yankeehater
Member
The only explanation for that is that Teo was lying to his family the whole time. No way does him being hoaxed explain why he would tell his family that he had met her in Hawaii.
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Deadspin: (Notre Dame football player) Manti Teos Dead Girlfriend is a hoax
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The only explanation for that is that Teo was lying to his family the whole time. No way does him being hoaxed explain why he would tell his family that he had met her in Hawaii.
He obviously embellished parts of the story. Even me in my rose colored glasses could see it. just glad to see it wasn't a hoax he concocted for hype.
I have a two friends still at school and they say he has been fucking some chick from Saint Mary's on and off for the last two years.
Love the Tag.
I have a two friends still at school and they say he has been fucking some chick from Saint Mary's on and off for the last two years.
Love the Tag.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
ESPN isn't the only sporting network that pushed this story. Stop making them the villain all the time.
Joel Was Right
If you smell burning, it's probably the generators acting up. Report it anyway.
Some faux outrage here in this thread. This entire thing has been blown way out of proportion in my opinion. Way too much media coverage
Well Kornheiser pretty much thinks the whole thing is a sham might to build up Manti so I don't think there's really an "ESPN position" as far as that show is concerned. Wilbon basically said he came off to me as really dumb, even back at the time before all this I thought that.
MMBosstones86
Member
1) dad didn't want to ruin the $ train.
2) dad was embarressed about his kids online relationship
3) manti lied to dad
just my thoughts, but yeah...he needs to say something
The star player from Notre Dame who played in the National Championship may have constructed a fake-dead girlfriend to gain publicity and use her fake-image/fake-life to his personal advantage.
Joe Shlabotnik
Banned
Or the couple of other football players apparently backing him up. So bizarre.
Joel Was Right
If you smell burning, it's probably the generators acting up. Report it anyway.
The father would just repeat what his son told him; a combination of lies and half-truths designed to deflect embarrassment
That I can't explain
That I can't explain
Dude Abides
Banned
Who is expressing faux outrage? I see mostly incredulity and amusement.
Joe Shlabotnik
Banned
As I said earlier, it's a GAF thread backfire writ large. It's small potatoes overall but it's absolutely one of the strangest sport-related stories I've ever heard. Offhand it is THE strangest sports-related story I've ever heard but I am not an encyclopedia of sports history.
nVidiot_Whore
Banned
I think you are the only person in this thread that came across as outraged about anything.
The rest if us are mostly just amused or fascinated by this example of humanity.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
This needs to be sorted out too. Why would a friend do this to another friend? And how didn't any of RT's friends tell any of Manti's friends or family?
Black Mamba
Member
Why would a friend do this hoax for so long, even if he would do it to start with? And why would said friend's cousin talk to him on the phone for months?
This story is so bizarre.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
the phrase "faux-outrage" has become some sort of weird code at this point.
Saint Gregory
Member
IDK, I've been looking at the ESPN articles over the last few days and while there's definitely scepticism, especially on their blogs, the company line seems very invested in the Te'o victim story. Just look at what their main headline is now
➤ Report: Te'o Hoaxer Confesses
Which is basically hearsay from a third party. As I said before, I wouldn't doubt that there was a point where Manti wasn't in on this but I think that he saw an opportunity and went along for the ride. The whole "he's just a big, dumb football player" angle just doesn't fit what was being said about him before this scandal and what I know about playing the ILB position at his level. That's bacically the quarterback of the defense in most systems.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
hahahahahaha
Saint Gregory
Member
There's no point in trying to to silence every dissenting voice at the network but I don't know how anyone can say that ESPN wasn't also heavily invested in this story being real. How credible is it that all the contradictions in Te'o's interviews weren't noticed by ESPN editors? Obviously they weren't the only organization to ignore what was going on but as the premier sports news network we're supposed to expect better than this.
You're right. Fuck the rest of them too.
freenudemacusers
Member
it's the 'hipster' of thread shitting
MMBosstones86
Member
this is so awesome. and so true. never thought about the exact time of the casket closing being a thing. makes sense
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
So why did his dad say that he saw her in Hawaii?
