The Curious Case of Notre Dame Football Star Manti Te'o's Fake Dead Girlfriend

beyond weird

http://deadspin.com/5976517/

I was just reading this, it's just crazy

i know, this is like the weirdest shit

this is insane

i wonder if this was something that snowballed and he just kept lying or if it was planned from the start? feel like it's got to be the former. either that or he's incredibly stupid.

not that he wasn't stupid in both cases, but the former option strikes me as something being wrong w/him.

goddamn

idk I am sure the fake gf thing happens all the time, the only remarkable thing is that he turned into a national celebrity while this was going on

weird that a football star for notre dame would cockblock himself w/a fictional dying gf.

Makes for a good story/possible book deal.

i feel like the film should have a tone not dissimilar to 'the informant'

he's mormon, god is cockblocking him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKDus7QjJ_w&feature=youtu.be

conflicted here

is it still tacky to speculate about someone's sexuality once evidence comes to light that they invented an imaginary dying gf, because I hella wanna speculate about these dudes; like, this is super Catfish material

I feel like this is the kind of thing that would make him undraftable, right? I mean, the Bengals will still take him as a free agent, obvs, but his draft prospects are pretty much history at this point.

does this work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKDus7QjJ_w&feature=youtu.be

no? okay http://youtu.be/HKDus7QjJ_w

fake dead girlfriend should post here

I was hoping that it would turn out he was gay and the fake gf was cover for a real bf.

mcsuchnsuch 3 months ago

What a class act. Wish some of these "super stars" were at least half as humble.

Sports Illustrated never thought to fact check the dead girlfriend story? Seems like pretty shoddy reporting.

if there's one thing that I'm not surprised by in the 2010s, it's shoddy reporting

well anyway, rip manti te'o's dead girlfriend story

Also, and I guess this a weird thing to think but, he's a really good player. He didn't NEED that story, surely.

i wonder if they're gonna try and spin this as him getting catfished or whether he'll just come out and admit that he was in on it

my guess is the former

"Kekua" means God in Hawaiian iirc... trying to find some googlage for some support but not helping...

https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/291665871707971584

Luna Kekua

Sports Illustrated never thought to fact check the dead girlfriend story? Seems like pretty shoddy reporting.

― Solange and thanks for all the fish (Nicole), Wednesday, January 16, 2013 9:53 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is what i was thinking too

it's not like she had an ungooglable name

i guess there are three scenarios

1. he was in on it from the beginning
2. he got catfished and never knew it
3. he got catfished but started making things up on his own

Okay found an online Hawaiian dictionary:

kua
6. Var. of akua , god, image, especially after the -a (cf. hoa kua). Cf. also Ke-ala-ke-kua (place name), the pathway of the Gods.

It's 1 or 3, because they never met in person and he's claimed that they did.

what's "catfished"?

right. i guess if it's 3, then it becomes a question of if he was too embarrassed to admit the truth and made up small details to cover himself

xp

what's "catfished"?

― whose black line is it anyway? (how's life), Wednesday, January 16, 2013 5:06 PM (9 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish_(film)

he could have just "dumped" her and never mentioned her again, is the thing

it didn't need to turn into a "oh she died the same day as my grandmother, now everyone go support her imaginary sister" deal

thing is we all say oh this is nuts and weird but i feel like i've been reading a variant on this over and over again lately

a few weeks ago a friend linked to this on twitter, for instance http://www.52firstdates.com/2012/11/sebastian-pritchard-jones-strikes-back.html

is this guy properly famous in the football world? idk how you'd ever think you get get away with this if you had any kind of celebrity

2m Daniel Walters ‏@danieltwalters
In a way, we are all Manti Te'o's girlfriend, our faith in college sports killed by the leukemia of deception. #ThinkPiece
Expand

Lance Armstrong suddenly a huge Manti Te'o fan...

is this guy properly famous in the football world?

In college/university football, yes. He was the runner up for the Heisman trophy (prestigious!) and played in the national title game.

I remember kids making up weird, drawn-out, unsustainable stories in grade school and even middle school

http://i.imgur.com/lpK2s.jpg?1

Still not a peep about this at ESPN

if I were te'o I would have come clean yesterday like 10 minutes after lance's oprah interview

he's saying he was catfished

how is that even possible

http://i.imgur.com/5RjRG.jpg

Undraftable, though? really?

Notre Dame Statement: Manti Te’o

On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.

Dennis Brown
University Spokesman | Assistant Vice President

Luna Kekua

how is that even possible

― johnny crunch, Wednesday, January 16, 2013 5:19 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

i don't think it is

my slow flow's remarkable / peace to manti te'o

how's life one step ahead of me i see

manti te'o banking on plausible deniability

now we fake tweets like tony montana sniff the yayo / that's crazy blunts

'shopped a girlfriend, I'm sweatin' (WOO)

Don Van Natta Jr. ‏@DVNJr

.@Deadspin didn't. RT @MTeo_5: Leave no stone left unturned!

Ashley Ann ⚾ ‏@itsCASH

LOL!!!!!!!! RT @MTeo_5: The worst thing you can do is fool yourself!

lmao @ notre dame right now

1. use a fake name 2 date manti teo
2. make him think u died of cancer
3. profit?

don't sleep on this part:

Te'o's father, Brian, told the Tribune in October 2012. "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."

lmao @ notre dame right now

― fieri inna babylon (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, January 16, 2013 5:23 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this times a million

wtffffffffffffffff

really there is never a time to not lol @ Notre Dame

the best part about this is the three brothers: titus, "navy", and mike

and there's the whole he spent all his time on the phone with her so there would have had to have been at least another girl involved in the catfishing if that even happened, which seems kinda iffy to me

we need to use this opportunity to close down notre dame entirely

xp she was in a coma during the phone calls though, seems like an imposter might be able to act that part

Oh wait they also talked every night pre-coma, that might have been a bit more complex.

long con perpetrated by nick saban

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEw7dN28nrU

we need a cleverbot transcript of their conversations

haha George Glass

max read ‏@max_read

this is as good a time as any to remind people that college sports should be outlawed

This is a very informative website.

can't see youtubes but someone's linked "girlfriend in a coma" right?

haha no, not yet

from twitter:

Guys, here's the "tell" of lady existence: if we say "yes, please attend my burial" or "nah, two interceptions and some roses'll be fine"

twitter joeks: 'he's mormon, maybe he has several dead girlfriends'

have you guys seen that one episode of party down? you know what im talking about

Te'o in Jim Rome interview: "I can't describe her. She was my best friend whom I fell in love with."

Well he's not lying in that first sentence.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BAxAo0rCEAAi3He.jpg

really there is never a time to not lol @ Notre Dame

― Bel-Air the Fresh Prince, sitting in a chair (DJP), Wednesday, January 16, 2013 5:30 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it was only pointed out to me recently that they are named after a church in france but their mascot is irish

it's pretty easy to mix up the hunchback with a vicious 1860s editorial cartoon version of an irishman, to be fair

Notre Dame means Our Lady. Notre Dame de Paris is the church in France.

https://mobile.twitter.com/MiguelUnlimited/status/135987621229887488

Notre Faux Dame

sure but I've never heard an irishman say 'notre dame' xp

so glad miguel finally weighed in on this

notre https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9627011/photos/damn.gif

haha

notrehttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PrvQzCwG63k/T2Z9fpQ-OOI/AAAAAAAAA1o/iGzc2P7v9MY/s1600/friday-damn-gif.gif

notre dame means our lady... in french. notre dame de paris is the one in paris (there's a bunch more in france)

I've never seen the Gawker big board before

http://gawker.com/stats/bigboard/

okay sorry dayo but omar pwned u

oh man I wish I had knew about that when violentacrez dropped

I don't understand, omar would never have made that post had I not posted first https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9627011/photos/userArmsCrossed.gif

@MTeo_5

Real eyes, realize, real lies!

WHAAAAA

https://twitter.com/LennayKay/status/291667906012524545

Probably hackers I guess.

We got formal statement:

"This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her.

"To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating.

"It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother's death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life.

"I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been.

"In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was.

"Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I'm looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft."

unless manti had someone update it to back up his tale of getting played

kinda lol mostly fuuuuck

http://i.imgur.com/mNFMl.jpg

All Sports Hype ‏@allsportshype
@LennayKay @MTeo_5 Who is behind this. Confess now

All Sports Hype ‏@allsportshype
@LennayKay @MTeo_5 Now, you will answer or else I will have this shut down. Confess

All Sports Hype ‏@allsportshype
@LennayKay @MTeo_5 Right now. Talk, i'll get the police into this

more like all sports hardman

what a schmuck

i wouldn't trust manti's ability to read play fakes

I have a girlfriend ... she lives in Canada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao109a38uVY

^^ Te'o interview

he told a bunch of lies. whether that was out of malice or embarrassment is i guess another question that possibly may never be answered.

