OT: Guy pretends to be All American for Ohio...gets busted
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/man-claimed-years-ohio-…
Giovanni Strassini (at least that's what he has been going by) has pretended to be an All American TE at Ohio as well as a 3rd baseman on the baseball team from 1973-77 at Charlotte-based osu functions. My question, how did these idiots not realize this sooner?
He was finally busted starting about three days ago with a thread started on buckeyeplanet.com. Here's the thread:
http://www.buckeyeplanet.com/forum/buckeye-football/631234-giovanni-str…
That's about as creepy as a hundred middle aged men paying thuosands of dollars to fantasize about being college football players and run around in a jersey and pads pretending to be one for a day.
and I knew immediately there was no OSU All-American TE with that name.
He should have tried it with "Bob Smith."
Well he certainly chose the right fan base to target.
Lou Zehr
This is the best part of that thread. Holy shit, this guy had a lot of time on his hands:
"Another result is to a sporcle quiz about Ohio State All Americans since 1968. Somehow, 62.9% of people doing the quiz got Mr. Strassini, but only 39.4% got Troy, and he had the second highest percentage."
Definitely my favorite part. He gets 63% recognition and no one else - not even guys that won the Heisman - is above 39%.
To be fair, he clearly took the quiz himself multiple times daily and only got himself correct, thereby inflating his numbers and lowering everyone else's precentage. Joke aside, its pretty incredulous to believe <40% of OSU fans couldn't get Troy Smith and Archie Griffin.
His name somehow made it into an IMDB listing for the 1976 Rose Bowl - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1614938/
Not sure what the editorial rules are on IMDB, but someone was trying to make this look like a thing anyway. Now, if he had pretended to be Pete Johnson, who I believe scored Ohio State's only TD in that game....
Discount tats and free car "rentals"
Free drinks and easy nooky.
guy is probably who started pooping in coolers as well.
My plan is working...
That is hilarious. I love that he actually would pose for pictures and sign autographs for years. How much is a Strassini signed jersey going to be worth?
BTW, as much as they claim to hate being called "Ohio," take a look at this ring:
to Manti Teo?
It's just more of the "anything is fine as long as you don't get caught" mentality among their supporters. I was just down in Ohio on Saturday and had the unfortunate experience of going into a roadside bar/restaurant that was run by Buckeye fans. There on the wall among a bunch of other ugly scarlet and grey crap was a big framed picture of Terrelle Pryor. Enough said.
Classic. Even for the rival team I admire a couple of the posters there.
I read through part of that thread. It appears that Strassini himself makes an appearance on page 6, using the name "alwaysthere." Funny to see this guy squirm.
http://www.buckeyeplanet.com/forum/buckeye-football/631234-giovanni-str…
Gotta love the guy named "BIATCHabutuka". Of all the guys that Buckeye could've picked to mock, he picked the one guy who probably handed them the biggest single-handed humilation since Tom Harmon
The rant on page 16 is something to behold.
I'll make fun of these idiot alums before I make fun of the impersonator. People who have no minds of their own deserve to look like idiots.
Agreed. I really want to hear the Charlotte chapter of their alumni association explain how they were duped by this guy in the first place. This is hilarious:
Funnier when taken in the context of some Buckeyes' comments on the thread, "Should've picked a lower-tier program than tOSU, can't expect to get away with lying at a BIG TIME PROGRAM HISTORY tradition."
He tried his best to get his name out there. He apparently edited a ton of Wikipedia articles to put his name is, created a Sporcle quiz (and played it a bunch of times) and even created his own IMDB page:
They tagged this as "art schlichter's idol"
Why would he say he scored a TD in a high profile game like the Rose Bowl when anyone can Google the game?
"the bigger the lie, the more it will be believed".
I love that he claimed to be on the "All-Century Team." The man knows no shame.
How long does anyone here think anyone could get away with a hoax like this at any Michigan function? My guess is that BS detectors would go off immedately, followed by Googling on smartphones, and that he wouldn't even have time to finish that first free drink unless it was a shot.
One quick trip to the NFL website would have debunked this fraud based on his claim as being the 162nd pick of the 1977 Draft.
162 | New Orleans Saints | Tom Schick | Guard | Maryland |
Stupid is as stupid does and Ohio fans continually prove it..
But the thing is, the more specific and easily-disproven something like that is, the more likely it is to lull people into assuming he is legit. I confess, I'd think "well, the dude isn't going to lie about something so easily verified" and wouldn't google it.
I like poking fun of buckeye fans as much as the next guy, but this isn't necesarily evidence of gullibility, to me. I can't blame them for assuming no one would be so ballsy & creepy as to falsely put himself out there like this.
It reminds me of those creeps who pass themselves off as decorated veterans. They get away with it because people don't run to check military records every time a vet stands up at an event to be applauded. They get busted when they are unlucky enough to mention their supposed unit within earshot of an actual vet who served in it.
I mean everyone defrauds people, murders people, steals from you, steals from me, whatever.
They systematically followed up on every single lie. It helps that the perpetrator/new-forum-member-"alwaysthere" appears to be clinically delusional, too. Nice work, buckeyeplanet.