Mike's show (minus the ****ty hockey and baseball interviews) and the callers have been really top notch today.

A HoF parade of mongos weighing in with their theories.

Pretty damn impressive while having a LD relationship with a high profile athlete and Leukemia (even if she didn't know the latter - she'd have to feel the effects to some degree).

The illuminati is involved.

After reading about all the pooh bear phone stuff and luvvy duvvy crap I'm even more convinced he's just gay.

Normal guys can turn that on for short intervals in order to get some ass.

NO hetero dude is capable of doing it for 12 hours a day every day with no intention of ever getting laid.

Thamel transcript and quotes are amazing. Doesn't look good for Te'o or (that piece of ****) Thamel. Got a bunch of articles fired up, excited to catch up.

That SI interview is so damning. For Thamel more so than Te'o.

While reporting his cover feature for Sports Illustrated on Manti Te'o, Pete Thamel found what he called some "small red flags" in the story of Lennay Kekua, the dead girlfriend who never existed. So what did he do?

"You were able to write around it," he said this morning on The Dan Patrick Show. [...]

"By time I got to Manti Te'o on Sunday there wasn't a whole lot of, 'Does she exist?' thinking in my head," he told Patrick.

So, Thamel went with what he got: She had an April 28 car accident; she began to recover from the accident two months later, and that's when doctors discovered she had leukemia; her relatives told Te'o that she had fallen into a coma; he sent her flowers.

And what were those "small red flags"? He couldn't find an obit for her online, he said. He couldn't find a death notice. He couldn't find a record of her on Lexis Nexis. He couldn't find "her brother's name to spellcheck it." So he wrote around it. (This is what an ESPN reporter did as well.) He tipped off his editors about this stuff. [...]

Pieces of the story had already been filed at that point; the section about the girlfriend was filed later, we hear. The magazine closes on Mondays. Once the full story had arrived in a factchecker's hands, there wasn't much time before the issue went to press. So how did SI wind up verifying the details about Lennay Kekua? We hear that Te'o's father, Brian, is the one who confirmed all the information about Kekua. It was left at that.

Patrick asked Thamel what was running through his head after he saw our story yesterday.

"My reaction was surprise but as soon as they went into Lexis Nexis and some of that other stuff, it's just that sort of punch in the gut," he said. "Where it's like, 'Oh boy. Oh boy.'"

For now, Thamel is hewing to the Notre Dame line that Te'o was duped.

"I've obviously been maybe branded a little bit naive for writing what I did, but I mean I don't think he has it in him to be a part of this," he said. "I think he was duped, hook, line and sinker."

I VALUE YOUR OPINION

http://deadspin.com/5976841/how-spor...-got-published

...ESPN senior columnist Gene Wojciechowski went on SportsCenter tonight and explained what happened with his Te'o story, which aired in October. Wojciechowski says he couldn't find an obituary for Lennay Kekua. He also couldn't find any records about a car accident. Obvious red flags. So why didn't Wojciechowski push further? Because Te'o told him to back off...

http://deadspin.com/5976640/espn-rep...do-differently

Lennay is one of the most inspiring people ever created. Makes me feel like a lazy bum. If she just had more time, she could have been the GOAT construction executive.

No matter what the truth is, I sincerely hope that Manti doesn't let this interfere with his weekend

Very entertaining, weird, crazy, great (as a ND hater) story that got me through work. Hopefully more stuff hits the fan soon

Thanks manti ruh roh, lennay and SE

Heard a conspiracy theory that this was all supposed to look like a cover up for being gay, but in reality was a huge ruse so he could come out with lots of publicity and sympathy as the first openly gay NFL player, make bank on endorsements with the kicker being he's not actually gay just a religious weirdo who's not getting laid anyways so his people pulled the GOAT publicity stunt.

I really hope the real story is as ridiculous as that one.

Whoa, what do I have to do with this?

sportscenter anchor is pretty hot .lol at ND'ers in denial yet not believing the gf story .

Jeremy Schaap annoys me when he speaks

Totally, totally grunching here and if this was already posted sorry, but:

One tactic can be: "I was hoaxed. When I found out, I was so embarrassed that I panicked and kept acting out of embarrassment. I kept re-inforcing the lie because my anxiety level from feeling embarrassed gave me the constant feeling that everyone was questioning me and laughing at me behind my back. I was so afraid of being outwardly humiliated that I kept trying to cover the tracks and initiate the issue so I could discuss it on my terms. Now, I'm more humiliated than ever (tears, tears, tears) and I'm just hoping the truth can set me free. I was hurt, but then I hurt myself more, and [insert apologies for all the lies and acknowledgment that earning trust back won't be easy, but being trusted and loved is priceless and vow to put in all the work to get that back]."

If Te'o is pushed to the background, surrogates will be in the forefront, playing defender, and Ronaiah will have to be convinced to come forward and coached to come off as the type of emotionless drone to convince us all he worked alone for the sport of it all. Very possible, but this could get expensive, and not sure Te'o can pay the agency back that price.

I'm starting to think he just actually murdered a girl and the cover up is a cover up. Skip kept comparing him to Ray Lewis I should have connected the dots then.

I love the fact checker verifying it with his dad.

Apparently you can claim anything and then once your dad confirms it it's been officially vetted.

THIS GUY

Waiting for the Call Me Maybe parody to come out.

I've never met you
And this is crazy
But I'm not real
I'm imaginary

He should have asked Reba to hold a 2+2 sign.

The only angle that can make this sobering is the gay cover-up. We'd suddenly be asking much different questions, mostly about ourselves and our culture.

Would much rather LOL @ Lennay

No matter what the truth is, someone involved in this had to have a ****ed up motivation at some point. Whether it's Te'o being a sociopath and wanting attention, trolls wanting to ruin someone's life, or Tuiasosopo wanting to jerk off while ****ing over his best friend etc.

I can't wait till that person is forced to explain his motivations

can someone link the teo picture with his arm around an imaginary person