"she lives in Niagra falls, you wouldn't know her"

@TheBigLead

Confirmed from 2 sources: ESPN has known about the Manti Te'o story for 10 days. Had been reporting it, but could not confirm.

lol NO REALLY WE HAD THE STORY

uh huh

@emmacargo
btw deadspin's @jackdickey, one half of the team that schooled sports media today, starts his final undergrad semester on tuesday. lol.

10 days ago is... the day b4 the title game

No updates yet, could be humorous to revisit:
http://www.mormonwiki.com/Manti_Te'o:_Mormon_Athlete

i only wish the original writer had been mitch albom

... 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 along with that, so that was good." [5]

it's totally plausible that ESPN had the story and didn't run it, it's exactly the kind of story they would never run first even if it fell in their laps

nd had the info for ~3 wks and i guess their 'investigation' has turned up nothing? if they had evidence that backed up teos story wouldnt they put it out there, esp now that it's public, etc

After learning of the elaborate hoax, Reba revealed a strange encounter she had in December 2012. She claimed that a former high school classmate, whom she remembered positively, had messaged her with a somewhat bizarre request. The classmate’s cousin had been in a car accident and seen Reba’s photos on Facebook and told her classmate he thought she was pretty. Accepting the harmless flattery, Reba agreed to take a photo of herself for the boy’s cousin, holding a sign that said “MSMK,” to be included in a slideshow intended to help cheer him up. Reba said that she didn’t ask what MSMK meant, and the classmate didn’t offer an explanation.

After finding that photo, and several more of her, on a Twitter account linked to Manti Te’o’s allegedly dead girlfriend, Reba panicked. When she contacted the classmate, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, an acquaintance of Te’o’s, he seemed disturbed by the news, but "immediately began acting weird."

Tuiasosopo reportedly told Reba, "don't worry about it," and minutes later her photos had been taken down from the account.

Te’o responded to the allegations earlier Wednesday in an email to Notre Dame, claiming that he had been the real victim.

http://www.ibtimes.com/who-lennay-kekua-girlfriend-manti-teo-hoax-comes-forward-1020928

this is my favorite shit

polyphonic isn't that just copy from the deadspin story?

Oh hm it might be.

I guess I'm curious why people aren't interested more in the Tuiasosopo part of the story.

we're just waiting for part 2 from deadspin

tuiasosopo's role does seem to undercut any possible plausible deniability for manti

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo ‏@ronaiahhh

@RickWarren Hey Rick! Myself and a few of our Youth Leaders will be attending the RADICALIS conference! We are beyond excited and prayed up!

Man if Rick Warren was playing the part of the girlfriend...

Read the article again. Several friends and relatives close to Manti (and Tuisosopo) are "fairly certain" that Manti was in on the tragic death of fake girlfriend story.

The Catfish angle is the only way he can save face here, but it's only a matter of time before more dirt is dished.

i really wonder what effect this would have on his draft position. would nfl teams chalk it up to something strange but no big deal, or too unsettling and weird to even go near?

Holy LOL

--

@ArsenioOFFICIAL: The great thing about dating Manti Te'o's girlfriend is, you never have to wear a condom!

he didn't exactly dazzle in the national championship game, so it's likely his draft stock was already slipping

maybe his was distracted by realizing his gf was an illusion/realizing people were on to him.

@realfreemancbs
NFL scout on Manti Catfish: "Won't hurt draft stock. We draft guys that rob banks." So, there's that.

we're just waiting for part 2 from deadspin

― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, January 16, 2013 2:35 PM (4 minutes ago)

yeah the fact that he's denying this almost makes this a inevitability

Mel Kiper has him going in the 3rd round now, to the Chargers: "Slow in coverage, bites on the pump fake, bites on the fake girl friends etc"

Wouldn't be the first Chargers linebacker with brain problems

also fun fact: Manti Te'o is an alumni of the same high school as Barack Obama

L
A
T
E
R
S

OMG Barack Obama was in on it!

Should've known to ask to see a birth certificate

psyops

i really wonder what effect this would have on his draft position. would nfl teams chalk it up to something strange but no big deal, or too unsettling and weird to even go near?

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Thursday, January 17, 2013 12:43 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He'd be the 6th strangest and most troublesome Tennessee Titan in the last decade, after Vince Young, Chris Johnson, Kenny Britt, Adam Jones, and Albert Haynesworth: so No.

The difference between all those guys' stories and Manti's is that this has already crossed over into non-football news. The public is about to gorge themselves on the dirt.

@realfreemancbs
NFL scout on Manti Catfish: "Won't hurt draft stock. We draft guys that rob banks." So, there's that.

Ha yeah wasn't Notre Dame's radio announcer criticized last year for saying "you gotta have some criminals and bad guys on your team" or something?

Yeah, I remember that.

If this turns out like I think it will turn out, I can't imagine a fanbase who would welcome him to their city.

i cannot imagine how many interns and film dudes at ESPN are poring over footage trying to find interview footage that contradicts his statement or where he mentions meeting her IRL

If something crosses over into "non-football news" but doesn't involve a homicide or something that would make a GM seriously question a dude's commitment to the game, no NFL team is going to give a shit.

Except Cincinnati, maybe. xp

If it turns out that he is just a dummy who got fooled, I don't see why anyone would not want him on their team.

it's sad but true that a bunch of teams that--instead of taking a chance on a guy who made up a GF--would probably sooner deify a guy who, let's make up something just for an example, killed a dude and then threw the suit he was wearing at the time into a river.

http://studentactivism.net/2013/01/16/compare-and-contrast/

I heard the Jim Rome interview when it happened; Kinda/kinda don't want to hear it again now.

I love that this story is inadvertently raising the profile of the Notre Dame rape story.

this won't impact his draft stock in the slightest imo, thought it will be lol if nd ppl try to use this to explain why he slipped instead of the fact that he got trucked in the national championship game

plenty of players fall in the draft for character concerns without seeming as completely batshit as Te'o now seems

lots of those players fall because they might actually get arrested in the near future, not because they're harmless but complete idiots

think we need to use care w/r/t the difference between "crazy" and "really really dumb" when it comes to this one

well it's one or the other!

this sure looks like he was in on it though, in which case he's a weird dude at the very least

i think the thing is this reads as "lunatic" more than "fuckup". i mean there are still scouts who wouldn't rate andy dalton as highly for reasons having to do w/his red hair.

ohmigod they let gingers play football???

lol torrance

nd press conf is supporting the hoax story

and this speaks to (those who make these decisions in the nfl) te'o's "toughness", imo.

pretty sure the bengals only drafted dalton because he was color coordinated with their unis.

like that one dude who said "we draft guys who rob banks" yeah you totally do that in the 6th or 7th round but you try not to do that in the 1st.

i don't think he's crazy, don't even think he's really that weird--he's someone who did something really naive and not-smart without intent to harm himself or anyone else.

i mean you guys really read this as crazy when the perp is a 21 year old mormon football star who may not have the slightest idea what you can and can't learn from the internet?

xp sure every gm should be thanking their lucky stars if this is what keeps them from drafting this guy in the 1st

honestly if he was awesome i'd still draft him, i'm not asking him to invest my money. i'm just speculating how nfl teams will view it.

sure, problem is he's a slow inside linebacker who was probably being overrated to begin with

omg the ad of nd is talking abt catfish

the part where they mention how the fake girlfriends pics were scrubbed from the Internet is telling imo

sez they discovered "online chatter" among the perpetrators where they talked abt the hoax and took pleasure in it or w/e

if he can get this involved in *this*, what about other distinctively (apparently not involving drugz homicide etc but distinctively) crazy situations might morph---is what NFL teams might be wondering.

uh

i don't have the slightest idea what those situations could be--if he is actually good i'm sure any team would let him have as many dead fake girlfriends as he wanted

theyre now saying he never met anyone in person i think

maybe he will spend all his nfl money on herbalife or something but this is a dopey Mormon kid

i keep on almost typing "dead gay girlfriend" btw

xp iatee, that's the point--considering this, who could imagine the situations---who with NFL money--but I said, "might be wondering", not that he's an automatic must to avoid

yeah, I feel like if anyone could get played by a fake Internet gf (which I don't believe is the case here - but IF) it's a sheltered Mormon kid.

shocked that anyone thinks NFL teams are going to factor in this mess at all, tbh

dow i think you're seriously overestimating the capacity of a couple of dumbasses whose brilliant idea was to make up a girlfriend and then get her in a car accident and then kill her with cancer

my point is that after this lol scandal goes away dopey Mormon kids are basically who you want on your nfl team as far as pr goes

btw all my posts assume te'o was in on it, he's not gonna survive the wonderlic if he wasn't

PLAY LIKE [YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S DEAD] TODAY

the real good thing about this is that it will supply us with jokes for as long as this dude has a pro career

Wow, yeah I don't see how there's any way to view this how others itt have explained it, dude is in a fucked situation that will make him a social pariah forever, so he'll lie until he can't lie anymore.

although I do have this fucked image of him visiting the girl and having sex with her only to find out she was a hologram later.

well i'm a simple country boy myself, but seems like the fool-or-knave but doesn't do much for his credibility ( inviting target,getting "played" by opponents on and off the field!)

fool-or-knave *bit* (or butt)

I wouldn't even be surprised if he lands softly in some corners until whenever part 2 from Deadspin comes out, because people who lie and make shit up seem to curiously have a lot of public net defenders over the last decade.

