Lennay Kekua, A Hoax!

[Irish Jacky]

My Take on l'affaire Manti

My Take on l'affaire Manti

This whole episode smells rotten. The off-camera interview has not reduced my suspicion a bit.

Te'o has admitted lying about the "girlfriend": he may or may not have perpetrated the hoax but he definitely perpetuated it.

I was always uncomfortable with this cloyingly over-sentimental public grief. Isn't true grief a private affair? Shouldn't anyone be suspicious of anybody who airs their grief in this unseemly public way, particularly when they stand to benefit from it? Why was this made so very public in the first place? Whose idea was that? Was it just an off-hand remark in front of a journalist that somehow blew up, or was it a planned campaign from the start? I think ND has a lot to answer for in this business. This maudlin wallowing was always cheap and tawdry. While I'm not certain Te'o is lying about being a victim-----and I'm not at all convinced at this point that he's simply an innocent idiot------I have never been on the virtual canonization trip that the ND sports PR dept. put on all year. Schools put on Heisman campaigns, sure, but this one was waaaay over the top.

Even if this involved no hoax at all, Te'o's grief should never have been exploited in this way. ND needs to reflect and learn from this situation. It never should have been more than a one-time mention at the time of the alleged grief-producing event(s). When have you ever experienced such sturm und drang over the death of an adult's grandmother? Sheesh!

Te'o comes out of this either a knave or a fool, and perhaps both. ND is not completely innocent in this, either.

It is truly frightening to view some of the ND football chatrooms and see the idiotic fanatic/paranoid/condescending posts put up there by supposed ND alumni. It's actually scary.

 

[IrishSteelhead]

Re:Jacky

I think what's even scarier is you went 32 posts before outing yourself.

*In other news, ESPN feed and top stories have nothing Teo related right now. The storm is passing hopefully.

 

[Irishnuke]

Irish Jackoff, shut up.

 

[IrishLax]

Since the Hoax thread turned into a Kate Upton thread, I'll put my response to a USC fan regarding Te'o here. I write this on ISD, and a mutual member suggested I write it here as we'll. how are you guys responding to people (besides ignoring...which is pretty much what I've been doing until I had it with this clown)?

I wish I could rep this more than once.

The thing that keeps cracking me up is the "it's so implausible that Manti is that stupid" logic... while they say:

It's totally plausible that he started concocting this in 2008/2009 with a guy he didn't know... a personality, mind you, that was used to scam other people before Manti. Then he spent an immeasurable amount of energy/time to building up the relationship... for a publicity bump? after barely beating a really bad Purdue team? and looking like ND was en route to an butt whipping @MSU and a 7 win season?

In that scenario, what is the end game if Manti goes pro after his junior year as people expected? There is none. What is the end game if ND has the 7-5 year people are expecting and loses to Michigan State? There is none.

The most obvious angle is that this is a guy who liked to pull this kind of prank... or maybe he saw another end goal... like embarrassing the star player of his rival? getting Manti to commit a violation? fleecing him down for hush money later?... and then it got out of control once the national media sank their teeth in it. If you can't see that, then you're frankly an idiot.

 

[nsideirish]

Re:Jacky

I think what's even scarier is you went 32 posts before outing yourself.

*In other news, ESPN feed and top stories have nothing Teo related right now. The storm is passing hopefully.

Because he has a different opinion than everyone on here?

 

[IrishSteelhead]

Because he has a different opinion than everyone on here?

We just went through this last night with Canadian. Opinions are fine, no matter the stance, but when you show up all huff puff condemning certain people without any facts to back it up, you are nothing more than a reactionary blowhard.

 

[Irish Insanity]

This is a forum. Opinions should be a good thing, even if we don't all agree. Everyone is gonna interpret and believe different things they've read and the interview differently.

Jacky, I don't agree with your comments. Not many on here do. I just don't see evidence supporting it.

 

[Booslum31]

I wish I could rep this more than once.