When Gene Wojciechowski (espn) asked if he can interview the family, Manti told them that they do not want to be disturbed and they took his word on it. Assuming if she was real we would have been shitting on the media for disturbing her family after through Te'o they said not to bother them.
For once they seemed to actually respect a families privacy when asked too, but because she was fake they should get criticism too?
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff that sounds like someone making bullshit up off the top of his head in almost EVERYTHING he's said about this imaginary girl.
Even if she was real, they shouldn't have stopped doing their job just because a stupid fucking linebacker politely asked them to.
Not really. ESPN isnt about actual journalism and they haven't been for a while.
Plus pretty much every media outlet that reported on it never noticed the contradictions until Deadspin put it together.
BronsonLee
Member
Do you mean Manti or the dad saw her? I think you might be misconstruing the quote..
What is with the need to make ESPN make foolish all of a sudden? Did they create the lie? No.
Were the only one to carry it and enjoy it? No.
Feel good sports stories, when true, are amazing and inspirational especially when every other headline is about greedy athletes or acts of criminality by athletes.
So ESPN "fell" for it. So what? It sounded like a great story. And maybe they aren't so eager to tear him down but if and when the complete truth comes out and its found out that he was a part of it, better believe they will cover it and talk about it to no end. They did with Tiger and other famous falls from grace. Just last night it was all about Lance.
I am not here to defend ESPN. They suck largely because of the 24/7 sports programming which they can't logically fill without stupid commentators and debate shows but I fail to see how they are at fault or have their own agenda here.
Further I watch ESPN and sports in general a lot. I didn't know about his story about his granny and girlfriend till this hoax story broke. So while I am sure ESPN covered and carried it, it wasn't front and center.
That is almost literally impossible if you watched ESPN at all during the college football season.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
Because they treat use like we're fools who can't be entertained by the game itself without a human interest angle and hyperbolic tripe.
Ninja Scooter
Member
I think you are reading too much into it. ESPN loves drama they would love nothing more than for this story to have more twists and turns because that means more people tuning in. There is zero reason to believe they would try and make this story go away.
And being football smart doesn't mean he can't still be dumb as an ox in the real world.
Any other guy in the world that either makes up a girlfriend or gets duped by another dude into thinking he has an online girlfriend, he's a total loser nerd with no game with women. But Manti Te'o? He's either a sociopath in the first scenario or a poor sap in the second scenario. I'm sorry but this is a double standard. One that works against Te'o in the case of him making up the girlfriend (any other guy would be called a loser who needs to learn how to talk to girls, which is better than a sociopath). And one that works in favor of him in the case of him being duped (any other guy would still be called a loser who needs to learn how to talk to girls, which is worse than being a poor sap).
Maybe cause I don't watch college football. But I do watch a lot of the debate shows, highlights, and sometimes have it on as background noise. Maybe I missed it.
Still stand by my point of ESPN not being "behind" this or any other story.
Like I said feel good sports stories are awesome. And very rare. Most of the time they do cover the tragic and stupid stories. 30 for 30 is basically devoted to covering the ones who fucked up big time.
Who really is the fool then? Because it works. Ratings are good because of those stories and coverage.
You might not like it but the vast majority of the sports audience does. If all people wanted was 30 second highlights of each game they would be doing that.
Not a fan of all they do but they have 24 hours to fill on multiple networks. Human interest stories + sports go hand in hand.
Anyway feel like this is derailing the topic. I can see ND covering this up. I see Manti being a part of it still. Don't see how ESPN fits other than that they apparently didn't investigate the story of a GF hard enough.
Saint Gregory
Member
It isn't so much of whether or not ESPN is foolish or if they fell for anything, it's a question of what did they know and when and did they cooperate in covering it up until the Deadspin story broke. I don't have any absolute evidence to say that they did help protect ND and Te'o and clearly if they did they weren't they only news orginization that kept their mouths shut but they are the biggest target here.