Waiting for the first "SO WHAT IF HE LIED, HE GOT PEOPLE TO DONATE TO CANCER RESEARCH" post.

Maybe he could tell Oprah that he got hooked on performance enhancers and they clouded his judgement----but now he's seen the light!

People like this should be forced to cage match Chris Brown for a consecutive week

can't believe te'os girlfriend was actually the tupac hologram

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Jbs_-BobfOs#t=452s

i mean you guys really read this as crazy when the perp is a 21 year old mormon football star who may not have the slightest idea what you can and can't learn from the internet?

― an eagle named "small government" (call all destroyer), Thursday, January 17, 2013 1:11 AM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

making up a fake cancer girlfriend is pretty textbook sociopath/borderline personality shit and he did it in such a grandiose way on a national stage

but if he just got duped then it's a different story

duped seems far more likely to be the case

there is 100% no chance that he got duped

my gut feeling is that he did not initiate but ultimately played along for reasons yet to be known

if that were the case wouldn't notre dame be approaching this differently

"every time I visited there was a note on her bed saying she'd just stepped out, so I'd fall asleep and wake up to a note saying how I'd been asleep when she got home, but to help myself to anything in her fridge"

nd sez the perpetrators tried to restart the relationship after they came clean that "lennay" hadnt died

"Sorry, bro, coma. She still wants you, though."

Deadspin deserves a Pulitzer for this, am not kidding. Such great research, great article.

how could he be duped if both he and his parents claim that he met the girl? him not being aware of the situation doesn't pass the smell test, methinks the school is trying to take the route that makes them look the least worst by giving credibility to his story.

sez the "motive" was just like casual cruelty, sounds abt right tbh

yup

no one ever met anyone irl according to this press conf

this shit happens every day

johnny: that may be what he/the family says now, but clearly isn't what Teo's own father was saying last October.

Also, it's not impossible, but a hoax like this where Teo was completely oblivious would have meant the pranksters would have had to also play the role of Kekua's relatives, which again, while it's not impossible, suggests a highly complicated hoax.

I'm still not buying it.

all these posts, no mention of Luna?

ctrl-f bro

The South Bend Tribune wrote an article describing the young couple's fairytale meeting—she, a Stanford student; he, a Notre Dame star—after a football game outside Palo Alto.

But who is Luna Kekua? Third google result is this very thread

notre dame has absolutely no interest here but to defend their own

they hired an independent, national investigation firm

oh really? didn't know that

seems like a smoking gun will be if they put out the "online chatter" btwn the perpetrators abt this, which if this is the real angle, im sure exists

te'o def isnt 100% innocent, at absolute least he conflated a lot of shit & went along to not look dumb, contradict himself etc

if this presser w/ jack swarbrick is anywhere online, everyone shd watch it

We hired an independent investigative firm which we will not name at this time

i mean, ok

Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick: "In many ways, Manti was the perfect mark."

he was a notre dame student

"he was a complete dumbass"

Reagan Mauia, an Arizona Cardinals fullback, said he believes Kekua existed because he met her in person when he and other Polynesian teammates and Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu went to do charity work in American Samoa in June 2011. "This was before her and Manti," Mauia said Wednesday evening. "I don't think Manti was even in the picture, but she and I became good friends. We would talk off and on, just checking up on each other kind of thing. I am close to her family. When she was going through the loss of her father, I was -- I offered a comforting shoulder and just someone to bounce her emotions off. That was just from meeting her in Samoa." Mauia said Tuiasosopo -- whom Mauia believes is Kekua's cousin -- introduced the two. After the initial meeting, Mauia said he met her at an "after-party" for all of the athletes involved in the camp. "She was tall," he said. "Volleyball-type of physique. She was athletic, tall, beautiful. Long hair. Polynesian. She looked like a model ... " He said it is his understanding that Kekua's mother is operating her Twitter account. He said he'd never met her mother. When told by a reporter that she apparently might not have existed, Mauia said "No, she is real."

hahahahahahah

jesus christ, american samoa. what are you trying to pull here??

hoax revealed to be a hoax, turns out everyone was just misspelling her name in Google all along!

(j/k)

"She looked like a model": the JT Leroy hoax sometimes involved such supposedly for-reals

although not actual models--if this is one, she'll turn up!

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BAxyxjBCUAI4bs5.jpg:large

there it is

Wouldn't be the first Chargers linebacker with brain problems

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Wednesday, January 16, 2013 7:49 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

paulie_gaultieri_oh.gif

i think call all destroyer pointed out the important issue here

the real good thing about this is that it will supply us with jokes for as long as this dude has a pro career

http://www.theonion.com/articles/canadian-girlfriend-unsubstantiated,1484/

From the presser:

Swarbrick said Te'o had told him the inital meeting with Kekua had taken place online. "Several meetings were set up," Swarbrick said, "where Lennay never showed, including some in Hawaii." So: Manti Te'o was drawn in this far by a "girlfriend" he never met and who blew him off more than once when he did try to meet her.

i definitely feel like there's gonna be people coming out of the woodwork now that this story is up that may help clarify things

this is a pretty classic story at its core

lennaygate

L K ‏@LennayKay

It isn't fair to drag Reagan and Troy into this.. a lot of truths and myths need to be addressed here, and they will be at noon PST tomorrow

oh wow

who are reagan and troy

no one knows if that was real and/or when it was created

reagan is the arizona fullback, troy is polamalu (i think)

Luna Kekua

Dammit I was gonna use that as a new SN.

i'm gonna be pissed if at noon tomorrow there's another justin timberlake teaser video

this is a pic from LK's old twitter that doesn't seem to be making the rounds:
https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/2603077411/image.jpg

looks like it was filtered to prevent reverse image searching...

fucking ronald reagan -- never count that bastard out

deadspin said in their story that the photos had been altered for that reason

out of respect for reagan, sure

deadspin quoting a friend's speculation regarding teo's complicity was probably not a good idea

where all the ND truthers at

i think deadspin may come to regret the part of the story where they quote some rando person's speculation that te'o was complicit in this purely out of self-promotion

the whole thing was so long too

maybe they know something we don't but the tone seems off if he's just a dumb kid who got tricked

like it's kinda sad but mostly lol I guess but it's not some grand conspiracy

well he clearly told lies, i would imagine out of embarrassment. most of these internet deception stories start as small things that blossom into really big things. it's a really big claim to say that he sat down and was like "let's create this fake GF and have her die of cancer so that i make the cover of sports illustrated"

so to have a speculative quote in there that essentially amounts to heresey from an unknown source is.... a bit reckless

the whole things just sad imo, awkward mormon had an internet girlfriend, everyone found out

Heresy or hearsay? xp

yeah iatee otm

it would be more fun to to turn out otherwise but it seems like he just got catfished

Heresy or hearsay? xp

― emil.y, Thursday, January 17, 2013 12:11 AM (22 seconds ago) Bookmark

that would be hearsay

I figured so, but there is something poetic in the two together.

the most lol part is how it exposes mawkish bullshit sports media

oh for sure

sounds like he got catfished then made up some stuff about meeting her and talking on the phone to save face? i dunno this is all so strange

i would pay money to subscribe to never have to hear about another athletes dead loved one ever again

the only thing i am gonna take away from this in the end is a new vocab word

uh

https://twitter.com/justinrmegahan/status/291767767923838976

https://twitter.com/justinrmegahan/status/291769166694866945

lol tennebaums

oh n/m

hey bro let's hoax this sophomore from Notre Dame for 3 straight years until his grandma dies. There's no "believable" narrative for this thing.

yeah i mean the most likely thing is that it started as "innocently" as any of things could but then got so big that no one involved wanted to deal with the fall out of pulling the rug

doing it on the day his grandma died is so insanely cruel though

also risky

It's that article in the South Bend paper claiming that he met Lenny on the field in 2009 after the Stanford game that's going to be most troubling. He now denies it, and of course it's always entirely possible that they misinterpreted a comment of his and that he never bothered to correct it (or less likely, didn't know about it), but it'll be interesting to see what he says (I know the ND director said he'd leave it up to Te'O).

