girl to talk to him every day for 10 hours a day, hell a girl to just breathe into a phone for 10 hours every day for weeks on end. It just doesn't work.
 
So who the hell is the girl that he talked to EIGHT freaking hours a day? I mean who the hell would spend this much time tricking someone? Have they really been talking to him for four years??? This is just not believable.

If he was tricked, he still vastly exaggerated most of the details, such as falling asleep every night with the phone. To me the much more plausible answer is that he made everything up.
 
TE'O: Then I get a phone call from her older brother's phone. He's just crying. And immediately I felt like, "Oh my Gosh, what just happened." And then he told me, "She's gone bro."

SI: How did it happen?

TE'O: It was just so sudden. I don't know the details of it. It was just a surprise.

---------------

TE'O: When she got in her accident?

SI: So starting in April?

TE'O: Yeah and you know, she was in a coma. I would try, and you know.

SI: Hit by a drunk driver. What were her injuries?

TE'O: I don't know. She had a lot of different injuries.


How weird is it that the that he cannot elaborate on the extent of her injuries in the car accident or the actual cause of her death? If my girlfriend got hit by a car, you can be fucking sure I'd know exactly how hurt she was. And if she died I would be demanding to know how and why she died before they even got the body to the morgue.

The rest of the interview is filled with flagrant lies -- it's not as if he's above lying. It's just strange that for those two details, he would choose to be suspiciously evasive rather than just make up more bullshit.
 
He's obviously a liar either way.

Which was my point.

He was either hoaxed and then lied.

Or just straight up lied.

I'm not sure either one is going to get sympathy. He clearly made up large aspects of his story, including the things about her comas, the hospital.. being the "first to hear her speak", etc."

So a liar either way IMO.

If he really was the victim of a hoax and then lied after it I wouldn't be too upset with him. Being fooled into thinking you had a girlfriend is something I imagine is immensely embarrassing.
 
TE'O: Then I get a phone call from her older brother's phone. He's just crying. And immediately I felt like, "Oh my Gosh, what just happened." And then he told me, "She's gone bro."

SI: How did it happen?

TE'O: It was just so sudden. I don't know the details of it. It was just a surprise.

---------------

TE'O: When she got in her accident?

SI: So starting in April?

TE'O: Yeah and you know, she was in a coma. I would try, and you know.

SI: Hit by a drunk driver. What were her injuries?

TE'O: I don't know. She had a lot of different injuries.


How weird is it that the that he cannot elaborate on the extent of her injuries in the car accident or the actual cause of her death? If my girlfriend got hit by a car, you can be fucking sure I'd know exactly how hurt she was.

The rest of the interview is filled with flagrant lies -- it's not as if he's above lying. It's just strange that for those two details, he would choose to be suspiciously evasive rather than just make up more bullshit.
Not to mention he never thought to go visit her once nor apparently did she ask him to! Sounds real to me.
 
If he really was the victim of a hoax and then lied after it I wouldn't be too upset with him. Being fooled into thinking you had a girlfriend is something I imagine is immensely embarrassing.

There's a difference between:

a) Being hoaxed and then lying as in, "yeah I had a girlfriend, let's move on and talk about other things."

and

b) Being hoaxed and then bringing up the lie at every possible opportunity and embellishing the story for personal gain.


Te'o chose option B, which at best makes him a pathological liar as well as stupid and cowardly.
 
If he really was the victim of a hoax and then lied after it I wouldn't be too upset with him. Being fooled into thinking you had a girlfriend is something I imagine is immensely embarrassing.

But inventing all of these sob stories about things? Being the first one to speak to her as she finally was able to talk post-coma?

I dunno..

And I certainly think at the very least it's looking like once it became clear his fake girlfriend would be found out by the media, he enlisted the help of his friend to continue the cover-up.. create the fake sister, meet with a fan, etc.
 
If he really was the victim of a hoax and then lied after it I wouldn't be too upset with him. Being fooled into thinking you had a girlfriend is something I imagine is immensely embarrassing.

