What's the Rationale for Drafting Te'o?

[Southpaw]

What's really sad, and we should keep this in mind, a young person who never existed is dead.

Anyone send flowers?

 

[CardsFan88]

Obviously none of us know whether or not he was scammed or lied about it from the beginning. Of course it's possible he lied only to protect himself from revealing he never met her, or after he found out it was a scam. Still pretty shady though. Perhaps if he didn't hide the 'relationship' he could of found out sooner, if he is a victim of course.

But the point I want to make is, since the authorities are involved, it better not be a hoax or else he'll be facing charges. You don't get police involved in a hoax. We could be hearing more about this sometime in the future. If it is a hoax, and he's playing it like how he is, he better pray they don't find out before the draft.

Truly weird.

 

[clif]

Am I the only football fan who had no clue about the original story? I refuse to watch pregame shows and talking head shows for this very reason. I hate these feel good stories. For one, everyone goes through stuff so overcoming tragedy is not uncommon and I hate that we need these love stories attached to football. Two, who really knows if half this crap is fake? I really despise these people force feeding us these stories of triumph.

So part of me really couldn't care less if the girl is fake or not. I think the bigger issue is how a major news networks and millions of people can fall for these stories over and over again.

 

[Dayman]

This wasn't a case of being duped on the internet. If it was, how do you explain this?

"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.

 

[Buckybird]

Sounds like the movie "Catfish" if it indeed was a hoax.

 

[GatorAZ]

@JAADANDE
So those weren't missed tackles against Alabama, he was hugging his girlfriend.

 

[CtCardinals78]

I bet he misses her fake boobs most of all...

 

[TwoCardsOneCup]

Dear Manti Te'o,
Thanks for being a buddy and taking some of the spotlight off of my big TV appearance tomorrow.

Your Favorite Fan,
Lance Armstrong

 

[ajcardfan]

Obviously none of us know whether or not he was scammed or lied about it from the beginning. Of course it's possible he lied only to protect himself from revealing he never met her, or after he found out it was a scam. Still pretty shady though. Perhaps if he didn't hide the 'relationship' he could of found out sooner, if he is a victim of course.

But the point I want to make is, since the authorities are involved, it better not be a hoax or else he'll be facing charges. You don't get police involved in a hoax. We could be hearing more about this sometime in the future. If it is a hoax, and he's playing it like how he is, he better pray they don't find out before the draft.

Truly weird.

Read the story on Deadspin. They have him COLD. He was in on it big time, as was his family.

 

[Timm Rosenbach]

Like Robert De Niro said in Casino.. "He's either incompetent, or he is in on it"

 

[crisper57]

Read the story on Deadspin. They have him COLD. He was in on it big time, as was his family.

He knew the scammer. Not unusual in these types of Internet scams. Probably told his folks he was meeting up with her to address their concerns. They probably only relayed what they were told.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Te'o got Catfished.

 

[kerouac9]

Te'o tackled like an imaginary girlfriend against 'Bama.

 

[GuernseyCard]

Hoaxee or hoaxer...

That is the question.

 

[Darkside]

Just read about the dead girlfriend hoax. That is CRAZY!!

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[crisper57]

You Guys Are Practically Family, So...

I am going to share my family member's story, in detail. See how many of these details line up with T'eo's story:

Brian was an ex-college athlete with two degrees from Stanford, so he was no dummy. He was popular, friendly, and well-liked. He'd never shown any signs of mental illness.

Brian met "Krista" on MySpace. After a few pokes and flirts, they started chatting. Each night, the chats got longer. Eventually, they started talking on the phone. He was living with me at the time, so I saw that he literally stayed on the phone with her for hours a day. Within a month, he was sharing his secrets with her. Within 2, he considered her his girlfriend.

Krista as an ex-millionaire model living in Houston. She sent him lots of pictures, and even though she didn't always look like herself, he thought she was the prettiest girl on the planet.

Krista had a daughter, and the kid's father was abusive. Even so, he was tying her up in custody hearings so that her accounts were frozen. She asked Brian for help. He started paying her cell phone bill. She also introduced him to Amy, her best friend. Brian was to send the money directly to Amy because the ex would get his hands on it if it went to Krista directly. I found his bank receipts, confronted him on it. He pushed me away.

