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[timetokill]

I don't know why anyone from the media doesn't ask the most simple, revealing, end game question of all... Where is the girl Te'o supposedly talked too. They have that tuiasosopo guy why don't they have the girl? She is the key to everything, get her and you get some answers.

Well, if you buy Notre Dame/Te'o's story, the entire relationship was actually online and they never talked. Which is basically an admission of Te'o being a pathological liar, of course. Oh, and Te'o's brother too, who supposedly talked to her family on the phone all the time too.

 

[MIMIC]

I don't know why anyone from the media doesn't ask the most simple, revealing, end game question of all... Where is the girl Te'o supposedly talked too. They have that tuiasosopo guy why don't they have the girl? She is the key to everything, get her and you get some answers.

That's what I was just about to ask.

"We talked on the phone."

Presumably, he talked to a person who sounded like a female. Where is she? Or maybe he was just talking to Microsoft Mary =p

This story is so weird and there are so many dubious claims.

 

[border]

I don't know why anyone from the media doesn't ask the most simple, revealing, end game question of all... Where is the girl Te'o supposedly talked too. They have that tuiasosopo guy why don't they have the girl? She is the key to everything, get her and you get some answers.

At this point it seems pretty obvious that there never was any girl that Te'O spoke to, and that all those conversations were complete fabrications. Notre Dame tried to claim that their relationship was "online exclusive", implying that they never even had a phone conversation.

 

[zychi]

That's what I was just about to ask.

"We talked on the phone."

Presumably, he talked to a person who sounded like a female. Where is she? Or maybe he was just talking to Microsoft Mary =p

and the media gets ratings the longer this goes on. its one giant conspiracy theory in sports. its not steroids, and its no one is in legal trouble. it will continue like this til manti(another weird hawaiian name) finally speaks

 

[Bobby Roberts]

And I don't know that Hawaiians are known for inventing fake names that sound a little bit like classic Hawaiian names or language.

It really does sound like someone almost making fun of a Hawaiian talking.

I hear it in the cheesy voices you'll hear repeat Hawaiian history at places like the Sheraton Maui where they do fake ceremonies every night for tourists.

Exactly! I said it out loud and was like "I don't know if that even sounds Hawaiian."

Looks like I'm not the only one questioning that.

https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=melelengei&src=typd

 

[K.Jack]

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.

what the fuck

So right when I landed, I was expecting to get a voicemail saying she's gone. So I landed and I had a voicemail from her brother saying, "Brother, call me back right now." So you can imagine what's going through my head. I was like, "What am I going to do? How am I going to take this?'"And so I called him back, the doctor came in and he saw something and he wants to try some treatment on her to see if it works. From there she slowly started to get better. Slowly. Eventually she came out of her coma and she started having memory problems and she couldn't remember because of the accident. That's how much damage she had to her frontal lobe. She had memory problems. I was actually the first person that she talked to. She was breathing, breathing. When I talked to her, I would say, "Babe, do you know who this is?" I knew she knew who it was because her breathing would pick up. I was like, "Relax, chill. Breathe slowly. Breathe slowly." And then, that was when she first started to speak was that conversation. I was like, "Babe, I love you. I love you." Very slightly she said, "I love you."

I'm not drafting this motherfucker. He's completely full of shit.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

Well, if you buy Notre Dame/Te'o's story, the entire relationship was actually online and they never talked..

Both ND and Te'o said they talked on the phone in their statements.

Some articles only quoted ND as saying "it was entirely online" but the full transcript has them saying "and on the phone."

Te'o also mentioned the phone in the statement printed in the DeadSpin update.

TMZ was claiming they had an exclusive on a female involved in the hoax.. not sure if that went anywhere.. not on their front page.

 

[WesternHeretic]

I'm not drafting this motherfucker. He's completely full of shit.

Well him making up a bull shit story says something about his character, but not his actual ability to play football.