This story will likely linger for a while.

one of the weirdest parts is that in typical catfish stories where a male (assuming the deadspin story pegged the perpetrator correctly) is portraying a female, one of the telltale tip offs is that the fake will never get on the phone for an extended period of time. but with the te'o story, they supposedly talked on the phone for hours every night for a long period of time while "she" was on her "death bed". so who was THAT person. unless that part is also a lie that te'o made up.

could be that girl that replied "NO YOU DIDN'T" to that Jay Rahz guy.

Today I learned you can filter photos online to prevent reverse image searches.

i really doubt he talked to an actual woman but if someone actually was involved that is some unreal dedication

who met that fullback tho

this makes me long for the first day of Petraeusgate

what the hell

jay.R ‏@jayRahz

we caught Ronaiah's persona as Lennay Kekua back in 2008 and ended all ties with him..

this is some Freemasons shit now

the fuck is this

Nev Schulman ‏@NevSchulman
I am working on finding out more about this @MTeo_5 #Catfish story. I have been in contact with the woman involved and will get the truth.

the woman involved?

oh come on

wtf

Third google result is this very thread

It's almost as if Google tailors one's search results based on their web history!!

brimstead u seem fun

the stuff about him having met her at a game, or her having visited him in hawaii - those lies are the least important part of the story. before i met my husband in person, if i dropped "my bf" into a conversation and someone asked how we met, a lot of times i would totally lie and say "uhhh... i met him while he was on vacation here". bc it was way too super embarrassing to admit that i had an INTERNET BOYFRIEND.

but then i probably wouldn't have bothered lying if i was a semi-celeb football player and/or my bf was refusing to skype with me ever.

you probably wouldn't tell a story about your eyes locking across the distance though

cant believe just1n3 lied to the world about the man she loves

ytth Kekua, we barely knew ya

he supposedly talked to SOMEONE on the phone, by the way

Swarbrick outlined a bizarre story in which Te'o learned his girlfriend never existed about three months after her supposed death. The player received a phone call Dec. 6, while at an awards show, from what he believed was Kekua's old cellphone number. The woman on the other end — in a voice he recognized as Kekua's — told him that she wasn't dead.

unless of course that part is also a lie, which i guess is probable/possible/likely

insane

but then again this narrative is almost certainly an outright lie?

"Every single thing about this, until that day in the first week of December, was real to Manti," Swarbrick said. "There was no suspicion it wasn't. No belief it might not be. And so the pain was real. The grief was real. The affection was real. That's the nature of this sad, cruel game."

whether or not he knew for a fact that she was fake before 12/6..... there's no way he didn't suspect it, right? he had set up multiple meetings that fell through and was off making up details about their relationship on his own.

one of the weirdest parts is that in typical catfish stories where a male (assuming the deadspin story pegged the perpetrator correctly) is portraying a female, one of the telltale tip offs is that the fake will never get on the phone for an extended period of time. but with the te'o story, they supposedly talked on the phone for hours every night for a long period of time while "she" was on her "death bed". so who was THAT person. unless that part is also a lie that te'o made up.

― J0rdan S., Thursday, January 17, 2013 12:32 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

isnt this exactly what luna did except the dying

is luna a dude

one of those deadspin dudes is whining about that guy finding those tweets, saying that they knew all about them but didn't publish them because they weren't "public"

he also seems to be digging in his heels on Manti being involved:

https://twitter.com/bubbaprog

they write about those tweets in the article, its pretty clear that they did know about them

A few weeks later, the @uilanirae account was deleted. The deletion came immediately after tweets from two now-suspended Twitter accounts had alleged that U'ilani was a fraud, that the same person behind Lennay was operating the U'ilani account, and that the images of "U'ilani" were really of a woman named Donna Tei.

waiting for the clean slick NYT graphic timeline that lays this all out in an easily digestible fashion

Deadspin deserves a Pulitzer for this, am not kidding. Such great research, great article.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, January 16, 2013 8:44 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a really interesting subpart of this to me - like how the new great investigative reporting is all being done by online media outlets. well I only hear about the nick denton stuff. but still, this, violentacrez, etc. - wouldn't be surprised if in like 10 years peopel were mentioning denton outlets in the same breath as the atlantic or mother jones

it is interesting, but it doesn't seem like "great investigative reporting" so much as basic googling, internet-stalking and then following up with the relevant interviews. what's interesting is that all the mainstream outlets didn't do this (lazy? not internet-savvy enough?). it's not really a surprise that where the story and the lies are online, it's a website that uncovers it...

the story and the lies were in newspapers and on the television

sorry, that post was a bit garbled. the evidence was online. internet-savvy people were able to reveal it with curiosity + basic digging.

something literally every mainstream sport media outlet neglected to do

while that's true this is ultimately a gossipy story rather than an important one I think

kinda hilarious that i have "explained" this story to 2 seperate older co-workers and the detail that they didnt know and both reacted the same to was "ohhh, he's mormon? i get it now..."

basic googling, internet-stalking and then following up with the relevant interviews.

http://doug-stern.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/all-the-presidents-men.png

Haha before I even clicked on the image I knew what film that would be from.

Just came by to drop off this #missed #dark #gem

"Wouldn't be the first Chargers linebacker with brain problems

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Wednesday, January 16, 2013 7:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink"

Zirin otm:

Swarbrick revealed that a private outside firm had been hired to investigate just who had perpetrated this “cruel game.” The athletic director even cried. His behavior only raises more important questions than anything Te’o will face tomorrow. Why hasn’t there been any kind of privately funded, outside investigation into the alleged sexual assaults committed by members of the football team? Why was there no private, outside investigation into Coach Brian Kelly’s role in the death of team videographer Declan Sullivan? It says so much that Te’o’s bizarre soap opera has moved Swarbrick to openly weeping but he hasn’t spared one tear, let alone held one press conference, for Lizzy Seeberg, the young woman who took her own life after coming forward with allegations that a member of the team sexually assaulted her. Swarbrick’s press conference displayed that the problem at Notre Dame is not just football players without a compass; it’s the adults without a conscience. Their credo isn’t any kind of desire for truth or justice. Instead it seems to be little more than a constant effort to protect the Fighting Irish brand, no matter who gets hurt.

we need to use this opportunity to close down notre dame entirely

― iatee, Wednesday, January 16, 2013 10:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

as someone who has payed zero attention to college football/sports in general this year, to the point where I had never heard of Manti Te'o until this thread........... I feel greatly ratified in my decision to pay zero attention to college football/sports in general this year

("this year" obv including last 2012 there)

"last 2012" fuck me I'm walking away now

Are we really talking "great investigative reporting" and Pulitzers for fake Internet girlfriends and exposing Reddit trolls.

ilx deserves a pulitzer for lunagate

while that's true this is ultimately a gossipy story rather than an important one I think

― iatee, Thursday, January 17, 2013 6:11 AM (1 hour ago)

This would be true except for that the "girlfriend {and grandma} dying on same day as big game" was a massive thread woven into his Heisman campaign. So yes, if we had never heard of her before, then yes, it would be somewhat tabloid-y. But that's not what happened here.

Seth Meyers ‏@sethmeyers21

These Te'o jokes are all very funny but let's all try and remember that a person who never existed is dead.

"was a massive thread woven into his Heisman campaign."

...forgot to add SI cover story, every interview for the past 3 months, countless internet pieces, etc.

if dumbass sportswriters want to give someone a heisman for things beyond what happens on the field thats their deal

but that doesn't actually happen anyway

right, but when one of the dominant narratives of the college football season us upended in dramatic fashion, i think it is more than just 'gossipy.'

but this has nothing to do with anything that happened in a game!

legions of devoted fans were following the story every step of the way on twitter, sending condolences to fake relatives of fake gf, etc etc

HE SEEMED LIKE SUCH A GOOD KID

notre dame fans are dumb is not news on any level

legions of devoted fans were following the story every step of the way on twitter, sending condolences to fake relatives of fake gf, etc etc

― fiscal cliff racer (bernard snowy), Thursday, January 17, 2013 11:22 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can only hope in vain that these people gain some much-needed perspective

legions of devoted fans were following the story every step of the way on twitter, sending condolences to fake relatives of fake gf, etc etc

― fiscal cliff racer (bernard snowy), Thursday, January 17, 2013 10:22 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

All these ppl were basically just trying to be nice & it's pretty crazy monday morning quarterbacking to think well they should have been suspicious

this guy decided to go to notre dame because he thought charlie weis was a good coach, based on that piece of information alone everyone should have assumed that he could be easily tricked and probably interacted w/ a lot of imaginary people

Lol

I really love these stories because it gives smug ppl that don't like sports to S their own Ds about it

All these ppl were basically just trying to be nice & it's pretty crazy monday morning quarterbacking to think well they should have been suspicious

― fieri inna babylon (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, January 17, 2013 4:27 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fwiw I "like sports", but I find the inevitable highly-publicized human disasters churned out by the circus of corruption & money surrounding the playing field so car-accident-scene-level-depressing that I try not to follow anything too closely--I just wanna see LeBron James throwing alley-oops to Chris Bosh a couple times a week, is that so much to ask?!?

a huge component of following sports - rather than just watching them - is the ridic drama!

if something like this happened in tennis i'd be GORGING MYSELF, i'd be riveted

i mean i'm pretty riveted as it is and i'm not even sure what sport this is

lex otm

The sport is called "human sock puppeting"

i feel like there's still a lot of shit left to be uncovered about this but it really seems like Te'o was in on this, even if he maybe wasn't at the start

Didn't Te'o say he "met" his "girlfriend"? If not, his dad sure did, and Te'o didn't correct him. Seems like he's in on it.

just1n3 offered a possible explanation for the stories he may have told about him meeting Lennay, but why would his dad be telling the same kind of stories unless they found out ages ago that a) she wasn't a real person or b) were all in on it from the beginning?

there is a difference between being 'in on it' and being some embarrassed dopey mormon kid covering your ass

^my a/b break-up there is a little messy, but you know what i mean.