Let's not pretend that they haven't been quick to rush to judgment in the past.
all this is true but I still feel like there's more behind this story than just a poor dumb kid that got taken advantage of by his friend.
whalenapp81
Member
What gets me is the state of basic journalism in this country. How did none of these news organizations try and interview the parents of his fake girlfriend after she "died"? If for nothing else a human interest puff piece. That should've been a huge red flag, if hey had bothered wih basic journalism.
Jackie McMullan kind of took a stab at this on Around the Horn yesterday. She said back in the day with a story like this she wouldn't come out and just ask for a death certificate, instead she said she would reach out to the g/f's family and Te'o's family and friends close to the family to get insight and add to the story.
She says it was an oversight because of the time constraints on news stories now. Take that with a grain of salt.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
If you really like sports, its hard to say that ESPN sucks. At its base they still just show games of different sports through out the day.
I personally like ESPN overall as a channel to watch sports. But you can still judge its news organization separately from how you judge the channel(s) overall.
Ninja Scooter
Member
By all accounts ESPN sat on the story because they were slow on getting sources corroborated and got scooped. That's a poor show on them, but it's a stretch to say they were trying to cover anything up. I'll be the first to call out ESPN on their conflict of interest bullshit (see the Ben Roethlisberger thing a few years back) but i jus don't see it here. They have no reason to protect Teo. He's just another player to them, and dragging his name through the mud just means more money and ratings for them, just like it did with Kobe and Tiger and ARod and lance and the Jets and any other number of scandals and stories they've beaten to death over the years.
Yup.
They love tearing a player down just as much. Mostly they love good drama which they can stretch out for days/months.
See TO, Kobe, Tiger, or any other major star that created controversy or fell on their own actions.
Yeah well I meant they suck in that they have some terrible personalities and shows like FirstTake create fake sports news and topics where there are none.
Not that their coverage, production, and overall quality is shitty.
Saint Gregory
Member
I don't understand it either but as you've pointed out they had no issues jumping on stories in the past without waiting for full research. This is the same network that initially dragged poor dead Sean Taylor's name through the mud and making it seem like he was shot in some kind of thugged-out gang altercation (Wilbon was the main one putting forward that story too) when it instead turned out that he got shot protecting his girlfriend and baby.
They've clearly never cared in the past about getting the story right, they just wanted to get it out first but this time they didn't do that for some reason. Why?
BertramCooper
Banned
ESPN doesn't want to be known as the outlet digging up dirt on people and players from big-name sports institutions because they've got a financial interest in maintaining friendly relationships with them.
ESPN is inevitably going to try to steal NBC's broadcast rights for Notre Dame football, so they don't want to be going out of their way to piss them off.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
No she's right and we just have to deal with it. It's the same way in most politically stories too. It's more about being first to Twitter with the story than getting it right the first time.
Ninja Scooter
Member
You are confusing one commentators opinion (Wilbon in the case of the Sean Taylor thing) with espn's news dept as a whole. Stephen A. has been ripping Teo left and right so how would you explain that? They are commentators paid for their opinions. If they jump to conclusions or say something stupid they have to answer for it themselves (see Rob Parker) and ESPN can distance themselves from it. Not running a news story until you vet your sources before running a news story is a different thing. ESPN with all their power and resources got outscooped by a blog site. That in itself is embarrassing, but nothing new. Look how often Jay Glazer clowns ESPN's "insiders". But it means they've gotten lazy, not that they are actively trying to cover this story up.
HalfBakedProphet
Member
in college football terms, this is very much a big deal. From the start you didn't understand that
Dude who did the SI cover did try to find stuff but couldn't find anything. He tried to explain the lack of an obit because she had lived in a few different places in a short period of time. He did call up Stanford and asked if such and such had graduated and they had said no.
Looking back it's easy to MMQB this whole thing but at the time, besides a few missing pieces there was no reason to believe she didn't exist.
From my understanding of things, that's the impression I get. I can totally see someone lying in order to save themselves from embarrassment (only to get tangled up in even more lies and drag other people into it)
How so? I mean, are people actually pissed over this?
No it's not. People don't remember the stories they don't care about
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