Deadspin: Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend story was a hoax

I want to believe that Manti Te'o was duped, but that's a pretty hard swallow.

I suppose it's possible that he was at least initially--he fell into an online-only relationship with someone he thought was a real person, and when he found out she wasn't, he wanted to keep it quiet to save face.

 

So Notre Dame found out that he was the "victim" on Dec. 26 and just happened to sit on it for weeks? Dennis Brown might want to start sending out resumes because that statement will haunt him for a long, long time.

 

"Conspired with others" ... such as?

 

Hell of a story to follow.
But this ain't Pulitzer stuff.
It's just another scam story.

 

Shit, if he kept a story this large quiet for 21 days, he'll get a raise, not fired.

 

I don't remember much of the story itself in terms of quotes from Te'o about here, about meeting up with her, any of that. Does anyone have anything that has direct attribution from him discussing her existence or, more specifically, meeting up with her.

 

Manti Te'o replied to a Nigerian lottery email two years ago ... look where it got him.

 

This. It's absolutely astonishing that it would take this long for someone to catch and report this.

 

This...

This is really hard to swallow.

From the article its pretty clear he knew the perpetrator.

My initial thought was/is the two are romantically involved. Why else pull this kind of a stunt? To this extent?

 

I should have added, 'relative to the uproar it's causing.'

This story will circulate farther faster than Branch's Atlantic takedown of college football, or any story that ever ran anywhere about the Marlins and stadium financing.

As a journalist I agree with your second point. Many readers, I'm afraid, do not.

 

Could it be a front to hide the gay?

 

Way out on a limb here ...

Any chance this was put together to hide a male lover?

Deadspin mentions this "hoax" was perpetrated by Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.

Te'o was complicit on some level, he had to be.

I really couldn't care less about his sexual preference, but at a Catholic school, from a Mormon family ...

Edit: NoOneLikesUs beats me to it.