Imagine you are a star football player in the prime of your life and you are going to devote THREE years of your short college career to a girlfriend you've never "met" IRL?

That shit may fly on ILX or other message boards, but I find it impossible that this superstar collegiate football player was not in on it for the publicity/sympathy angle.

there is a huge spectrum of 'in on it'. he probably mentioned it once, it got a lot of attention and then he didn't have a choice after that.

but the idea that he was some devious PR genius is lol, again this guy is a mormon who thought charlie weis seemed cool

he must be marlon brando

it is interesting, but it doesn't seem like "great investigative reporting" so much as basic googling, internet-stalking and then following up with the relevant interviews. what's interesting is that all the mainstream outlets didn't do this (lazy? not internet-savvy enough?). it's not really a surprise that where the story and the lies are online, it's a website that uncovers it...

― lex pretend, Thursday, January 17, 2013 2:49 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Pplains OTM with the All the President's Men reply. I mean, all investigative stories are "basic research followed up with relevant interviews". That's what it is.

What I like about online journalism, as shown in this piece, is that it *shows* you all the clues, leads and sources. In most older journalism these would stay in the reporter's notebooks, be left out of the newspaper or magazine article. But here, as the reader, you are with the reporter every step of the way. It makes for a different way of reporting, and reading of an article too.

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9392/deadspine.jpg

hahahaha

lol

ahahahahaha

(xpost)

actually cackled out loud at that

hahahhaha its so good

p punk rock journalism moment

that is awesome

imagine Donald walking down some corporate hallway, sees deadspin "xcellent piece"
"GFY"
*swats briefcase out of Donald's assistant's hands, loosens necktie, rolls up cuffs*

Pretty sure this is punishment from OT god for ND fans worshipping false idol

42 was the number of the beast, however

What's their beef?

trump is loathsome

Imagine you are a star football player in the prime of your life and you are going to devote THREE years of your short college career to a girlfriend you've never "met" IRL?

Yeah this guy is full of bullshit.

full of that mormonism

Well then shouldn't he have multiple girlfriends?

I'm not inclined to give the kid a totally free pass here, but the fear of public embarrassment & ridicule does seem like a pretty convincing motivator for some of the more shameless ass-covering (operating under the 'he only figured out what was up when the dead girl called his phone' hypothesis)

Still, the Skype thing is the one point I can't get around

I mean, I've known some totally sheltered nerds who could conceivably have fallen for the 'internet GF who sends you sexy pics but mysteriously flakes out on all your IRL meetings' ploy well into their early 20s, and I don't see any reason to assume that a Mormon football star is automatically going to be more well-adjusted or socially mature than them.

Totally sheltered nerds =!= football star

Also, 3 years, gimme a break

If we're going with "Oh he's a Mormon" then he was 100% lucid the entire time too.

xxxpost not sure what "Skype thing" you're referring to--dude's skype chats with his girl while she was supposedly (as far as fans knew) comatose? I'm not too clear on the timeline at this point, but that does seem like a pretty big giveaway... then again, delusional hope for a loved one's recovery would go along way towards explaining why the warning lights didn't go off in dude's head at that point.

sheltered mormon samoan =/= matt leinart

Also, if you were that in love with someone, they get in a car accident AND get leukemia and you don't go to visit them even once....then they die and you skip the funeral?

Bernard, I meant expecting me to believe that two ppl in their young twenties in 2012 would have an intense relationship for 3 years or whatever and never once Skype with each other

We've skyped with my daughter's 80 yr old grandmother ffs

lol gene woj on sportscenter basically came out and said he was not socially advanced

Totally sheltered nerds =!= football star

Also, 3 years, gimme a break

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, January 17, 2013 5:42 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

xpost -- Gene said that about himself? I believe it.

hahahah thanks for taking that open goal ned

Bernard, I meant expecting me to believe that two ppl in their young twenties in 2012 would have an intense relationship for 3 years or whatever and never once Skype with each other

We've skyped with my daughter's 80 yr old grandmother ffs

― fieri inna babylon (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, January 17, 2013 5:47 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

xpost - Had to be done.

But if Gene meant it the other way: "He was an innocent cub of a manchild, flinging his coconuts on the beach with abandon. The modern world, it confuses him."

"A noble savage from our overseas territories, worshipping a golden god, loving his grandmother. Why do you not pity him, an innocent."

couldn't disagree more strongly. what contact with the 'real world' do you expect athletes at this elite level to have? they're totally enclosed in their little bubble of trainers & coaches & nutritionists & tutors & agents &c &c... sure, some of them are gonna embrace the role of 'big man on campus', friend 3000 hot girls on facebook, and get chewed-out for being hungover in practice; but even those guys often turn out to be naive in other ways, like letting a 'family friend' manage their finances or w/e
― fiscal cliff racer (bernard snowy), Thursday, January 17, 2013 9:49 AM (8 seconds ago)

Most Heisman candidates and winners have supermodel GFs fwiw.

this guy thought he did, too!

anything coming out about her locking her bone marrow in the trunk of her car

most Heisman candidates and winners have swag; Manti did not. it's tragic but what can u do

Most Heisman candidates and winners have supermodel GFs fwiw that they have touched with their own hands

I mean I have a hard time believing that Te'o was a real life version of Napoleon Dynamite's brother who thought he'd found his Lafawnda

had that other Twitter person not come out and said that picture was her, he coulda played this as "OH MAAAAN, SHE GAVE ME A FAKE NAME BRO, BUT SHE'S TOTALLY REAAAAAAAAL"

have you guys never met a mormon

Found this screenshot from one of their skypes.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120111023928-mortality-statistics-empty-hospital-bed-story-top.jpg

I'm not even sure ann romney is real

YESSSSSS

http://www.nma.tv/manti-teo-notre-dame-football-star-hoaxed-hoaxster/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWmpGhIZJWw

fwiw I would probably be more willing to assign blame to Te'o if I had been following the story all season long, as I would be experiencing greater cognitive dissonance right now

Breaking: Everett Golson has never even seen a piano

Can't stop hearing Miles Davis saying "Teo...Teeeeeoooo..."

Mike Golic Jr. Is actually Mike Greenberg's love child

stripling warriors do not skype

anything coming out about her locking her bone marrow in the trunk of her car

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Thursday, January 17, 2013 11:52 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hahaha god damn

I worked in a restaurant with 5 Mormons once and while they were pretty stupid overall, think even they woulda been like "hey I couldn't help but notice that I was the only attendee at our last 3 dates".

this happened to people on ilx

people who weren't even mormons

this happens all the time

http://www.1on1.net/1valor/image1/01mb.gif

ya i dont really think it's a good look to be like "all mormons are stupid" ffs

this happened to people on ilx

people who weren't even mormons

this happens all the time

― iatee, Thursday, January 17, 2013 6:06 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^this

it's a better look than wearing a "stripling warriors mommas boys" t-shirt xp

hahha yes, let's not forget that basically the exact same thing, only worse, happened on this very board

I didn't say "all Mormons are stupid", I said the 5 I knew were. One of whom got fired for serving a 16-year old beer after he'd carded him. Another who replied "chardonnay" when asked what kind of merlot we had. So I think that was a fair statement.

comparing the Luna thing to this is complete apples and oranges.

no...it isn't

yes...it is.

it's like exactly the same thing except people on ilx aren't good at football

Mormons not knowing wine shit shocker

only because the luna thing is 100x worse

man... te'o didn't even get to dock with his girlfriend. that's fucked up.

lol

kind of an important detail when you work in a restaurant, iirc xxxpost

wait i don't get why we're talking about it as though it was an internet romance

from the deadspin story

Nov. 28, 2009: Te'o and Kekua meet after Stanford's 45-38 victory over Notre Dame in Palo Alto, according to the South Bend Tribune: "Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te'o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes." Kekua, a Stanford student, swaps phone numbers with Te'o.