 

[TS-08]

Well, if you buy Notre Dame/Te'o's story, the entire relationship was actually online and they never talked. Which is basically an admission of Te'o being a pathological liar, of course. Oh, and Te'o's brother too, who supposedly talked to her family on the phone all the time too.

That isn't true. Te'o said in his statement they talked on the phone.

 

[Chichikov]

Cold. Blooded.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/inspiring-tale-of-notre-dame-hero-totally-fake.html

OMFG -

Fucking LOL.
And people wonder why I fucking hate Notre Dame.

 

[timetokill]

Both ND and Te'o said they talked on the phone in their statements.

Some articles only quoted ND as saying "it was entirely online" but the full transcript has them saying "and on the phone."

Ah, I missed that part (since it was edited out of some articles). Thanks for the correction.

 

[zychi]

the only viable option i see for him to be clear, is if he said it was a social experiment he and his friends did to show how little the media checks things, and runs with things that will get ratings. it was a giant hoax they played on the national media and were proving a point to show how low the country gets for media attention.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

TMZ is talking with the whistleblower "Jan"
http://www.tmz.com/2013/01/17/tmz-live-notre-dame-manti-teo-girlfriend-britney-spears-kobe-bryant/

TMZ took this down BTW, and no mention of it on their front page.

Instead they ran the rather obvious "ND announcement proves Te'o lied between December 6th and the BCA game."

lol

Wonder if someone tried hoaxing TMZ.

 

[Cheebo]

As a Polynesian defensive player not named Polamalu I question how big of a shot he had at most endorsements anyways. Either way it's a moot point since he's probably still going to get drafted high enough to be paid a ton of money right out of the gate.

It's not about the big national media endorsements, but the local ones. The small local ones you never see nationally. But are flooded with on the local market. He would have gotten those, but he is such a national joke now the local endorsements won't come. He'll lose a lot of money.

 

[Kusagari]

If I was an NFL GM I'd probably rather have him be a pathological liar than be do brain dead as to fall for this hoax for so long.

 

[border]

TMZ was claiming they had an exclusive on a female involved in the hoax.. not sure if that went anywhere.. not on their front page.

TMZ's story was about a girl called "Jan" who knew Lennay Kekua's "sister" Uliani exclusively through Twitter. She was supposed to meet Uliani at a football game. The person that showed up though was this Tuiasosopo guy and a young toddler. Tuiasosopo claimed that Uliani couldn't make it and for some reason the girl took a picture with him. Why the hell you would take a picture with a complete stranger like that, I don't know.

 

[timetokill]

the only viable option i see for him to be clear, is if he said it was a social experiment he and his friends did to show how little the media checks things, and runs with things that will get ratings. it was a giant hoax they played on the national media and were proving a point to show how low the country gets for media attention.

Well if you wanted to see the media completely trash this guy day-in day-out, that'd be one way to make it happen.

 

[FallingEdge]

the only viable option i see for him to be clear, is if he said it was a social experiment he and his friends did to show how little the media checks things, and runs with things that will get ratings. it was a giant hoax they played on the national media and were proving a point to show how low the country gets for media attention.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

TMZ's story was about a girl who was supposed to meet a Lennay Kekua's "sister" Uliani at a football game. The person that showed up though was this Tuiasosopo guy and a young toddler. Tuiasosopo claimed that Uliani couldn't make it and for some reason the girl took a picture with him. Why the hell you would take a picture with a complete stranger like that, I don't know.

Ah thanks, didn't realize they were the same thing.. someone posted a link after that was already posted.

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

The name thing really makes this seem like he was hoaxing everyone.

He throws some "She uses Lennay but her real name is obscure" factoid out there to make it plausible why reporters aren't finding info about her if they ever look it up.

 

[MiamiWesker]

Well, if you buy Notre Dame/Te'o's story, the entire relationship was actually online and they never talked. Which is basically an admission of Te'o being a pathological liar, of course. Oh, and Te'o's brother too, who supposedly talked to her family on the phone all the time too.