Why not say "The relationship is over and I don't walk to talk about it anymore" after he found out it was a hoax ?
 
This might not have been his end game, but dude is going to get paid from this scandal.

His management is probably having a bidding war for an exclusive interview as we speak.

he could milk this for all its worth like a kardashian
 
There's a difference between:

a) Being hoaxed and then lying as in, "yeah I had a girlfriend, let's move on and talk about other things."

and

b) Being hoaxed and then bringing up the lie at every possible opportunity and embellishing the story for personal gain.


Te'o chose option B, which at best makes him a pathological liar as well as stupid and cowardly.

Unless I have the timeline wrong I think he did most of the embellishing for personal gain before he supposedly found out it was a hoax
 
He's obviously a liar either way.

Which was my point.

He was either hoaxed and then lied.

Or just straight up lied.

I'm not sure either one is going to get sympathy. He clearly made up large aspects of his story, including the things about her comas, the hospital.. being the "first to hear her speak", etc."

So a liar either way IMO.


Basically. I'm still going with he was hoaxed and then lied out of embarrassment. But he is definitely a liar.
 
He would likely have to pay the half dozen people good money who kept in constant contact with Te'o as is, especially a girl to talk to him every day for 10 hours a day, hell a girl to just breathe into a phone for 10 hours every day for weeks on end. It just doesn't work.

Yeah, I mean playing out the math.

Six people. Assume all equal shares. Let's say he gets $10 million (high estimate) rookie contract that he receives over 4 years. They are able to get 10% of that over that 4 years (so now they're about 5-6 years into this Sawyer-esque long con). That's $1 million divided amongst 6 people, which is ~$166k each over the course of 5-6 years.

Doesn't work out even at that point.
 
This might not have been his end game, but dude is going to get paid from this scandal.

His management is probably having a bidding war for an exclusive interview as we speak.

he could milk this for all its worth like a kardashian

Nah, he'll lose money. This is definitely going to hurt his draft stock. He'll still easily be a 1st rounder, but there's no way he'll go where he would have without the scandal. Then there's the endorsement deals he'll lose out on. Nobody wants to fork over 30 grand for an imaginary SUV from Te'o's Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep.
 
Unless I have the timeline wrong I think he did most of the embellishing for personal gain before he supposedly found out it was a hoax

If that's the case, then we have to believe in the presence of a person/persons who is willing and able to spend over 8 hours a day/night on the phone with Manti, as well as impersonating all of her family members with additional phone numbers and voices, medical staff during the coma/hospital stay, etc.

This would be a person /persons who would have strung Manti along for over 4 years, during which Manti was the unwitting chump the entire time.

Ultimately, we have to believe that Manti is the biggest, stupidest dunce of all time as well as believing there are people who are sociopathic enough to perpetuate a hoax for over 4 years straight.

So... really?
 
It could be that, but it doesn't seem as necessary to create such a ruse in that scenario.

I just think considering a lot of this relates really well to existing known psychological conditions, that those conditions are far more likely than a closeted gay man inventing such an elaborate ruse.

Why kill the girlfriend off if it was about him being gay? Why all that attention on it?

This is a pathological liar with some strange twisted form of Munchaussen by proxy IMO. Also combined with a hero complex.. inventing stories of illnesses is a really common phenomenon, then you throw the idea that he can use that illness to make him seem like this example of strength amongst adversity and it gets even more twisted.

But gay? Just seems like WAYYY too much of an attention grab to hide being gay.
 
If that's the case, then we have to believe in the presence of a person who is willing and able to spend over 8 hours a day/night on the phone with Manti, as well as impersonating all of her family members, medical staff during the coma/hospital stay, etc.

This would be a person or persons who would have strung Manti along for over 4 years, during which Manti was the unwitting chump the entire time.

So... really?

No, I think the theory would be:

It was just an online girlfriend.. who told him she was dying online..

