I think you are forgetting the extent to which his religion produces sheltered, naive, trusting individuals. Read up a little on the Mormons. A great many of them actively participate in those fake vitamin/door-to-door knive selling/Amway wacky pyramid schemes. They're kind of stunted in their ability to recognize the same obvious scam that you and I would laugh about doing.

I was firmly in the camp of him being a closeted gay man.

Maybe I'm nuts here, I don't know....I'm starting to lean towards the theory that he is just an insanely gullible kid who had his brain turned into pretzels by an utterly deranged lunatic (tuiasosopo). who apparently wasn't even after money, necessarily.

so roniahhs cousin jasmine lutu actually was diagnosed with leukemia in august and has been in and out the hospital the last few months , its possible that she was the one on the phone w/ Manti

http://deadspin.com/5977293/report-t...g=no-such-dame

my guess is roniahh started it off as a joke then passed it on to his cousin who started actually developing a relationship w. manti eventhough she knew she was lying about her identity she liked the attention and probably needed a friend during her battle with leukemia .

i think this makes the most sense .

Wow

Seems likely he is insanely gullible and was duped. Don't forget that he is still a narcissistic attention seeking ******* that lied nonstop for years. There is no reason to believe almost anything he says.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/snls-pier...-jodie-foster/

Te'o claiming that he had doubts about the relationship in another ESPN article. Guess he's reading about how stupid and naive he's coming off and wants to cover those tracks by saying that other people believed she was real as well. IMO, all he's doing is saying that he surrounds himself with other stupid people.

If Te'o really had his doubts, wouldn't he search the internet to verify this information? I mean this type of **** is pretty easy to figure out with a 5 minute Google search. Perhaps the girl who heard it should have jumped on this.

Seems that everything is going to plan for him. Keeping people in the dark keeps people from cutting straight to the truth. ESPN makes no bones about being Notre Dame nuthuggers. They continue to ignore the web of lies and half-truths being set up by Te'o and his team of agents and PR reps. ESPN plays him up as a young man who was deceived by evil men and women.

It's as if Te'o's PR camp thinks that it's 1960. WE HAVE THE INTERNET WE CAN ACTIVELY TRACK YOUR CONTRADICTIONS AND INCONSISTENCIES

Ok Mark Sanchez sighting

/end thread

His story has so many plot holes.......

You might need that undertitle changed to "Second most gullible person on earth after Manti T'eo" by the time all this is over.


A Manti-Real Lennay first meeting live on tv would be the GOAT.

There was an indie film called Easier With Practice about a guy who forges a phone-based romance with a girl named Nicole. As the relationship builds, the protagonist David (an introverted virgin) decides to meet her in person, only to discover -- spoiler alert -- that Nicole is a gay man who disguises his voice as a woman. This "Nicole" participates in this pattern of deceit because he is ashamed of his sexual preference but still wants to, to use your phrase, fulfill his desires.

As the Te'o story continues to unfold, it has reminded me of this film, which came out (so to speak) a year before Catfish. Your theory, or at least the quoted part, especially resembles the Easier plot line.

By the way, we've heard related discussion on the various media outlets of Te'o's draft value. Some "experts" suggest it won't change, as teams are only interested in a player's on-field ability. Others say he'll fall, because teams value character, leadership and intelligence, any or all of which are questionable now. I find it to be comical debate because the pundits seem to predicate the conversation that all teams look for the same qualities.

I think with a strong combine (most) will be forgiven. Then again, we could be looking at an awkward redux of Brady Quinn/Jimmy Clausen draft days.

I actually felt for Manti when I read his massive SI article interview. Like he lost his grandmother and his girlfriend in such a short time span!

I began actively rooting for him too.

I am not alone itt and in America for having felt that way. I now think he is a pos and I hope other people think that too.

am i the only person who is really pissed off that "to catfish" has become a verb?

I didn't know catfish was a verb until I read this thread.

I'm really excited that Mark Sanchez's name now got dropped into the story, even if it had nothing to do with the real SANCHIZE.

Leandra Jenai

Huh?

You mean Mike Leach who has twice been falsely accused of abusing players? Mike Leach who just got cleared by both the Pac12 and WSU?

What the **** point do you think you have?

Definitely not alone here. I was rooting for him as well. It never crossed my mind that this could be fake.

Scumbag POS is where I have him, too.

Whoever did Jodie Foster did a fantastic job.

lies made to explicitely mess with the public's emotions = psycho. i wish the focus was made entirely on milking the fake death and nothing else. i dont see how someone like that can be welcomed to play in the nfl, let alone society. is he gay/dumb/hoax'n around....who gives a ****...there's something a lot darker going on.

Do you know why Notre Dane player tend to fall in drafts because they are overrated and ESPN puts them on this pedestal. MKJ just rides the Notre Dame train. He can fool us but NFL GM's aren't as dumb. Manti should plummet just like jimmy and brady did. Not because of these actions but based on his mediocre talent alone.

Brady?

Yea. Brady Quinn

quinn obv