Then who called him to te him she is still alive and it was fake? That is the official story of how ND came to find out. So there is a woman on a phone is Te'o is to be believed. And if there is no woman than there you go you have your answer. She is the key.

 

[LycanXIII]

I'd like to sit in a lecture by Te'o on how coma's work. Could she talk or not? He goes back and forth about how they would "talk all day" to just her breathing, to her complaining about back pain. And then she lost her memory after awakening from the coma, but remembered everything from when the car crash happened to when she went into the coma?

I know the girl doesn't exist, but for him to tell the story like that, he has/had to believe it.

 

[border]

He throws some "She uses Lennay but her real name is obscure" factoid out there to make it plausible why reporters aren't finding info about her if they ever look it up.

Doesn't really matter if they get her first name right though -- if her last name does not appear in any college records, police reports, medical filings, obituaries, etc then that should have been enough to set off major red flags. I wonder how long the media was sitting on this story?

 

[K.Jack]

Well him making up a bull shit story says something about his character, but not his actual ability to play football.

Nah man, that reads like crazy person shit.

 

[iammeiam]

the only viable option i see for him to be clear, is if he said it was a social experiment he and his friends did to show how little the media checks things, and runs with things that will get ratings. it was a giant hoax they played on the national media and were proving a point to show how low the country gets for media attention.

Even if the social experiment excuse was something that did actually work--and I've never seen anybody actually pull it off--he extended the hoax beyond the media, sending e-mails to parents of a little girl dying of cancer expressing that he understood the pain losing someone to cancer could cause. I'm pretty sure that all being part of his social experiment would backfire pretty badly. That article also has the fantastic segment:

We keep looking for the real thing, for real heroes. But we’re looking at the wrong criteria, so the results keep disappointing us. In sports, they built a statue to Joe Paterno, but later had to take it down.

Lance Armstrong was built up as the greatest human being until we found out how he bullied and cheated.

Character is revealed behind closed doors. Te’o didn’t save a life, but in his grief, he gave of himself to others.

Our whole culture now is to think of yourself. Empathy is on the decline, and that has led to this mess we’re in. In the economy, pop culture, politics, everything else. Athletes, movie stars, singers are just pursuing the next thing to bring attention, money. That’s what we idolize now. That’s what we look up to.

Anything to succeed. Cheat your way to the top. Step on others. Think of yourself.

It’s no wonder we keep being let down.

Pain can make you turn in or turn out. Te’o turned out and wasn’t doing it for any reason other than that he felt he could make some sort of difference. You probably think I’m trying to turn Te’o into a hero for his small letter and big gesture. I’m not. This kind of thing should be the norm.

It just isn’t. So it stands out.

 

[MIMIC]

So.....what's the character assessment of this guy? I only very loosely follow the players in college football (although I do WATCH the games frequently) so I have no idea about this guy. Does he SEEM like the type of person that would pull this kind of stunt just for the publicity? Or was he really just duped?

I didn't think that the article painted him as a malevolent liar....but definitely as someone who misled the press for one reason or another.

I mean, we all lie but it's not always with malice. Do people think he did this maliciously?

Maybe he made up the story about the meeting/talking because people would question the fact that he was in an online relationship (or would mock him for it). So, he creates the false narrative of actual interaction.

Just speculating.

 

[MiamiWesker]

I know everyone is trashing the major news as they should but what about the school paper from Stanford? Think about this you work at Stanford you hear this national story about this great LB who has a heartbreaking story about a girl from Stanford. Don't you think anyone from that school paper would try to write a story a out that from the Stanford point of view? They would have quickly found out this girl never attended Stanford.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

Doesn't really matter if they get her first name right though -- if her last name does not appear in any college records, police reports, medical filings, obituaries, etc then that should have been enough to set off major red flags. I wonder how long the media was sitting on this story?

Very true, but in his head he might have thought it was a good idea to throw that out there.