The thing that keeps cracking me up is the "it's so implausible that Manti is that stupid" logic... while they say:

It's totally plausible that he started concocting this in 2008/2009 with a guy he didn't know... a personality, mind you, that was used to scam other people before Manti. Then he spent an immeasurable amount of energy/time to building up the relationship... for a publicity bump? after barely beating a really bad Purdue team? and looking like ND was en route to an butt whipping @MSU and a 7 win season?

In that scenario, what is the end game if Manti goes pro after his junior year as people expected? There is none. What is the end game if ND has the 7-5 year people are expecting and loses to Michigan State? There is none.

The most obvious angle is that this is a guy who liked to pull this kind of prank... or maybe he saw another end goal... like embarrassing the star player of his rival? getting Manti to commit a violation? fleecing him down for hush money later?... and then it got out of control once the national media sank their teeth in it. If you can't see that, then you're frankly an idiot.

Well said...i like this!

 

[overeazy]

"The spokesman hired by Te’o's family, Matthew Hiltzik, is also the longtime spokesman for Couric." Did this spokesman learn anything from the Jeremy Schaap interview?

Jeremy Schaap gets opportunity to do what could be the interview of the year. He prepares his questions and approaches it by keeping the time line in order from start to finish. He tries to go into the interview with no preconceived opinion and wants to let the facts speak for themselves. He comes out of the interview and tries to give an honest opinion of what he thought. Nobody told him that he better come out of the interview ready to say that Teo was a liar and dishonest and the worse person he ever met. Or at least they should have told him if he didn't then the character assassination against him would begin. I wonder if Jeremy thinks that opportunity was so great now?

 

[GreenSox04]

Now ive enjoyed and got a good laugh out of some of the jokes that have surfaced in all this... Ie the stuff over at tiger droppings is gold...so dont claim im butthurt..but this is a. not funny b. wrong coming from a professional franchise that has no right to take a jab at this kid ..And people wonder why this kid was hesitant to tell everyone what happened to him....

I'd post the pic right to the forum but I'm on my phone and don't know how to

Twitter / wheelingprobs: Well played @DallasStars, well ...

The Dallas stars though ?

Doesn't everyone realize that this is exactly what teo was probally avoiding and why he was so reluctant to speak?

What a joke.

 

[ARALOU]

Stating an opinion and condemning someone else's are two different things. I hope I haven't called someone an idiot because of their opinion on Manti. Mine has changed over the course of the last few days.


Opinions are like ***holes. Thats what you are if you don't agree with mine. LOL

When I want your opinion, I will give it to you.

To me the evidence suggests Manti was duped. I hope they release phone records. To me that would be another smoking gun. Plus interview the people that have similar stories about this Tuiasosopo dude.

 

[Rhode Irish]

This whole episode smells rotten. The off-camera interview has not reduced my suspicion a bit.

Te'o has admitted lying about the "girlfriend": he may or may not have perpetrated the hoax but he definitely perpetuated it.

I was always uncomfortable with this cloyingly over-sentimental public grief. Isn't true grief a private affair? Shouldn't anyone be suspicious of anybody who airs their grief in this unseemly public way, particularly when they stand to benefit from it? Why was this made so very public in the first place? Whose idea was that? Was it just an off-hand remark in front of a journalist that somehow blew up, or was it a planned campaign from the start? I think ND has a lot to answer for in this business. This maudlin wallowing was always cheap and tawdry. While I'm not certain Te'o is lying about being a victim-----and I'm not at all convinced at this point that he's simply an innocent idiot------I have never been on the virtual canonization trip that the ND sports PR dept. put on all year. Schools put on Heisman campaigns, sure, but this one was waaaay over the top.

Even if this involved no hoax at all, Te'o's grief should never have been exploited in this way. ND needs to reflect and learn from this situation. It never should have been more than a one-time mention at the time of the alleged grief-producing event(s). When have you ever experienced such sturm und drang over the death of an adult's grandmother? Sheesh!

Te'o comes out of this either a knave or a fool, and perhaps both. ND is not completely innocent in this, either.

It is truly frightening to view some of the ND football chatrooms and see the idiotic fanatic/paranoid/condescending posts put up there by supposed ND alumni. It's actually scary.