He then embellished everything else. So the entire phone/hospital thing is the embellishment.

It doesn't have to be such an elaborate hoax for him to have been hoaxed if he exaggerated every single thing about the girl he thought was real and what they went through together.

Could have just been someone messing with a dude online, and then he created the rest of the mess with his embeleshing.
 
If that's the case, then we have to believe in the presence of a person/persons who is willing and able to spend over 8 hours a day/night on the phone with Manti, as well as impersonating all of her family members with additional phone numbers and voices, medical staff during the coma/hospital stay, etc.

This would be a person /persons who would have strung Manti along for over 4 years, during which Manti was the unwitting chump the entire time.

Ultimately, we have to believe that Manti is the biggest, stupidest dunce of all time as well as believing there are people who are sociopathic enough to perpetuate a hoax for over 4 years straight.

So... really?

This hoax is turning out to be more elaborate than the moon landing hoax.
 
Why kill the girlfriend off if it was about him being gay? Why all that attention on it?

Because at some point his family wants to meet the girl he keeps talking about. He can't perpetuate the hoax forever. And I don't think he ever intended for it to become this massive conspiracy, it just kind of ballooned out of control.

But I don't disagree with your arguments for Manti suffering from a serious psychological condition. I think that's perfectly logical as well. That being said, it could be some combination of psych issues and closeted homosexuality.
 
No, I think the theory would be:

It was just an online girlfriend.. who told him she was dying online..

He then embellished everything else. So the entire phone/hospital thing is the embellishment.

It doesn't have to be such an elaborate hoax for him to have been hoaxed if he exaggerated every single thing about the girl he thought was real and what they went through together.

Could have just been someone messing with a dude online, and then he created the rest of the mess with his embeleshing.

That is almost just as bad as making it up from the get-go. That situation leaves him as a scumbag pathological liar.
 
A ridiculous theory to entertain the already ridiculous gay theory:

Te'o and Tuiasosopo were lovers in high school. They were deeply in love. But as Te'o saw he had a potential future NFL career ahead of him, he broke off the relationship and decided to hide his sexual orientation for fear of it costing him his career.

Tuiasosopo then crafted this elaborate hoax to trick Te'o into this situation, so that Te'o's only escape would be to admit he is gay. And so because Te'o's gay secret would be known to the whole world anyway, Te'o and Tuiasosopo could be reunited and live happily ever after.
 
How is ANY of this explained by a hoax?


TE'O: She didn't get out. She went from there. Remember she got in the accident and she was in a coma. We lost her, actually, twice. She flatlined twice. They revived her twice. It was just a trippy situation. It was a day I was flying home from South Bend to go home for summer break. It was May. Mid-May. That was the day where they said, "Bro, we're going to pull it. We're going to pull the plug." I remember having this feeling like everything is going to be OK. They were telling me, "Say your goodbyes." From April 28 to around mid-May, I was always talking to my girlfriend who was on a machine.
SI: She couldn't communicate?
TE'O: No. She could only breathe. One of the miraculous things was when I talked to her and she would hear my voice her breathing would pick up. Like quickly, and then she would start crying. But her breathing would quicken, and she would start crying. So her brother was in the room with the nurse. They were monitoring her. She said, "Who is she on the phone with?" Her boyfriend. She was like, "That's amazing. She doesn't do that with anybody else." So that happened. And then she flatlined and we were losing her.
The day I went home, that was the day they were going to pull it. They were saying their goodbyes and all that. I said, "Babe, I'm never going to say goodbye to you. If you really want to go, she really missed her dad, so I said, "If you want to go, be with dad, go. Just know that I love you very, very much." I had this very positive feeling that everything was going to be OK. I landed in Hawaii. By the time I said my goodbyes. Not my goodbyes, my I love you, I'll see you later, that kind of thing, I jumped on the airplane to go to Hawaii. They were scheduled to pull the plug while I was in the air.
 
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