The SI interviewer claims he didn't spot red flags.. but if you look at the interview.. he repeatedly keeps asking him questions that seem to be based on him thinking the story was off. And he claims he did google her, contact Stanford, etc. BEFORE the interviewer.

Manti could have detected that and then stupidly made up the name story because he might have suspected the reporter already tried goolging her with no results.

Reading that SI story.. it does seem like that reporter either knew outright or suspected a hoax very strongly.. and isn't outright admitting it because that would make SI complicit in the hoax in a way.

It reads to me as.. "We weren't THAT dumb.. we did look it up at least".. but it also reads like "We totally knew and let this happen."

 

[lenovox1]

the only viable option i see for him to be clear, is if he said it was a social experiment he and his friends did to show how little the media checks things, and runs with things that will get ratings. it was a giant hoax they played on the national media and were proving a point to show how low the country gets for media attention.

That doesn't lay out the full story. He told his family, friends and even neighborhood about this girl for what seems to be years. Everybody knew about this girl. It seems to me that he killed her off because "she" was getting too much attention (and maybe for the Heisman hype). This was before the media ever became a factor.

On top of the fact that I don't want this kid to.be a huge dick, but one of the other reasons I hopped on the gay train so quickly is because I can't imagine why you'd lie about this, why you'd allow this to escalate, unless you have something to hide.

Maybe he made up the story about the meeting/talking because people would question the fact that he was in an online relationship (or would mock him for it). So, he creates the false narrative of actual interaction.

The thing is if the person in question actually existed, somebody would have figured out he was lying ages ago. The "girl" or "her family" would simply say, "Oh, it was only an online relationship," and that would be the end of it.

 

[MiamiWesker]

When did I get a tag? And it's just a link to a game...

 

[PBY]

When did I get a tag? And it's just a link to a game. Kind of sad.

Get on my level.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

That doesn't lay out the full story. He told his family, friends and even neighborhood about this girl for what seems to be years. Everybody knew about this girl. It seems to me that he killed her off because "she" was getting too much attention (and maybe for the Heisman hype). This was before the media ever became a factor.

On top of the fact that I don't want this kid to.be a huge dick, but one of the other reasons I hopped on the gay train so quickly is because I can't imagine why you'd lie about this, why you'd allow this to escalate, unless you have something to hide.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sick/munchausen.html

I's what I suspect.

Munchausen By Proxy is when a parent either makes their child sick, or invents stories of a sick child.. for the attention of how sorry people are for the parent going through it.

The same could be applied to inventing a fake sick girlfriend. It's an addiction to sympathy essentially.

Related reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factitious_disorder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malingering

 

[Leona Lewis]

I know everyone is trashing the major news as they should but what about the school paper from Stanford? Think about this you work at Stanford you hear this national story about this great LB who has a heartbreaking story about a girl from Stanford. Don't you think anyone from that school paper would try to write a story a out that from the Stanford point of view? They would have quickly found out this girl never attended Stanford.

Final exams yo.

 

[border]

They would have quickly found out this girl never attended Stanford.

At best you could have proved that she did not go to Stanford. But you could not have proved she didn't exist entirely. Which means your headline is something horrible and petty like "DEAD CANCER VICTIM LIED ABOUT ATTENDING OUR SCHOOL" or "GRIEVING FOOTBALL PLAYER LIED ABOUT DEAD GIRLFRIEND ATTENDING OUR SCHOOL".

I doubt they would have done much further digging, if they ever looked into her records at all.

 

[PBY]

Final exams yo.

He didn't know what year she graduated even.

 

[Kevtones]

Notre Dame joining in on the lie?

Dan Tudesco, a 2006 graduate who now works in public relations in New York, set up an online account at fundraising website indiegogo.com on Jan. 9 to solicit $5,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Inc. The initial pitch said donations would go to the society in memory of Lennay Kekua and in honor of Te'o, "two individuals who have been an inspiration to us through an iconic season."

