Legit fooled but figured it out earlier than people realize. Decided he really didn't care that he had been catfished very much and just decided to go with it.

So sick that if they just lose to Pitt like they should have the championship game doesn't suck nearly so hard, and this might not have happened yet.

People keep forgetting...

They weren't "together" for 3 years. They were an item for a few months. That's it. They just met like 3 years ago.

meh. I dunno. I don't think we'll ever know exactly how the PR stuff happened.

I think it's perfectly plausible that the media kind of ran with this thing and he just never stepped in front of it like he should have.

Sorry for being unclear, so no one misunderstands what I said about the movie buzz possibly being planted. I'm saying that this buzz, were I somewhere involved in this at CAA, would be something I'd use as bait to get hush agreements signed with certain parties with scripts and coaching attached in exchange for agency referrals while the story is hot and this is something worth offering.

A Lifetime movie could be a long shot, but details to sell to Pete Thamel's publisher, producers at 60 Minutes or somewhere, etc. are possible. They will not be the height of these scammers' dreams, but something they can get. And, later this year or so, when they're disappointed by not getting some Hollywood producer to pay them hundreds of thousands, oops, there's a hush agreement with a seven-figure liability attached to it and no one really cares about the story anymore to make damning Te'o worth their while.

If anyone thinks this sounds silly, OK, I'm also spitballing.

If anyone thinks this sounds genius, bear in mind that a team of people much smarter and more connected than me are behind the wheel.

If he thought she was a real person really going through this illness, so he embellished to make it more central to him, but tons of others embellish stories all the time. The reason it looks so bad is she was legitimately not even a real person. If we saw all of the communication it could be somewhat justifiable, albeit he is still dumb as rocks.

, same page basically

Yep, totally.

Did you read the Sept. 23 interview?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/col...d-hoax-quotes/

And cameo in a movie as Diaz' ex-bf

people are forgetting that he actually knew roniahh and i think roniahh was some type of intermediary ..him and roniah supposedly hung out after the usc-ND game which was on nov-24

I'm not denying that he said things too.

What I'm saying is that I'm not sure he set out to do it. I think it's possible the media started running with this story and he was too embarrassed to admit he got duped by an online girlfriend and the story just kept growing and growing out of control as ND kept winning games and he kept playing well.

Are there cliffs? (Can't search thread on 2p2 app)
I've been hearing about this for like last week and have no idea. Read OP and still don't get it.

The thing with the interview is if he was actually tricked, that's probably why he sounds so ridiculous. If he believes this stuff and doesn't actually KNOW those details, which makes sense, he's gonna sound suspiciously ill-informed.

I don't want to go too hard on Thamel but holy crap, bro. Stanford has no record of this girl, and there's no evidence she ever died. Conclusion: research can be explained, "write around it." What does that even mean? Insane.

well again, was this even a thing before "she" "died"? did anyone know who the hell she was before that? (outside of his team, ppl who knew him, ppl around ND, etc)

so under this scenario he had to be duped at least into September, then found out after the media made a big deal about the two deaths and all that. i guess it's possible he felt like he was already in too deep at that point so just played along hoping that it'd go away at some point.

otherwise he's a fool for not quashing it earlier, if he's known for longer than that. or he was in on it.

His story is that he found out on December 6th.

Who knows if that's true, but that's his story.

The issue with that interview is really he could be answering honestly based on a single email, or series of text messages:

Dad died, going to work his business for now. Got in car accident, almost died twice, was receccitated, cant talk, but want to hear your voice on phone. Found out I have cancer. Don't be sad, just give praise to Jesus, etc.

The meeting her stuff is fake because hes insecure about it sounding like a fake online relationship (because he probably thinks it could be fake) the dates come from the tweets, texts, emails he got at that time.

Story grew out of control because he kept sitting down for interviews whenever possible and flat out made things up.

Eight hour phone calls?
The love of his life?
#cmonson

Why do people who lie always go to such extremes? The good liars are probably the people who seem fairly normal so no one ever questions anything they say.

My favorite part now might be the actual explanation for why she wanted him on the phone but couldn't talk. That is extremely effective troalllllllllling.

Dude is on the phone keeping fake chick company, real chick probably has phone sitting next to a speaker playing an mp3 of breathing or something while she goes out drinking or whatever. Right?

Even if we believe the bull**** timeline, he sat down for at least one interview and referred to his "girlfriend's death" a couple days after he knew for a fact she hadn't existed.

Or Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is listening to Manti's voice and fapping on the other side of the phone.

yeah i should probably re-read what Deadspin had on Manti & Ronaiah. they said there was twitter activity between the two, instagram pictures with them both, etc (most or all now wiped from the internet). so kinda hard to determine their relationship ... acquaintances? friends? cousins? lovers? who the [censored] knows...

yeah i know, what i was asking was if "Lennay" was anything to anyone really before September 11th, 2012?

They didn't actually have eight hour phone calls. He would call her and go to sleep, with their phones both just sitting there.

That could easily be true. ****ing weird, but true.