He continually tried to fly out to see her, but there was always some emergency that cancelled their meetings. One day he even got a call in the Sky Harbor terminal, telling him not to fly out. Still, he was so invested by now that he let it slide.

During that time, Krista's stories got wilder. "You had cancer? Me too!" "My ex came over and beat me." "I'm going to buy us a mansion on a lake to live in together." You get the idea. All the while, her good friend Amy was there to confirm that everything Krista said was 100% true. They fed on his desire to "rescue" her from her crappy ex and his need to find his soulmate.

Krista continued to consume more of his time. She drove a wedge between him and his friends and family until she was all that he had left. Brian would tell me one story about her, but his parents another. They were convinced he was in a normal relationship, based on the stories he told (like they have actually met face-to-face). I am sure they relayed his stories to people asking about him.

Only when we compared stories did we figure out that he was lying. It wasn't malicious. It was a matter of pride. I tried to collect information to prove she was lying. Whenever I did confront Brian, though, he got angry and went into denial.

They hired a private investigator, but the guy slipped up and Amy found out. By now, you may have guessed Krista and Amy were the same person. Brian was furious, basically disowned his family over it.

Things came to a head at my wedding, as I posted earlier. When Brian finally did meet Krista face-to-face, he realize Amy wasn't a millionaire model, but an overweight, unemployed, single mom. Of course, that was after he had already bought the engagement ring for her, and a gun for protection from the ex.

You can imagine the embarrassment and the shame he felt. The depression that followed was unbearable. Thankfully, his family rallied around him. When people asked about Krista, we tried to spare him the shame by skirting the issue.

After living through this ordeal for over a year-and-a-half, I am ready to give T'eo the benefit of the doubt. In the end, I think he hoped he could lie about the nature of the relationship to the people around him and the truth would eventually catch up. Realizing he had been scammed was probably every bit as painful as if his girlfriend had really died, only with the extra humiliation on top.

I think he has been ready to let this story die, but the media kept it going. And now they are embarrassed and someone has to pay. Never mind they didn't do any fact-checking. T'eo needs to suffer in their minds. The venom they are spewing is disgusting.

 

[clif]

Man. Thank GOD twitter and other social media sites didn't exist when I was 17-18. I would be a mess.

 

[DeAnna]

This probably won't get much play here in Hawaii. He's a "sort of" national hero.

Not long ago, his family sued the local news paper because they had criticized his bad tackling in the BCS game, lol

 

[ajcardfan]

He knew the scammer. Not unusual in these types of Internet scams. Probably told his folks he was meeting up with her to address their concerns. They probably only relayed what they were told.

No, he said way too much crap himself. (At BEST, he's a liar, even if he was 100% duped.) The Teo tweet about the supposed dead girls' sister opening a new Twitter account, and asking for followers of her, absolutely beggars belief that he knew nothing about the fakeness of it all.

 

[Dback Jon]

This probably won't get much play here in Hawaii. He's a "sort of" national hero.

Not long ago, his family sued the local news paper because they had criticized his bad tackling in the BCS game, lol

Keep us posted on the local reaction.

 

[clif]

I am going to share my family member's story, in detail. See how many of these details line up with T'eo's story:

Brian was an ex-college athlete with two degrees from Stanford, so he was no dummy. He was popular, friendly, and well-liked. He'd never shown any signs of mental illness.

Brian met "Krista" on MySpace. After a few pokes and flirts, they started chatting. Each night, the chats got longer. Eventually, they started talking on the phone. He was living with me at the time, so I saw that he literally stayed on the phone with her for hours a day. Within a month, he was sharing his secrets with her. Within 2, he considered her his girlfriend.

Krista as an ex-millionaire model living in Houston. She sent him lots of pictures, and even though she didn't always look like herself, he thought she was the prettiest girl on the planet.

Krista had a daughter, and the kid's father was abusive. Even so, he was tying her up in custody hearings so that her accounts were frozen. She asked Brian for help. He started paying her cell phone bill. She also introduced him to Amy, her best friend. Brian was to send the money directly to Amy because the ex would get his hands on it if it went to Krista directly. I found his bank receipts, confronted him on it. He pushed me away.