Tudesco said he and three friends got the fundraising idea after seeing a video that went viral of Te'o holding his head in dismay during the Irish's 42-14 loss to Alabama in the national championship game.

The goal was to turn the loss -- and the player's sudden popularity -- into something positive.

"I think we were all kind of disappointed in the result of the game ... and the Manti story was very inspirational," Tudesco told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Notre Dame took notice of Tudesco's tweets about the fund drive and sent a university videographer to shoot an interview with him. The video was posted on the Notre Dame athletics YouTube channel Tuesday.

Tudesco said he didn't believe Notre Dame was aware of the hoax when it promoted his fundraiser.

"It would surprise me that Notre Dame would want to promote this if they knew something like this was going on," Tudesco said.

However, Notre Dame officials said Wednesday that they became aware of the hoax on Dec. 26, nearly two weeks before the championship game. University spokesman Dennis Brown didn't immediately respond to a request seeking comment Thursday.

 

[MiamiWesker]

At best you could have proved that she did not go to Stanford. But you could not have proved she didn't exist entirely. Which means your headline is something horrible and petty like "DEAD CANCER VICTIM LIED ABOUT ATTENDING OUR SCHOOL" or "GRIEVING FOOTBALL PLAYER LIED ABOUT DEAD GIRLFRIEND ATTENDING OUR SCHOOL".

I doubt they would have done much further digging, if they ever looked into her records at all.

This is true and it's why none of the major media pushed cause they didn't want to insult the grieving guy. Pretty amazing that no one took the extra step to check.

 

[MiamiWesker]

Notre Dame joining in the lie?

This is so good. I love this crazy story.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

This is true and it's why none of the major media pushed cause they didn't want to insult the grieving guy. Pretty amazing that no one took the extra step to check.

The mainstream sports media seems to be full of people who apparently never heard of Lester Bangs. Granted, he was a rock journalist in the 70s, not a sports journalist in the 80s/90s, but he had a KEY piece of advice (if Cameron Crowe is to be believed) that every good journalist should keep in mind.

Don't make friends with them. Don't let them make friends with YOU.

It's a lot easier to ask tough questions, chase down leads, and dig into compromising details if you're not worried about whether or not things will be awkward the next time you hang out with people tangentially involved.

 

[NYCmetsfan]

Notre Dame joining in the lie?

keeps getting better

 

[Korey]

Man, watching his interviews....his acting is just, really sad.

 

[pxleyes]

Notre Dame joining in on the lie?

All about the Benjamin's.

 

[Koomaster]

I know everyone is trashing the major news as they should but what about the school paper from Stanford? Think about this you work at Stanford you hear this national story about this great LB who has a heartbreaking story about a girl from Stanford. Don't you think anyone from that school paper would try to write a story a out that from the Stanford point of view? They would have quickly found out this girl never attended Stanford.

Honestly, I have never heard of Teo till this story. If you don't follow all the rising stars of sports, you probably don't even care. And what story could possibly be written about some guy's girlfriend who used to attend Stanford? Teo doesn't go to Stanford, why would their paper care to write any story about him? If they have space in the paper to devote to sports you would think they would promote their own players there.

Anyway, as someone new to the story of Teo, I can't see how he was ever congratulated or adored or whatever over this now fake girlfriend thing. If he's got this girl he cares so much about and she's in car wrecks and in comas and dying off and on in the hospital - why the fuck does he never visit her? Especially when he knows how much she treasures talking to him for 8+ hours on the phone and falling to sleep listening to him while she is in the hospital? Why not scrounge up a few hundred bucks, get a damn plane ticket and fly out to visit her in the hospital? With how much his parents even talked her up, how about a call to say; 'Hey mom and dad as an early X-mas present, could you break out the credit card and fly me out to see my dying girlfriend, hmm? It's kind of important!!!'

Even before learning that this whole story is fake, he sounds like an uncaring scumbag to have never tried anything to go and visit her.

 

[lenovox1]

http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sick/munchausen.html

I's what I suspect.

