Manti Te'o got ate by a catfish or something

[Jocephus]

espn's also got this article

Manti Te'o kept tragic story going

http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... owing-hoax

[Socnorb11]

espn's also got this article

Manti Te'o kept tragic story going

http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... owing-hoax

Maybe I'm too naive, but as I said yesterday, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Te'o was still in denial about the whole thing, in the days immediately following the phone call telling him that it was a hoax. I mean, he was apparently very emotionally connected to this girl........... I would imagine it would be hard to accept that the entire thing was just a hoax.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

If all this is true, and Te'o was just duped and reacted improperly, it'll be another case where the attempted cover up is worse than the actual crime.

[Socnorb11]

If all this is true, and Te'o was just duped and reacted improperly, it'll be another case where the attempted cover up is worse than the actual crime.

I'm pretty sure that he wasn't aware of the hoax until after Heisman ballots were due, so I don't know that he would have gained anything from intentionally carrying on the hoax after he knew it was a hoax.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

If all this is true, and Te'o was just duped and reacted improperly, it'll be another case where the attempted cover up is worse than the actual crime.

I'm pretty sure that he wasn't aware of the hoax until after Heisman ballots were due, so I don't know that he would have gained anything from intentionally carrying on the hoax after he knew it was a hoax.

No, but he continued to carry on that she was important to him which will give all the haters/naysayers plenty of ammo to continue accusing him of lying. Which is really the worst of both worlds.

As JL said earlier: His options are to be 1. in on the hoax or 2. naive enough to be duped by the hoax. Either one is bad with number 1 being far worse, I'd ahve to think. But, in the emerging scenario, he was both....though mostly just number 2.

[Socnorb11]

If all this is true, and Te'o was just duped and reacted improperly, it'll be another case where the attempted cover up is worse than the actual crime.

I'm pretty sure that he wasn't aware of the hoax until after Heisman ballots were due, so I don't know that he would have gained anything from intentionally carrying on the hoax after he knew it was a hoax.

No, but he continued to carry on that she was important to him which will give all the haters/naysayers plenty of ammo to continue accusing him of lying. Which is really the worst of both worlds.

As JL said earlier: His options are to be 1. in on the hoax or 2. naive enough to be duped by the hoax. Either one is bad with number 1 being far worse, I'd ahve to think. But, in the emerging scenario, he was both....though mostly just number 2.

Oh, he's definitely a dumptruck full of naive. No doubt about that.

But I don't think we'll ever be able to confirm that he was in on the hoax.


I'm not sure how he should have handled this, honestly. I would assume that he went through a stage of denial, and then a stage of embarrassment, hoping the whole thing would just go away. When it didn't go away, he obviously had to come clean (which he apparently did to his coaches in late December).


It's absolutely sick to play a prank like this on soemone, and carry it out for as long as the pranksters did. I just don't see how Te'o's reaction to it could possibly be more sickening than the prank itself.

[Freed Roger]

The Te'o sliding value in NFL draft is interesting. Yes, I think the story hurts his value, but I surmise Alabama kicking ND's ass did more damage than this story.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/ne ... nfl-draft/

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

It's not. But the fact that after he knew it was a hoax he continued to act as if Lenny cacoon was real is worse, imo, than actually falling for the hoax. Up until taht point, he was just a naive idiot. After that, he was lying and trying to deceive everyone in the hopes of the whole thing going away. That's not as bad as making her up for [expletive] and giggles, but it is continuing the deception.

[stlouie_lipp]

I will need an explanation to his saying they met after a football game, the meetings in Hawaii, his saying they would stay on the phone 8 hours at a time as they slept, him saying her family was supportive of him, etc. before I believe he was just naive and was simply duped this whole time.

Call me a cynic, because I am.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

I will need an explanation to his saying they met after a football game, the meetings in Hawaii, his saying they would stay on the phone 8 hours at a time as they slept, him saying her family was supportive of him, etc. before I believe he was just naive and was simply duped this whole time.

Call me a cynic, because I am.

Made it up because he was embarassed it was an online thing. The phone calls could ahve been and were apparently real if you believe the people claiming they knew of and carried out the hoax. If you can believe you are falling in love over the internet and over the phone, I'm fairly certain believing you are talking to that person's family is not any harder. Those 'family members' were still around even after the fake death.