2010-2011: Te'o and Kekua are friends. "She was gifted in music, multi-lingual, had dreams grounded in reality and the talent to catch up to them" (South Bend Tribune). "They started out as just friends," Te'o's father, Brian, told the Tribune in October 2012. "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."

ie it started IRL and became a long-distance relationship

I know lex but now he's saying he never met her.

Thus the problem.

he extended his virtual hand duh

besides, it was iatee who said "y'all act like you never met a mormon before", sooooooo

"I stared deep into the eyes of the person who wasn't there. Help me."

I never said "y'all"

I may have said "y'all"

this is such a great story and i am eagerly awaiting the postmodern novel about it.

the novel is written from her pov

whoa

especially funny (to me) because I just almost posted, then deleted:

I mean, do I need need to write the Madame Bovary of the information age before y'all will believe that this shit really happens, or what

The Lovely Boner

so if this chick is luna then does that make deadspin chaki

the novel is written from her pov

― iatee, Thursday, January 17, 2013 12:14 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

of course.

wd explain the trump tweet
xp

lex you do realize that they never met because she never existed, right?

someone get a blanket and a cup of tea ready for lex, I think he's going to need it

of course he realizes that

ideally in aforesuggested novel this would be mixed up with the whole petraeus affair.

he's talking about how dude SAID he met her IRL and is now claiming he didnt

that portion of the book would be written from the perspective of petraeus's gmail account

xpost

ideally in aforesuggested novel this would be mixed up with the whole petraeus affair.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Thursday, January 17, 2013 1:18 PM (12 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

alternating chapters. the petraeus ones would be written from the POV of an afghani civilian

lol xp

well than idk what this means

wait i don't get why we're talking about it as though it was an internet romance

this is kinda a long story but ime young religious people can get very involved in the performative aspect of their own dramatic inner life.

there was a series of religious lock-ins at one of the churches in my hometown, a "teens encounter christ" thing. sounded like brainwashing to me, and thank ba'al my family was lutheran so i had no part in it. but i heard girls talking about it all the time, the experience was so moving. there was this dude from another town that they clearly had a big crush on. one of the weekends was all about sex (badness of) and this kid had a big tearful breakdown about how he'd finally reluctantly fucked some girlfriend and felt bad about it. the girls couldn't stop talking about it.

a couple weekends later the theme of the event was truth and lies. and the kid apparently had ANOTHER big tearful breakdown about how he's made up the story about having a girlfriend who talked him into sex. of the girls i knew who told me this, i don't think it changed their opinion of him at all.

I know lex but now he's saying he never met her.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, January 17, 2013 6:12 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes and i'm saying that this is OBVIOUSLY A LIE, and he is not a "victim" who was "taken in" because he said he met someone who never existed

he's talking about how dude SAID he met her IRL and is now claiming he didnt

― zero dark (s1ocki), Thursday, January 17, 2013 6:18 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

exactly

this was never portrayed as an internet-only romance, now that it's been exposed you can't just go back and say oh yeah it was all online

when I was 16 I had a friend at summer camp who was 'from Amsterdam'. except that he wasn't originally 'from Amsterdam', he had moved there a year earlier with his mother, after she quit her job and sold her house in order to live with the man of her dreams... who subsequently turned out to be a fat basement-dwelling nerd who had lying to her, sending pics of someone else, etc etc. I never really recovered from the trauma of this unpleasant revelation of the internet's power over humanity.

xpost goole that story is amazing

shit reminds me of new age cults that browbeat you into confessing bullshit.

xpost

kids tell elaborate lies all the time. it's when they do so as adults that it becomes pathological.

and I would argue that 'adulthood' among 18-to-22-year-olds is the exception rather than the rule. and that goes double for student-athletes.

adults tell elaborate lies all the time.

yeah but we usually don't smile and indulge them paternalistically.

also IDK about "all the time"

this was never portrayed as an internet-only romance, now that it's been exposed you can't just go back and say oh yeah it was all online

yeah but realistically if i were a college football player with an internet girlfriend i'd never admit to having met her on the internet.

lex is saying the same thing I'm wondering about. if you read the Deadspin piece and just isolate the quotes about her from before the story broke Te'o definitely makes it sound like they really met. not to mention all the phone talk - I highly doubt the guy pulling the prank here is gonna find a woman to talk to him for hours and fall asleep on the phone such that he can hear her breathing over the phone in the morning. sounds all made up.

then again I can think of zero reason to do this unless he's gay

people of all ages are deluded and/or want to be deluded like 95% of the time it's the human condition. xp

he's talking about how dude SAID he met her IRL and is now claiming he didnt

― zero dark (s1ocki), Thursday, January 17, 2013 12:18 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this seems to be the central issue right now that could tip the story toward him being a liar or just being a chump, depending on how it plays out

it's pretty clear that he is both!

otm

well yeah but to what degree

like it's not some crazy mystery why he would lie about his internet gf, it would be way weirder if he were giving an espn interview "oh ya I am dating this girl, I have never met her irl or heard her voice...but I love her"

even if he is a liar maybe he lied to cover up a greater embarrassment.

i can't really think that badly of this guy for this, i guess. seems like he's got, as they say, "bigger issues."

or that he wouldn't own up to it even after he found out xp

keep in mind that athletes never admit anything no matter how much evidence there is

I highly doubt the guy pulling the prank here is gonna find a woman to talk to him for hours and fall asleep on the phone such that he can hear her breathing over the phone in the morning.

http://www.idiotsavant.com/bueller/pictures/ferris12.jpg

That's Lance Armstrong on line 2 for you, frog.

just1n3 offered a possible explanation for the stories he may have told about him meeting Lennay, but why would his dad be telling the same kind of stories unless they found out ages ago that a) she wasn't a real person or b) were all in on it from the beginning?

― Johnny Fever

it's possible he lied to his parents, too, bc he was embarrassed (i told my parents that i was going on a one year OE to the US and staying with a "good friend", instead of the truth which was: i am moving to the US permanently to marry someone i've never met in person).

i think it's possible he was in on it, and i think it's possible that he was totally catfished - but i really don't believe he was the ringleader of the hoax. someone else was def orchestrating this whole thing.

while i find it hard to believe there is any reasonable excuse for being unable to skype in this day and age, if the relationship was legit, at the very least you'd be sending tons of spontaneous photos to each other.

goole's story is really amazing and interesting. almost tempted to say that the liar was subtly broadcasting a "DTF" message and of course the illicit thrill of that for the sexually charged atmosphere of those "youth group" type of things.

"Spontaneous photos" = "dick pix" right?

totes

a girl i know on the internet (who therefore may not be real) told on twitter recently a story about how 10 years ago, when she was in college, she was in an 18-month long internet relationship with a guy she met on a mailing list, that got dramatic and basically resulted in her dropping out of college, in which he was super controlling and she never talked to him on the phone (but talked to his sister and his ex-girlfriend, who was a girl they internet-knew in common), and when she tried to visit him he didn't appear and then was like NEVER DO THAT AGAIN, and his name wasn't googlable because he was "in insurance" and he was a millionaire and had Hodgkin's lymphoma, and he sent her a framed photograph of himself (hot) and, like, a tiffany necklace, and when they split up she was a wreck and flunked out of college and etc.

and everyone was like "dude, he didn't exist, your mutual internet friend made him up."

and she was all "really? i mean, now i think about it, maybe, but. i talked to his sister!! wow you guys are really making me doubt this thing that happened to me, which despite being on the internet for the subsequent ten years i have never once interrogated."

BASICALLY PEOPLE ARE PHENOMENALLY BLIND especially when they are super sheltered growing up.

It's hard for me to watch this interview and believe he wasn't aware:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao109a38uVY

This interview is gross either way, but it's creepier if he actually thinks his girlfriend is dead.

Although Kate Sullivan obv isn't in on anything and she creeps me out too.

coulda just been a fat dude who wasn't a millionaire xp

Most of the Mormons I've met have been incredibly smart but I met them in college, so

this is kinda a long story but ime young religious people can get very involved in the performative aspect of their own dramatic inner life.

^ goole otm

I roomed w a Mormon freshman year

also half of them are ex-Mormon and gay, lol

it's not that mormons are dumb, it's that they are sheletered

he shared a rm w someone who has unbelievably bad BO, but was too polite to say anything

you'd walk into his room in the dead of winter and he'd have a giant fan going pointed atthe door while studying ... you know, for no reason at all

too many e's

popped a molly I'm spellin' (Woo)

48.6% of Americans voted for a Mormon president a few months ago.

haha if I see him at reunions I'll sneak a molly into his food

47% actually

Also question for Mormon-y people:

How many "devout Mormon" men get excused from their Missionary duties?
For all the God talk Manti does, he obviously values football over his faith, right?

as someone else mentioned above, the part of the story that most makes me believe te'o was at least partially in on it is this: his great love is in a car accident that leaves her seriously injured and he doesn't go see her? ok MAYBE she had an incredibly great excuse for why he shouldn't visit but... she gets cancer and is DYING and he can't find a reason to fly out to see her??

