This is in the “You’ve got to be kidding” category, or, “How stupid do you think the American Public is?” (Actually very stupid if you consider .)
Unless you’ve been sheltered very well, even the least knowledgeable sports fan has heard about Manti Te’o. Now, I’m not going to go into the story, I just am amazed at the people in the press ignoring the facts and trying to come up with explanations to this farce.
‘Catfishing’…… bull. He lied to try to build a story around him to increase his stock after three mediocre years in football. Period.
Here, let the facts speak for the
mselves.
Sports Illustrated 10/1/2012:
Story lead in: “On Sept. 12, three days before Notre Dame played Michigan State, the parents of Fighting Irish linebacker Manti Te’o woke him up with a 7 a.m. phone call from Hawaii: His grandmother, 72-year-old Annette Santiago, had died, of natural causes. Six hours later, while standing at his locker, Te’o got a call from his girlfriend’s older brother, Koa, who sobbed, “She’s gone.”
As Lennay struggled to survive, Te’o developed a nightly ritual in which he would go to sleep while on the phone with her. When he woke up in the morning his phone would show an eight-hour call, and he would hear Lennay breathing on the other end of the line. Her relatives told him that at her lowest points, as she fought to emerge from a coma, her breathing rate would increase at the sound of his voice.
Every night? With a phantom? If someone was pranking him they had an AWFUL lot of time on their hands.
Press conference 10/04/2012
Q. No one would question how any person grieves, but what went into your decision or did you think at all about going back for your girlfriend’s service? I understand you had a game that day but what was the decision there?
Manti Te’o: You know, I really wanted to see her. I really wanted to see her. But I knew that she made me promise, you know one day she made me promise that, she said, “Babe, if anything happens to me, you promise that you’ll still stay over there and that you’ll play and that you’ll honor me through the way you play, and know that I would rather have you there.” And just make sure that all she wanted was some white roses. White is her favorite color. So she just wanted some white roses and that’s all she asked for. So I sent her roses and sent her two picks (interceptions) along with that, so that was good.
How would he know where to send the flowers if he never met her? Where did the flowers go? The Notre Dame alumni?
NY Times Nov. 25, 2012
It was suggested to Te’o that in the shadows of the Hollywood sign, he had produced the perfect script. Not quite, he said. To have his grandmother and girlfriend around to share in the celebration, “would have been a better script,” Te’o said, “but other than that, I don’t think you can write a better one.”
Well, he certainly tried to write a hell of a script.
South Bend Tribune 1/17/2013
Tribune sports writer Eric Hansen receives news tips reporting that Teo’s grandmother and girlfriend both had died. Hansen contacts Brian Te’o, who provides details about both deaths. Notre Dame’s sports information department also confirms deaths and provides more details.
Gee, do you think his Father was in on it?
– Oct. 10: In a taped telephone interview by Eric Hansen with Te’o’s parents, Te’o’s father said the initial meeting between Manti and Kekua came in person in November 2009, when Notre Dame played Stanford in Palo, Alto, Calif.
The detail included the touching of hands and the fact Manti thought she was cute.
“They started out as just friends,” Brian Te’o added. “Every once in a while, she would travel to Hawaii, and that happened to be the time Manti was home, so he would meet with her there. But within the last year, they became a couple.
“And we came to the realization that she could be our daughter-in-law. Sadly, it won’t happen now.”
Wow, he not only met the phantom but touched her hand, as witnessed by his stoic Father.
While we could probably bring out more examples but I think the bottom line is that it worked very well for Te’O and Notre Dame. They got an appearance in the National Championship when they clearly didn’t deserve it (Last I remember you don’t get ranked #1 by winning four of your games by single digits or OT. A dominant team that does not make) and he got the press he needed to compete for the Heisman by having just one good year.
Or, Perhaps he wanted to follow in George O’Leary’s footsteps, a fine tradition of lying from the mighty Notre Dame.
Bernstein says it nicely: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/01/20/bernstein-manti-teo-is-a-liar/