He continually tried to fly out to see her, but there was always some emergency that cancelled their meetings. One day he even got a call in the Sky Harbor terminal, telling him not to fly out. Still, he was so invested by now that he let it slide.

During that time, Krista's stories got wilder. "You had cancer? Me too!" "My ex came over and beat me." "I'm going to buy us a mansion on a lake to live in together." You get the idea. All the while, her good friend Amy was there to confirm that everything Krista said was 100% true. They fed on his desire to "rescue" her from her crappy ex and his need to find his soulmate.

Krista continued to consume more of his time. She drove a wedge between him and his friends and family until she was all that he had left. Brian would tell me one story about her, but his parents another. They were convinced he was in a normal relationship, based on the stories he told (like they have actually met face-to-face). I am sure they relayed his stories to people asking about him.

Only when we compared stories did we figure out that he was lying. It wasn't malicious. It was a matter of pride. I tried to collect information to prove she was lying. Whenever I did confront Brian, though, he got angry and went into denial.

They hired a private investigator, but the guy slipped up and Amy found out. By now, you may have guessed Krista and Amy were the same person. Brian was furious, basically disowned his family over it.

Things came to a head at my wedding, as I posted earlier. When Brian finally did meet Krista face-to-face, he realize Amy wasn't a millionaire model, but an overweight, unemployed, single mom. Of course, that was after he had already bought the engagement ring for her, and a gun for protection from the ex.

You can imagine the embarrassment and the shame he felt. The depression that followed was unbearable. Thankfully, his family rallied around him. When people asked about Krista, we tried to spare him the shame by skirting the issue.

After living through this ordeal for over a year-and-a-half, I am ready to give T'eo the benefit of the doubt. In the end, I think he hoped he could lie about the nature of the relationship to the people around him and the truth would eventually catch up. Realizing he had been scammed was probably every bit as painful as if his girlfriend had really died, only with the extra humiliation on top.

I think he has been ready to let this story die, but the media kept it going. And now they are embarrassed and someone has to pay. Never mind they didn't do any fact-checking. T'eo needs to suffer in their minds. The venom they are spewing is disgusting.

I swear I don't want to sound insensitive, but how the hell did he go so long before seeing her face to face? That is what gets me. Ok everyone wants to feel wanted and may get emotionally attached to people and or things, but I don't understand why someone or how someone could be is so much denial about someone they had never personally laid eyes on.

I get the emotional attachment, but to the point of denying your family over it without tangible evidence?

 

[crisper57]

I swear I don't want to sound insensitive, but how the hell did he go so long before seeing her face to face? That is what gets me. Ok everyone wants to feel wanted and may get emotionally attached to people and or things, but I don't understand why someone or how someone could be is so much denial about someone they had never personally laid eyes on.

I get the emotional attachment, but to the point of denying your family over it without tangible evidence?

I asked that every day. Tried to force the issue every day. When my wedding came up and he wanted to bring her, I said he could only do that if he had met her and I had met her first. That made him angry.

He wanted it to be real so bad, that nothing else mattered. Honestly, by the end, I thought he was brainwashed. Certainly sleep-deprived. She kept him on the phone probably 20 hours a day.

Maybe he did know, somewhere in the back of his mind, but he wasn't ready to stop living the fantasy.

In the end, I don't think I will ever understand how he could look past all the evidence that he was being scammed. Was it pride? Or shame? Or an undiagnosed mental illness? I have no idea. But I saw it happen once, so it doesn't shock me that it can happen again.

 

[DeAnna]

Of course, he claims he was the victim of a hoax

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/..._dead_girlfriend_was_a_hoax.html?id=187197641

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Of course, he claims he was the victim of a hoax

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/..._dead_girlfriend_was_a_hoax.html?id=187197641

It most certainly can happen. My wife watches that show 'Catfish' on MTV and there was just an episode where a dude was duped for 14months by one of his best female friends pretending to be someone else via facebook.

Its just a sign of the times we live in and it is believeable to me.

But, hey, if this means Cards can get Te'o in the 3rd round now...

 

[CtCardinals78]

This probably won't get much play here in Hawaii. He's a "sort of" national hero.

Not long ago, his family sued the local news paper because they had criticized his bad tackling in the BCS game, lol

Holy crap, you live in Hawaii? You are LUCKY!