^yeah i keep coming back to this

How many "devout Mormon" men get excused from their Missionary duties?

from what I saw in college, zero

47% actually

― iatee, Thursday, January 17, 2013 10:52 AM (1 minute ago)

Yeah, I pulled #s from Politico.com, shame on me.

there's a strong culture in sports of "she would've wanted me to miss her funeral to play in this game"

Some new details

http://m.tmz.com/#Article/2013/01/17/manti-teo-ronaiah-tuiasosopo-scandal-hoax-notre-dame-photo-girlfriend

maybe, but i just don't buy that "she would rather we never meet in person, even though we are in love and she is DYING, than have me miss a football game". i mean, was he playing football 94/7? he couldn't find the time to fly out to see her for 24 hours? he couldn't scrape together a few hundred bucks for an airfare to see the irl face of the woman he loved before she drew her last breath??

until someone tells me otherwise I'm just going to assume that this entire thing was a convoluted scheme set up by Tuiasosopo so that he could bang anyone and everyone interested in Notre Dame football

he couldn't scrape together a few hundred bucks for an airfare to see the irl face of the woman he loved before she drew her last breath??

Forgive me, but in America just1n3, the alumni pay for all your expenses (and some), particularly at alumni-farm private religious schools like ND.

'she' was obviously going to come up with reasons why he couldn't meet her, not vice versa, I would imagine

wait what xp

until someone tells me otherwise I'm just going to assume that this entire thing was a convoluted scheme set up by Tuiasosopo so that he could bang anyone and everyone interested in Notre Dame football

― Bel-Air the Fresh Prince, sitting in a chair (DJP), Thursday, January 17, 2013 2:02 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

men or women?

mascots

can't get out of my brain: sam waterston and jill hennessey saying "ronaiah tuiasosopo" over and over again for 40 mins

how does a 'devout Mormon" go to Notre Dame? I mean, yeah, football etc.

the church sent him there to convert everyone

how does a 'devout Mormon" go to Notre Dame? I mean, yeah, football etc.

― Das Aqualungenlied (doo dah), Thursday, January 17, 2013 2:08 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

supposedly he chose it over usc so

Boom!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/two-days-after-manti-teo-knew-it-was-a-hoax-he-sp

men or women?

yes

Yeah, he's done.

xxpost - first smoking gun

that's been out there since last night?

yah thats not really a smoking gun imo

just that hes "keeping up the story" essentially

which contradicts the official notre dame story

that's been out there since last night?

Sorry I was busy watching your Heat beat my dang Warriors :(

L K ‏@LennayKay
My statement: This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but I have been told by Alabama's offense that Manti Te'o is not real.

Haha, trolled.

One could argue he said it because he was expected to reference her and that people would think something amiss if he didn't, but it doesn't paint a good pic. Not a smoking gun tho per se.

Also lol at him saying "I really don't like cancer" as if he was talking about not liking sprouts.

um, is that real? https://twitter.com/LennayKay not showing that tweet at all. or am i missing something here.

xp

Im seeing it

One could argue he said it because he was expected to reference her and that people would think something amiss if he didn't...

― NINO CARTER, Thursday, January 17, 2013 11:33 AM (3 minutes ago)

or would they? I mean is it better to perpetuate a lie that you've recently been "devastated" by or just to skip over it?

if you are trying to keep people from figuring this out you almost have to perpetuate it

this is so weird

ESPN is saying that he'd been talking about Lennay up until 1/3/13... Why would he keep doing that?

sometimes it takes a while for the mouth to catch up to the brain

ESPN is saying that he'd been talking about Lennay up until 1/3/13... Why would he keep doing that?

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, January 17, 2013 2:54 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

my guess is because he/they didn't want to deal with this entire controversy until after the national championship game

but at that point the damage had already been done

so that twitter account is fake?

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/1/17/3885600/lennaykay-twitter-manti-teo

Shoulda given it up at halftime IMO xxpost

Why would he keep doing that?

could be something like "I was hoaxed but why stop all this publicity I'm getting"

no i think it's just because they wanted to wait until after the biggest game the school had played in two decades

Which goes back to my previous question, what is gained by perpetuating the hoax for the press?
Te'o was the one bringing her up in 3 of the post-hoax awareness clips I've seen.

Just a bit of fake dead gf, lets be cool

well, if HE brings her up he can get her out of the way and not be ambushed by an unexpected question

and maybe he wanted to wait till ND wasn't in control of his media interactions so he could get a big payday for a tell-all interview?

also maybe he was getting imaginary ghost dome, idk

well i think one time he was asked about his work with a cancer charity or something

Maybe he was cheating on fake dead gf with another dead gf

guys, we're overlooking something

maybe this is a real-life "Ghost" situation and Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is just a hapless medium

The question about cancer is kinda what i meant, like if he only mentioned his grandma they mighta asked a followup question.

To me it seems fairly obvious that Roniah was the dude behind the invention but i think Te'o probably islearned of the hoax much sooner than Dec 6

DJP w/this the Rashomon twist

-this

http://deadspin.com/5976762/manti-teos-teammates-had-their-doubts-about-lennay-kekua

notre dame players and students think he was hoaxed but then kept it up for publicity, which seems like the most likely possibility really

Or...

http://www.hollywoodmemorabilia.com/files/cache/whoopi-goldberg-autographed-ghost-8x10-photo_f858715ba59b6378c77e46a122c322eb.jpg

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/inspiring-tale-of-notre-dame-hero-totally-fake.html

lol i had no idea

this is way off-topic, but for fans of elaborate football hoaxes unraveling:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=7528784

THINKPIECE

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/how-the-simpsons-explains-the-manti-teo-fake-girlfriend-saga/267296/

they should have called that "Blame the Bible for Manti Te'o's Fake Girlfriend"

lennays going to hate me for posting this but the poor thing just dropped dead from leukemia last night.

lol

I'm still back on "she locked her bone marrow in the trunk" tbh

blew her mind out in a car

wrong thread

Or...is it

Pete Thamel, sad man in him room

http://deadspin.com/5976841/how-sports-illustrateds-manti-teo-story-got-published

Also

SI.com will publish an unedited transcript of the entire interview between Thamel and Te'o later today

Thamel: So where's your dead girlfriend again?
Te'o: SATAN.
Thamel: Sorry, can I lick your boots?

loved this deadspin comment:

[The Bunnyman]
The Bunnyman
"He is clearly a victim here. He is an inspirational guy, a winner, someone who obviously ignites the jealousy in others. He's no Ray Lewis, a thug and a fraud, he is more of a Lance Armstrong."
Every sports journalist in 2000

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.

you know, little things

I've obviously been maybe branded a little bit naive for writing what I did

No, just more of a fuckup.

stranded at the drive in
branded a fool

MAAAANNNIIII
CAN'T YOU SEEE
I'M IN MISERY

Cardinals' defensive tackle Darnell Dockett wants to help Manti get his mind off the pain by taking him to the strip club:

http://deadspin.com/5976822/darnell-dockett-wants-to-cheer-up-manti-teo-by-taking-him-to-the-strip-club

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/teoing-is-the-hot-new-int_n_2495787.html

lol @ "lemme hook you up with my go-to midget", I mean wf

Dockett went on Twitter and hit on that Alabama QB's girl friend last week, too. Again, the invitation was to go to a strip club with him.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/how-the-simpsons-explains-the-manti-teo-fake-girlfriend-saga/267296/

Lennay and Carl?

hahahaha

I LOVE MY DEAD FAKE GIRLFRIEND

Lennay = fake, Carl= real

Lol

I think they did Manti Te'o a huge disservice, as I think him releasing a statement did himself a disservice. This is a situation where nothing you can say is going to improve your situation. Every time you give a reaction, it keeps the news cycle focused on the embarrassing story. I think it would be better for Te'o if he'd come out and said, "Yeah, I set it up to win the Heisman." Whether he did or not, for his professional career, it would have been better for him to show he was cunning and clever and smart. He's a middle linebacker who has to show he can be cold and calculating. Instead, he told everyone he was a patsy. If I'm an NFL GM, that doesn't sound good to me. I would not have published any response, let it go away.

-Deadspin's Timothy Burke, who broke the story:
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/college/qampa-with-st-petersburg-man-who-helped-break-story-of-manti-teos/1270949

that's idiotic

no better way to take the news cycle off of him than to just go ahead and say he made up the whole thing to win the heisman. that oughta do it.

that is the dumbest thing I've heard, ty deadspin you may leave

http://pepperonsports.tumblr.com/post/40728557823/teo-teammate-he-lied-but-the-media-blew-it-up

Early in my conversation with the source, the Notre Dame player said, “He lied, but the media blew it up.” In response to my follow-up question asking if the source thought that Te’o kept the story going because of the media attention, the player replied, “Yeah. Right after the Michigan (State) game. He should have never brought her in the media. His grandma passing was enough.”

