Thursday Open Manti Te'o Notre Dame Leenay Kekau Thread
Put all of your thoughts, comments, questions, concerns, and general what-have-yous here.
Personally, I still don't know what the heck is going on. The only thing I know is that he might still have a girlfriend (the Leenay Kekau imposter that he fell in love with (?) is still alive!)? Or is the hoax a default break-up? My mind hurts.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:34 AM ^
Yeah, ESPN probably has too much invested into Teo and ND to go after him.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:38 AM ^
Yeah, that has been insane to watch.
Sooooo...Manti (and possibly ND) lies to the MSM repeatedly. When they get caught in the lie the MSM's response is to say "How oh how were we duped so badly?"
Then, they gobble up the very first explaination that Manti and ND offer as an absolute fact.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^
What is that? It looks like some sort of humanoid furby.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:57 AM ^
Thanks. Now I can look forward to a life of therapy and anti-depressants.
January 17th, 2013 at 11:21 AM ^
Well, just look at the way both of you have your mouths open and it pretty obvious you're related. Probably also explains some of your anger.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:55 AM ^
Becasue that was not my take away from Greenberg's comments at all. I did not hear Golic and would not be surprised for him to defend Teo and the program, but Greenberg was much more skeptical as were the other ESPN guests.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:59 AM ^
January 17th, 2013 at 11:28 AM ^
I think they are realizing what I may be realizing, that even though the ND version of the story seems far fetched, the deadspin article does not add up either. Deadspin would have you believe that first round draft pick player, devout Mormon, humble and charitable guy decides that a dead girlfriend story would compliment a dead grandma story to just the right degree to motivate my team, earn me praise and get me some Heisman votes so I am going to invent a person that I can then kill of on the same day as my grandma and this will be believed, it will be awesome and I will win the Heisman. I may not believe Swarbrick word for word, but I can't say I am that much more sold on the deadspin version.
January 17th, 2013 at 11:52 AM ^
January 17th, 2013 at 12:30 PM ^
I regret to inform you that you are regarding the deadspin article as everybody originally treated Teo's story. Deadspin is not reporting the "truth," they have a conclusion in mind and a set of facts and they have presented the facts in a fashion that leads you to their desired conclusion. The word "SPIN" is in the name of the site for god sake. Truth does not exist in media anymore. The media creates the story now, truth has nothing to do with it. ESPN and Sports Illustrated created one story. Deadspin has created another one. Both stories could have been created either with Teo's complete complicity or without him even saying a word. Neither of them are "true" nor do they try to be. Wakeup. Please. To quote JFK (and I don't do so lightly), look through the other end of the looking glass here. You are still being had, just by somebody else.
January 17th, 2013 at 1:23 PM ^
I am not too surprised ESPN and Golic are all backing Te'o and believing he was the victim. They all feel dumb for running all those "heart-warming" stories like they did about the fake GF and not realizing it was a hoax. BTW, ESPN radio is great, though, but Mike and Mike kind of fall into the annoying TV talking heads that are on ESPN during the day.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:16 AM ^
You may want to put this in your OP. Te'oing....its a thing
January 17th, 2013 at 11:33 AM ^
just wow ... he's made the big time now! Being a verb !
Go Blue!
January 17th, 2013 at 10:17 AM ^
Loved the full display at the presser, tears and all. Maybe he watch part of the NC game before going on stage. Spoiler Alert- Your independent investigation firm of Kelly and Associates likely did not look to hard into this one. Your boy has a bit too much video of himself talking about this person to believe it was "online" only.
January 17th, 2013 at 1:10 PM ^
My God, I can't wait for this South Park episode to air.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:18 AM ^
I also saw Mike Farrell tweet that Manti's girlfriend got the game ball after the Michigan game. What did they mail it to her?
I find this all really hard to believe. I think it was a stunt by Te'o and ND to gain publicity. Just my thought
January 17th, 2013 at 10:30 AM ^
This whole thing is just too much for me...
January 17th, 2013 at 11:56 AM ^
She was "dead" before the MSU game. The tweet about the gameball would have been because of the motivation she provided for the game.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:19 AM ^
January 17th, 2013 at 10:37 AM ^
I like it.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:54 AM ^
January 17th, 2013 at 10:21 AM ^
January 17th, 2013 at 10:23 AM ^
How exactly did Teo get through 4 years of classes at ND is what I'd like to know.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:27 AM ^
There may have been a point where he felt like it was no longer credible that no one ever saw her.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:35 AM ^
But it's weird... So his grandma dies and one of the first thing he thinks of is to say "hey, great time for my fake girlfriend to die... before i get caught." Like that wouldn't blow up in his face? If he's gay the dumbest thing to do is call attention to your sex/relationship life.
That said, he could always use her as the excuse why he can't get involved with anyone else. That's the only thing I can think of.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:42 AM ^
The best time to fake grief would be when you were already grieving something real. Nobody would know that you were only crying for your grandmother when they saw you in tears.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
January 17th, 2013 at 11:08 AM ^
I agree... all he would have had to say was "The relationship was getting too serious/time consuming/whatever; and we aren't seeing each other anymore."