Munchausen By Proxy is when a parent either makes their child sick, or invents stories of a sick child.. for the attention of how sorry people are for the parent going through it.

The same could be applied to inventing a fake sick girlfriend. It's an addiction to sympathy essentially.

Related reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factitious_disorder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malingering

I don't know. I know this is me trying to get my Jessica Fletcher on, but the thing is, "she" only became sick after the media got involved. He was "dating" her for a while before the fictitious car crash. If he wanted attention, I don't know why he waited so long to cash in.

But I can easily see the need for a good, Christian girlfriend that the fam knows about, with a not-so-Christian something something in the background.

 

[Coldnoodle]

Notre Dame joining in on the lie?

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

I don't know. I know this is me trying to get my Jessica Fletcher on, but the thing about that is "she" only became sick after the media got involved. He was "dating" her for a while before the fictitious car crash. If he wanted attention, I don't know why he waited so long to cash in.

But I can easily see the need for a good, Christian girlfriend that the fam know about, with a not-so-Christian something something in the background.

Could be a little of both.

Initial invention of the girlfriend to appease his Father asking him if he had met any nice girls.

The epic amount of embellishing surrounding car accidents, comas, hospital phone calls, etc. is why I'm suspecting something deeper. He could have just said they broke up.

 

[TJ Bennett]

A lot of writers are referencing the film Catfish as if it's a real documentary. I have to imagine they've never actually sat down and watched it.

 

[zychi]

A lot of writers are referencing the film Catfish as if it's a real documentary. I have to imagine they've never actually sat down and watched it.

people think movies are real all the time. wouldnt suprise me.

 

[Korey]

A lot of writers are referencing the film Catfish as if it's a real documentary. I have to imagine they've never actually sat down and watched it.

Also the athletic director guy was all "this happens all the time, with shocking frequency" as if this is actually a thing that happens all the time

 

[abrack08]

Honestly, I have never heard of Teo till this story. If you don't follow all the rising stars of sports, you probably don't even care. And what story could possibly be written about some guy's girlfriend who used to attend Stanford? Teo doesn't go to Stanford, why would their paper care to write any story about him? If they have space in the paper to devote to sports you would think they would promote their own players there.

Anyway, as someone new to the story of Teo, I can't see how he was ever congratulated or adored or whatever over this now fake girlfriend thing. If he's got this girl he cares so much about and she's in car wrecks and in comas and dying off and on in the hospital - why the fuck does he never visit her? Especially when he knows how much she treasures talking to him for 8+ hours on the phone and falling to sleep listening to him while she is in the hospital? Why not scrounge up a few hundred bucks, get a damn plane ticket and fly out to visit her in the hospital? With how much his parents even talked her up, how about a call to say; 'Hey mom and dad as an early X-mas present, could you break out the credit card and fly me out to see my dying girlfriend, hmm? It's kind of important!!!'

Even before learning that this whole story is fake, he sounds like an uncaring scumbag to have never tried anything to go and visit her.

You don't think the school newspaper would be interested in writing a story about a recent graduate who was diagnosed with leukemia, in a car accident, in a coma, and dating one of the more recognizable players in college football? Seems like perfect college paper fodder to me. It's not like she was just some random lady dating a football player from a rival school with nothing else to the story.

And he claims he never visited her because she insisted he not miss any practices/games. Which is a weak argument but there you go.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

Also the athletic director guy was all "this happens all the time, with shocking frequency" as if this is actually a thing that happens all the time

People inventing fake girlfriends certainly happens more often.

But it does happen. Catfish does no-one any favors though.. those guys are so painfully fake.

I watched an episode.. and one of the fakes was this girl her pretended to be cute.. and she was really a rather large and what most people would call an ugly girl. The episode was that she was then also duped by the person she had admitted to lying too.

The way they smirked and basically laughed at the idea of the person staying with her after she revealed what she looked like was painful.. they all but outright said the words "OMG, who would still stay with YOU after that?"