"enough"

yeah that quote from burke is really bad

this transcript is unreal http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130117/manti-teo-girlfriend-hoax-quotes/

SI: This is unbelievable.

yup

SI: What did she study?

TE'O: She graduated in 2011 or 2010. 2011.

SI: What was her major?

TE'O: Her major was in English and something. I'll double check.

um, how do you not know these two pieces of information immediately off the top of your head

It's so super silly that there has to be a narrative-driven motive for this guy to win a football game, rather than the simple desire not to lose.

SI: How did you meet her?

TE'O: We met just, ummmm, just she knew my cousin. And kind of saw me there so. Just kind of regular.

he didn't even know what her injuries were!

"uh, a lot of them"

TE'O: She actually just graduated from Stanford. She worked at Clark's Construction Company, I think. She replaced her dad after her dad passed.

SI: Your dad told me that he called you at 7 a.m. on the day she died. He said when he woke up he had texts from Lennay. I'm confused. Walk me through that day.

TE'O: She was actually getting better to the point where she was cleared to fly and was sent home. She was doing better. So I woke up in the morning and my parents woke me up and they told me about my grandma. And my girlfriend was just someone who was so loving and caring and cares for others. She really loves my parents and my parents love her. She called and she offered her condolences on behalf of her and her family and she was telling them that she loves him and how they're thinking and praying for us.

And then I remember I went to class and went to workouts and after workouts, right before I was about to come into meetings, I got a text message from her phone but it was her brother. Every time her brother texts me he just says, "Bro." I was like, "Why is her brother texting me?" Then I get a phone call from her older brother's phone. He's just crying. And immediately I felt like, "Oh my Gosh, what just happened." And then he told me, "She's gone bro."

okay now

Te'o should really check out Skype, it's cool

SI: You have a wedding ring on?

TE'O: It's my church ring. I wear it to remember her. To remember my girlfriend.

SI: Did she give it to you?

TE'O: It's a CTR ring. It stands for choose the right. I always wore it. I had to switch it from my right to my left.

SI: What is it made of?

TE'O: Steel. Some sort of steel.

it really seems Te'o is not a detail-oriented dude

You guys, even you deep web types, you guys are tight with your grandparents more or less?

Would you ever equate the death of your grandma, your own maternal grandmother, with some Luna von Catfish that you had an online relationship with.... repeatedly!!! on National TV?

Would you? Who does that?

What did she look like?

Just, you know, hair. Eyes. Some sort of face.

Luna Von Catfish lol

SI: She couldn't communicate?
No. She could only breathe. One of the miraculous things was when I talked to her and she would hear my voice her breathing would pick up. Like quickly, and then she would start crying. But her breathing would quicken, and she would start crying. So her brother was in the room with the nurse. They were monitoring her. She said, "Who is she on the phone with?" Her boyfriend. She was like, "That's amazing. She doesn't do that with anybody else." So that happened. And then she flatlined and we were losing her.
The day I went home, that was the day they were going to pull it. They were saying their goodbyes and all that. I said, "Babe, I'm never going to say goodbye to you. If you really want to go, she really missed her dad, so I said, "If you want to go, be with dad, go. Just know that I love you very, very much." I had this very positive feeling that everything was going to be OK. I landed in Hawaii. By the time I said my goodbyes. Not my goodbyes, my I love you, I'll see you later, that kind of thing, I jumped on the airplane to go to Hawaii. They were scheduled to pull the plug while I was in the air.
So right when I landed, I was expecting to get a voicemail saying she's gone. So I landed and I had a voicemail from her brother saying, "Brother, call me back right now." So you can imagine what's going through my head. I was like, "What am I going to do? How am I going to take this?'"And so I called him back, the doctor came in and he saw something and he wants to try some treatment on her to see if it works. From there she slowly started to get better. Slowly. Eventually she came out of her coma and she started having memory problems and she couldn't remember because of the accident. That's how much damage she had to her frontal lobe. She had memory problems. I was actually the first person that she talked to. She was breathing, breathing. When I talked to her, I would say, "Babe, do you know who this is?" I knew she knew who it was because her breathing would pick up. I was like, "Relax, chill. Breathe slowly. Breathe slowly." And then, that was when she first started to speak was that conversation. I was like, "Babe, I love you. I love you." Very slightly she said, "I love you."

SI: Was that right when you got back?

TE'O: Then she started to make progress.

SI: This is unbelievable.

i feel like he must have cribbed some of this from a movie

i just keep coming back to HOW FUCKING WEIRD THIS IS

normal people are so fucking weird

And this is all phone call stuff he's talking about, not even like texting or anything. That's where it really stretches the whole 'he was catfished' thing way too far for me

SI: She couldn't communicate?

TE'O: No. She could only breathe. One of the miraculous things was when I talked to her and she would hear my voice her breathing would pick up. Like quickly, and then she would start crying. But her breathing would quicken, and she would start crying.

so, I don't know if my experience with a family member in a coma is universal or not but the hyperventaliting-and-crying detail is kind of hilarious; I mean, my brother would start moving around and breathing more deeply when we talked to him but I never saw him hyperventilate and cry (then again, he was real)

lol xpost

And this whole thing is CRAZYPANTS

yeah the vagueness throughout the entire story, the complete lack of detail, and the total corny-clichedness is just... embarrassing. like, i feel embarrassed for him whether he was in on it or not.

and who was playing the role of all these family members he was supposedly talking to at various points during their relationship?

so we're to believe a prankster was also guilty of serial breathing?

this is too much like Labute's "The Shape of Things" for me to believe Te'o anymore.

yeah halfway through that transcript, not even halfway I'm like, dude, just stop.

oh shit can we also talk about this:

TE'O: She was actually getting better to the point where she was cleared to fly and was sent home. She was doing better. So I woke up in the morning and my parents woke me up and they told me about my grandma. And my girlfriend was just someone who was so loving and caring and cares for others. She really loves my parents and my parents love her. She called and she offered her condolences on behalf of her and her family and she was telling them that she loves him and how they're thinking and praying for us

[...]

SI: How long was she hospitalized?

TE'O: She was in that hospital for about two months.

SI: Wow, did she get out?

TE'O: She didn't get out. She went from there. Remember she got in the accident and she was in a coma.

'and then a T-Rex with laser cannons came into the hospital room and talked to me on the phone and he said she was going to be okay and I was like oh wow cool and we all started crying it was amazing'

"She went from there"?

clearly dude didn't write fanfic like most of us growing up

She went. From there.

Girlfriend in a coma
I know, I know
Just kidding made the whole thing up

50 Shades of Dead

hahah

SI: You'd speak to her and she cries, eventually saying "I love you."

TE'O: Mm-hmm.

SI: Did anything else occur?

TE'O: One day she like, got up and walked an stuff. Went out and like got some food and brought it back to her room.

He's reminding me more and more of this kid Darren in my 7th grade class who would tell us that his dad flew a helicopter and let him rapel into the school grounds when he dropped him off at school

"That sounds like mashed potatoes"

clearly dude didn't write fanfic like most of us growing up

au contraire:

SI: I just want to make sure. Lennay had an iPad. She wrote a series of 12 letters to you every Friday before a game. Who read these to you?

TE'O: Her brother or her sister. Noa is her twin brother.

Mani u are the saddest most hilarious liar in the history of lying

Did she write letters while she was in a coma

Could our buddy Manti have pulled off this hoax pre-social networking era? Or did FB and twitter enable it to get so far, and then later be its undoing?

Most of this isn't even social network stuff though, at least the SI story in the transcript could have happened 20 years ago EASILY, it's just better facillitated with social networking now

FATHER PAUL DOYLE, RECTOR OF MANTI'S DORM, DILLON HALL

I was surprised to hear about it on the news. No one had called me, and I'm the team chaplain for God's sakes. It was a surprise to me. You don't have to put that in the article. I was at practice two days last week. They typically practice 20 to 24 periods a day. I stay for five and stand there and watch. Last few weeks I have stood on the defensive field.

He acknowledged me. I don't want to be a distraction. He waved to me and he did last week. I had no idea what he was carrying with him at the time.

I had the other chaplain. He didn't know about it either. He said I'm watching the same thing. To lose those two people. I think I had met the girlfriend. I think she had been here visiting the year before. He might have even asked me to pray for a health condition that she had. That sounds vaguely familiar, but I know she was a beautiful person. I had no idea it was life threatening. And then she's gone.

We prayed for them Sunday night by name, as we do anyone that loses a close relative. Of course Manti wasn't there. I'm going to give him a card saying the men of Dillon Hall are praying for Mrs. Santiago and for Lennay.

I mean

how long before he invokes the Inception defense