I don't totally disagree with everything you said, at least the part pertaining to public grief. My view on that is actually pretty close to yours. A lot of the rest of your post was overstated and trollish, at least in my opinion. But I'll engage you at least on the public grief issue.

My way of handling things is to bottle them up and not talk about things. That is the Irish in me, I guess. I just have a thing for stoicism and a revulsion for pity. But two important points on that as it pertains to Manti: one, everyone isn't wired the same. A big part of what is happening to Manti right now is because people are failing to recognize that basic truism of human existence. They think if they can't imagine it happening to them, they think if it happens to someone else the person is either dumb or complicit. Two, we're talking about a college kid. I am sure as hell glad I don't have to answer for crap that I pulled when I was Manti's age, and I can only imagine that if I was famous and knew I was about to be really, really rich how much more I would have indulged my selfish tendencies.

 

[palinurus]

This whole episode smells rotten. The off-camera interview has not reduced my suspicion a bit.

Te'o has admitted lying about the "girlfriend": he may or may not have perpetrated the hoax but he definitely perpetuated it.

I was always uncomfortable with this cloyingly over-sentimental public grief. Isn't true grief a private affair? Shouldn't anyone be suspicious of anybody who airs their grief in this unseemly public way, particularly when they stand to benefit from it? Why was this made so very public in the first place? Whose idea was that? Was it just an off-hand remark in front of a journalist that somehow blew up, or was it a planned campaign from the start? I think ND has a lot to answer for in this business. This maudlin wallowing was always cheap and tawdry. While I'm not certain Te'o is lying about being a victim-----and I'm not at all convinced at this point that he's simply an innocent idiot------I have never been on the virtual canonization trip that the ND sports PR dept. put on all year. Schools put on Heisman campaigns, sure, but this one was waaaay over the top.

Even if this involved no hoax at all, Te'o's grief should never have been exploited in this way. ND needs to reflect and learn from this situation. It never should have been more than a one-time mention at the time of the alleged grief-producing event(s). When have you ever experienced such sturm und drang over the death of an adult's grandmother? Sheesh!

Te'o comes out of this either a knave or a fool, and perhaps both. ND is not completely innocent in this, either.

It is truly frightening to view some of the ND football chatrooms and see the idiotic fanatic/paranoid/condescending posts put up there by supposed ND alumni. It's actually scary.

Your statement that Te'o "lied" is really an imprecise and misleading statement. It makes it sound worse than it was. He apparently lied to his parents about whether he met the girl, and he misled people after he learned he had been scammed. That's a lot different than a blanket "he lied" accusation and doesn't really provide much insight into Te'o's culpability.

Second, the bolded statements just have no basis. If anything, ND was accused on doing almost nothing to promote Te'o for the Heismann until it was already lost to Manzell. I'd be interested in any links you have from October, say, that show ND "promoting" Te'o for the Heismann.

Third, this idea of ND being "at fault" and "canonizing" Te'o is also baseless from what I've seen. Again, I'd be interested in any links you have that show ND promoting the Te'o dead girlfriend story or otherwise exploiting the incident.

It's not mentioned in the Mich St game press release. Manti Te'o Earns National Recognition - UND.COM - University of Notre Dame Official Athletic Site

The "Te'o Unplugged" article on nd.edu mentions the death in passing, actually, as context to Te'o writing a letter to a dying girl. Manti Te'o: The Notre Dame Linebacker Unplugged - UND.COM - University of Notre Dame Official Athletic Site This came out on Nov 20; there were other similar articles about Eifert, Motta and others. They issued press releases when he was player of the week, just as they did for other players.

I don't see any other reference to this incident. So I would be really interested in how ND exploited this or canonized Manti. I don't disagree that the media ate this up, but that's not on the University.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Now ive enjoyed and got a good laugh out of some of the jokes that have surfaced in all this... Ie the stuff over at tiger droppings is gold...so dont claim im butthurt..but this is a. not funny b. wrong coming from a professional franchise that has no right to take a jab at this kid ..And people wonder why this kid was hesitant to tell everyone what happened to him....

