ESPN to Air Off Camera Audio Interview with Te'o on Sportscenter Following OKC vs. DAL.

Submitted by Michael Scarn on

Per the bottom line on ESPN, I'm sure there are links everywhere.  Seems like a strange way to decide to tell his story. Maybe someone advising him went with the whole "wait til Friday to give bad news" theory and doubled down by moving it to midnight in hopes to downplay it even further. 

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B-Nut-GoBlue

January 18th, 2013 at 11:29 PM ^

Yep, wait till Friday and in doing so wait till midnight.  Plus with MLK Day Monday, it'll help in some ways to extend the weekend.

Copyright this, I'm calling this awesome male soap opera Dames of Our Lives...except ya'know, the lack of an actual dame.

Joined: 09/30/2011

MGoPoints: 43697

FGB

January 19th, 2013 at 12:30 AM ^

Doesn't really play here.  The default assumption (if he never says another word) is that he's done something wrong in this whole thing.  So if he's coming on air to say that he did nothing wrong....you gain nothing by doing that late on Friday. 

If no one notices the interview, then the default is to go back to assuming he did something wrong.

Joined: 09/24/2009

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B-Nut-GoBlue

January 19th, 2013 at 1:04 AM ^

True, good point.  And from what I'm reading/hearing thus far (haven't heard the interview yet) it was all pointless as hell anyway so again, what purpose was had by doing this at this juncture (Friday at midnight).  ESPN is definitely getting their views/clicks/etc. by saying they were the first to interview him...which I suppose really was the purpose of this.  Except that I have a feeling what he said probably makes more questions arise and answers nothing.

Joined: 09/30/2011

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TwistedBlues

January 18th, 2013 at 11:33 PM ^

This agent is a PR nightmare. Is he going to hold him out of the public combine interviews? Approach head on or you're hiding something, which is probably pretty obvious at this point anyway.

Joined: 01/22/2011

MGoPoints: 74

lhglrkwg

January 19th, 2013 at 12:29 AM ^

and was hoping that it would just blow over if he played it cool. I wouldn't be surprised if he admitted to lying about it because he hoped it would all go away instead of having to somehow admit to everyone that he had a fake online girlfriend

Frankly, I bet I'd do the same thing. Just hope it blows over and no one has to know.

Joined: 07/03/2008

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ghost

January 18th, 2013 at 11:54 PM ^

To refuse to go on camera makes him look all the more guilty (and at this point its really hard to do that).  Taking a lawyer with him makes it even worse.

Joined: 09/02/2011

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SMJenkins3

January 19th, 2013 at 12:00 AM ^

Why does he not do an on camera interview? 

Is it just that he hates being on camera (seem to not be the case since he did the college game day interviews)? 

Is it because this is a real personal issue and it would be difficult to go on camera and admit that you were fool for 4 years- basically admitting that you are either a huge idiot or extremely gullible. (This is the only logical guess I can come up with)

Anything you guys can think of?

Joined: 11/03/2011

MGoPoints: 554

SMJenkins3

January 18th, 2013 at 11:45 PM ^

So all the bottom line is saying (and all the tweets I've seen) is that he denies that he "created the hoax" and he couldn't be part of something like that.  That at least is not an outright statement he didn't learn it at somep point and go along with it.  Will be interesting to see what his entire interview says.

Joined: 11/03/2011

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I Wrote a 4 Wo…

January 18th, 2013 at 11:52 PM ^

Regardless of what he says, the fact that he waited this long just makes me think he just wanted more time to think of a story/scenario where he comes off as the victim.

I hope Schaap asks him why, if he found out it was a hoax on December 6, he continued talking about her like she was real.

Joined: 08/25/2009

MGoPoints: 1845

mGrowOld

January 19th, 2013 at 12:13 AM ^

You're close Purple.  My first and last question would be:

"If you learned that your girlfriend was fake on December 6th as your Athletic Director claims, why did you reference her and her "death" on camera two weeks later when you knew by that time she didnt actually exist?"

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 212947

ghost

January 19th, 2013 at 12:17 AM ^

Profootballtalk, which has basically a partnership with NBC, said "it would have been better if Te'o said nothing. In reality that's what he has done."  Even they aren't buying Te'o.ESPN can spin all they want.  To many holes in his story and most of the public has already formed their opinion which won't change barring ground breaking evidence, which if it hasn't come by now almost definitely isn't.

The fact Te'o has a lawyer there indicates he thinks he could possibly be in more trouble than he already is.

Joined: 09/02/2011

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