No one, including his parent or teammates would have questioned that logic... because that happens all the time. Unlike, the stupid BS under duress answer he came up with. There is more to a motive on someones part for the killing off of the "girlfriend", vs. just simply breaking up in my opinion. No need for a HUGE lie, when a simple "eh, we called it off" works just fine.
Damit, now i'm interested enough in this story to log on and post about it!
January 17th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
his parents would have wanted to have gone to her funeral...when they have a more pressingfuneral to attend, i.e., his grandmas, they won't attend his girlfriends...
January 17th, 2013 at 10:50 AM ^
How do you guaratee that your parents do not end up wanting to go to the funeral of your fake dead girlfriend? A girl they know from phone coversations, yet have never met? You say she died at the same time as your real grandmother. The parents can't be in both places.
The deadspin story says that the grandmother died after a long illness. I would guess Teo made up the car accident story right around the time the family thought the grandmother was going to die. Then grandma pulls thru and so does the GF. But now you can't say the GF got into another car accident, so you make up a cancer diagnosis and wait for grandma to pass.
January 17th, 2013 at 11:26 AM ^
Cunning bastard.
January 17th, 2013 at 12:30 PM ^
IIIIIII think you may be on to something sir...
January 17th, 2013 at 10:39 AM ^
Yeah, to go along with what Erik said. We all see how the media loves to pan to GF's/Wives of players during the games, so its plausable that the MSM asked if they could meet her, interview her, put her on TV.
Te'o being 21, and therefore stupid, probably started making small lies about why she couldn't interview, go to games, ect. It got out of control and they started making big lies (car accident) as to why she was not available. Then perhaps seeing the writing on the wall they killed her hoping that it would be a quick end. Also, why not kill her on the same day his grandma died to try and fly under the cover of that?
To a 21 year old, it probably seemed like the best idea out there.
I want to point out that this is all my own ideas, and I have no facts giving credit to any of that.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:53 AM ^
What if he panicked because people would have expected her to come to the Grandma's funeral, so the only the he could think of was to have her die as well.................................................................................
January 17th, 2013 at 11:14 AM ^
I have to wonder if ESPN had been making noises about face with her at the Stanford game or bringing her down to LA for the USC game. That would be another reason for her to sick or dead. For all we know she could have gotten sick and ESPN said "That's okay, we'll bring the cameras to her" so she had to die.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:34 AM ^
January 17th, 2013 at 10:35 AM ^
The theory as other people mentioned, family, friends, etc. started asking too many questions about her. It was convenient for her to die the same day as his grandmother so that his friends and family couldn't attend a funeral. The leukemia was a built in excuse for her inability to travel and attend social functions. He didn't intend for it to be a media story--just a way to get everyone off his case. (not necessarily what I think, but just combining plausible theories).
However, why not just break up? The only thing I could think of is he would then be continually pressured to meet a new girl. If his girlfriend died, he has an excuse for a very long time to say he just isn't ready for another relationship.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:37 AM ^
because one cannot keep a lie such as this going on and on. Especially after college when a pro career would offer more opportunity to actually meet her. More and more people were more than likely asking about her so he had to end it.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:45 AM ^
I have heard the same speculation. If you think about it, it could make sense. Manti is the best player on ND's football team. If ND operates like any other big football program, this guy has his pick of women on campus. I would assume that many of his teammates regularly sample the hottest of ND's women (which, I know, it's ND, but every college has SOME hot women, simply by virtue of there being a large number of girls between 18-22). The peer pressure on a top flight football player to engage in similar activities must be huge, so if for some reason - perhaps if he were, in fact, gay - he did not want to engage, and wanted a great excuse to opt out of the hook-up scene, what better way than to invent a long distance relationship. The problem with such an invention is that eventually, people ask why she hasn't taken a visit to South Bend or attended any of his games (in particular the ones in California). Hence, the whole illness / death / tragedy thing.
Who knows - obviously this is all baseless speculation. If true, however, while I feel bad that he wasn't comfortable just coming out, he is shameless to perpetrate such a lie and to then allow it to grow to the point where he is receiving media adoration for it.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:46 AM ^
Once she got sick, he could no longer break it off with her, so she had to die. It was convenient that she died the same day as his grandmother. Otherwise his family might have wanted to go to her funeral.
Why did she have to get sick? That question seems to point towards trying for publicity, not a coverup, although it could have been both.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:23 AM ^
My fiance is a ND alum and last night all she could say was 'How could the last couple weeks be worse for Notre Dame?'
'You could've given up 60 points...'
January 17th, 2013 at 10:28 AM ^
it won't look so bad.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:37 AM ^
'Charlie Weis could still be your coach...'
January 17th, 2013 at 1:54 PM ^
...or Gerry Faust.
January 17th, 2013 at 10:48 AM ^
January 17th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^
I mean, this is going to kill recruiting, right? So who can we poach?
/s
January 17th, 2013 at 11:41 AM ^
Brabbs 44 yarder in 2002 was to beat Washington. Just wondered what the Ball Sate reference was ????
Go Blue!
January 17th, 2013 at 12:18 PM ^
Good question . . . we did scrape out a close win over Ball State (coached by Hoke) in '06 but it was not won on a field goal (and Brabbs was not on the team by then).