I'd post the pic right to the forum but I'm on my phone and don't know how to

Twitter / wheelingprobs: Well played @DallasStars, well ...

The Dallas stars though ?

Doesn't everyone realize that this is exactly what teo was probally avoiding and why he was so reluctant to speak?

What a joke.

Wow. That's disgraceful.

 

[Irish Insanity]

That guy either has a tight grip or a small dick.

 

[palinurus]

Regarding the Dallas Stars, et al., and the various detractors out there, I'm unfazed. Unless you are 12 years old or not really an Irish fan, you've long ago come to realize that ND is always the target of a lot of mindless hating. Some of it is religion-based, imo, some of it is envy, some of it is, perhaps, a sense of "righteous" outrage that the Irish, at times, get props they don't quite deserve. In any event, it is disproportionate to what is deserved in almost every instance, in my experience.

I do think it is worse coming from business or sports entities, because it is more classless coming from people who should know better. I also must say that I do worry about the effect on recruiting, because a lot of teenagers may well hate the ridicule that will be part of the ND stroy for the next year or so.

But ultimately, I suppose I will be more worried when they stop hating. But it certainly does show the "ND is irrelevant" meme to be a lie. Irrelevancies are unworthy of attention or comment or hating.

 

[NDinL.A.]

This whole episode smells rotten. The off-camera interview has not reduced my suspicion a bit.

Te'o has admitted lying about the "girlfriend": he may or may not have perpetrated the hoax but he definitely perpetuated it.

I was always uncomfortable with this cloyingly over-sentimental public grief. Isn't true grief a private affair? Shouldn't anyone be suspicious of anybody who airs their grief in this unseemly public way, particularly when they stand to benefit from it? Why was this made so very public in the first place? Whose idea was that? Was it just an off-hand remark in front of a journalist that somehow blew up, or was it a planned campaign from the start? I think ND has a lot to answer for in this business. This maudlin wallowing was always cheap and tawdry. While I'm not certain Te'o is lying about being a victim-----and I'm not at all convinced at this point that he's simply an innocent idiot------I have never been on the virtual canonization trip that the ND sports PR dept. put on all year. Schools put on Heisman campaigns, sure, but this one was waaaay over the top.

Even if this involved no hoax at all, Te'o's grief should never have been exploited in this way. ND needs to reflect and learn from this situation. It never should have been more than a one-time mention at the time of the alleged grief-producing event(s). When have you ever experienced such sturm und drang over the death of an adult's grandmother? Sheesh!

Te'o comes out of this either a knave or a fool, and perhaps both. ND is not completely innocent in this, either.

It is truly frightening to view some of the ND football chatrooms and see the idiotic fanatic/paranoid/condescending posts put up there by supposed ND alumni. It's actually scary.

Sorry, but I gotta call b.s. on this. For the main reason that I'm not sure you quite understand the world we live in. The world found out because of social media, and that's the world we live in. Once it got out, there was no stopping the world from knowing. The students found out, WE found out, ESPN found out, and from there it was over. The leis, the outpouring of affection...that was on US.

Sometimes public figures are forced to share their grief with the world. And then other times you have public figures that wear their hearts on their sleeves. And then you have public figures who who WANT to share their stories with others, who want to affect others' lives, who want to change lives. That's Manti. Did he shy away from the coverage? Nope. His mission was to change people's lives for the better, and to spread the word of his Lord. How many times did he put his faith out there in those interviews??? How many times did he thank his Lord? Isn't that his mission? Isn't that why he came to a Catholic school in South Bend over the one in L.A.?

You seem to forget that Manti is the victim here. Why are you putting him on blast and not the perpetrators? Why aren't you asking for the heads of who did this to Manti (seriously, if you can't see that he was catfished by this time, there's no hope).

Last thing...Manti never lied about having a girlfriend as you insinuate. He admits that he made it seem that he met her out of embarrassment (I already went through in my earlier post). He only lied to his dad (let me guess...you're gonna grill him for doing what almost every single person around the world has done too?), and he admits that was a major mistake.

Sorry, but you got your USC blinders on here. Manti messed up, no doubt, but the level of your conspiracy theory, WHILE IGNORING ALL FACTS THAT POINT TO HIS INNOCENCE, doesn't smack of being a troll, it smacks of plain ignorance. Stop reading all the anti-ND stuff, and try reading articles on the other side as well. It'll open your eyes, trust me...

 

[ARALOU]

Well, ESPN.com is now reporting that ND had nobody investigate anything regarding the hoax. They are quoting the South Bend paper I believe.

 

[palinurus]

Well, ESPN.com is now reporting that ND had nobody investigate anything regarding the hoax. They are quoting the South Bend paper I believe.

Do you mean they are saying that Swarbrick lied last week when he said ND hired an outside investigator to look at this? I don't believe it. Aside from believing Swarbrick generally, it is too easy of a lie to get caught in, with too much at stake.

 

[ARALOU]

Do you mean they are saying that Swarbrick lied last week when he said ND hired an outside investigator to look at this? I don't believe it. Aside from believing Swarbrick generally, it is too easy of a lie to get caught in, with too much at stake.

I need to recant. It's NBC sports website. And yes that is exactly what they are saying. The firm did no investigation.

 

[Grahambo]

Well, ESPN.com is now reporting that ND had nobody investigate anything regarding the hoax. They are quoting the South Bend paper I believe.

Since you amended, so shall I, this story has been dying a slow death and really wish it would just end because why does this matter anymore?! (Rhetorical question)

 

[Irish Insanity]

Did we ever specifically mention we investigated the hoax or just investigated. To me with the timeline that Manti said he didn't believe that she was never real until earlier the day the story broke, I was under the impression the investigation was more along the lines of if she had died or ran from people as the stories were. Not that she was or wasn't real.

 

[Kak7304]

I need to recant. It's NBC sports website. And yes that is exactly what they are saying. The firm did no investigation.

That's not what they're saying. They did an investigation (not a very thorough one though) but did not conduct any interviews.

 

[ARALOU]

I have been trying to link it here but have been unsuccessful. Its on the NBC sports front page though.

 

[ARALOU]

The way I read it the firm checked nothing.

 

[Rocky2820]

SIAP: Manti Te'o, parents to appear on Katie Couric's talk show - ESPN

 

[Kak7304]

The way I read it the firm checked nothing.

Private firm investigated Te'o hoax without talking to Te'o

But as detailed by the Tribune, which spoke with two Notre Dame officials, the firm was asked only to focus on how the hoax might threaten the school or its reputation, not to investigate into the scheme on Te'o's behalf.

"We asked them to focus on any threats to the university or its reputation, by providing more information about the so-called Kekua family that might help us understand motives, or whether they might have had any contact with others at Notre Dame," university spokesman Dennis Brown told the Tribune.

The two-day investigation began with a fruitless search for Kekua in its online databases. What the search firm did discover is that the home address in Carson, Calif., the person pretending to be Kekua had given Te'o matched the address for Tuiasosopo.

On Jan. 4, the firm discovered "public Twitter posts between individuals making joking reference to Te'o's relationship with 'Lennay,' and alluding to it being a 'catfish' scheme," the South Bend Tribune reported. According to the firm, these two pieces of evidence indicated to Notre Dame that "Te'o had been victimized."

 

[ARALOU]

Hmm, that's a different article. The NBC article fails to mention the twitter stuff and addresses. It says they looked at J. Swarbrick's notes.

 

[irishfanjho15]

I need to recant. It's NBC sports website. And yes that is exactly what they are saying. The firm did no investigation.

Notre Dame’s Te’o “investigation” was lacking in many respects | ProFootballTalk

 

[palinurus]

Offhand, this doesn't trouble me. ND's interest in investigating was ND, not Manti. Not to be mean or selfish, but there would be a conflict of interest for ND to hire an investigator and say "Check this out for Manti and us." The investigator normally is representing one set of interests, and at some point, Manti's and the University's interests diverge. Swarbrick said as much during his presser.