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

jeremy schapp is impossible to understand 

bunch of non-sense

what kind of tv reporter does not film his interview?

It is to journalism what pig vomit is to fine dining.

His manner was ... off. Either he was fighting off stomach flu and was trying to hold it together before he defecated something explosive, or DomeFan texted him to tell him that his daughter was tied up in the trunk of his car.

This is the weirdest goddamn story ever. (The only way it makes even a miniscule amount of sense, of course, is that Te'o was in on it. But that's pretty weird too, I'd reckon.)

Lance Armstrong, that little girl from the NFL commercial that asks Ray Lewis what his favorite color is, my online girlfriend. These are just three people I would have rather seen interview Teo

Whoa. I was curious what the reaction on this board would be.  You guys are sick

By reading the comments on here, I think it's clear that Notre Dame fans aren't the only

ones who are hearing what they want to believe. 

and we've just been Sidd Finched

We're expected to believe he communicated with this girl on facebook and twitter and is somehow oblivious to the phenomenon that is video chat? Skype, facetime, facebook video... and yet he used none of them?

ESPN makes this Tuiasosopo kid sound like quite the manipulator. I'm surprised he doesn't want to tell his side, clear his name or fess up to the public. Frankly, the media needs to stop reporting on this bizarre story. At this point it's too hard to determine who's telling the truth, lying, or possibly being paid to say certain things. Plus, this is all probably too much public humiliation for Manti, Ronaiah, and "Lennay" to handle over some foolishness. I hope someone is keeping an eye on Tuiasosopo, and everyone involved in this strange mess (including Manti) seeks mental help.  

I am so confused at this point. The longer this goes on, the worse everyone involved continues to look. How can he continue to change his story and the media is just OK with it? How can anyone believe Teo at this point?

Hoax regardless, you're Manti Teo - you have ND coeds flinging themselves at you every night on campus, many of which may actually have class and would welcome your gentlemanly courtship, but you turn to a chat buddy you've never mat as your official squeeze? 

The spider sense tingling says there's a question about this kid's sexual orientation.  He's probably gay, and in college football, where the boys bang each other up about who they're dating and what they're doing, Teo probably felt the pressure to come up with some long distance girl in his life to stave off questions from his teammates as to why he was never chasing girls with the rest of them. 

There is nothing wrong with being gay.  I have many gay friends actually.  But the fact remains that, while strides are being made with each passing generation in terms of greater tolerance, in this day and age being openly gay in college or pro football remains taboo and a major no-no toward your place as a cohesive member of the team.

End of day, Teo's sexual orientation and the pressure he was under is his business, but the fact that he went along with this chat buddy girlfriend story to his team, friends, coaches and the media, invited all of us in unfortunately, to behold a sad, confused young man.

I will bet Teo comes out of the closet within 20 years.  Again, nothing wrong with being gay, but in the macho world of college football, this kid was in a tough bind and clowned himself in an effort to stay in the closet.  There is no other rational explanation unless he's just really, autisticly bad with girls.

So sketch.  Not only did he do this off camera and with his lawyer there, but Schapp said he looked very comfortable...  Look at the photographs.  They say otherwise...  He's hunched over playing with water bottles in one pic (a very defensive and uncomfortable, fidgety posture) and covering his mouth with his hand in another pic (often a pretty obvious tell that someone is lying).

So yeah, the interview was off-camera, but we're totally supposed to take Schapp's word for it that Te'o looked comfortable and relaxed, when what little visual information (the photographs) that we do have say the exact opposite.

Unbelievable.

Furthermore, what he said tonight contradicts things that were said in the ND press conference on Wed.

Wed: Swarbrick says Te'o came to him saying he got hoaxed on Dec. 26.

Today: Te'o says he wasn't convinced he was hoaxed until 2 days ago.

Further, in the interview today Te'o admitted to lying to his dad about meeting Kekua.

So at this point, we do know for sure that Te'o is a flat out liar.  Even in the muddy waters of this story, that much is clear at this point.  Whether he was in on the hoax: who knows and I don't think so.  (Although where is the receipt for the whtie roses and the phone records?  He could easily show these to corroborate his side of the story and hasn't.)  But at this point what we can say for sure is the guy is a liar and has no credibility.

I think the most pathetic thing about this whole thing is how many people care about this. Someone may or may not have lied about something that doesn't affect the vast majority of people in any way? TO THE INTERNET!!!!

I'm sure glad Millen isn't our GM! He'd snag this guy in a heartbeat.

The Yahoo! Sports write-up is here (LINK)

I rather agree with them when they say:

"It’s unfortunate that Te’o declined to do the interview on camera and that we’re hearing Te’o’s side of the story secondhand. It makes it feel disingenuous and will only fuel conspiracy theories as to how much Te’o really knew and when."

Others here have touched on this, but an off-camera interview in the small hours, airing after an NBA game just does not seem like the sort of thing you would do if you were truly interested in quelling the interest in this story or indeed reassembling his now extremely shattered  image. 

Supposedly, ESPN will provide the audio later on their site for those who  didn't catch it after the game - I haven't been able to find it, or I would post it, although a summary of the interview is up and posted here.

T. J. Yeldon and Eddie Lacy say they've never met Te'o and doubt he exists.

PLEASE; MAKE IT STOP!

Until a couple of days ago, I thought "Catfish" was just a fish that everyone in Louisiana loves to eat or a nickname they’d given to a now-deceased Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher. Now, I’m trapped in an intimate online relationship with a beautiful Nigerian princess who claims to be the real Lennay Kekua and who has promised to send me her fortune for safekeeping if I send her photocopies of my all credit cards and blank checks from every one of my bank accounts and the passwords to my investment accounts. And I keep hearing this song play wherever I go. 

ND (B Kelly) and Teo had to be in on this from the beginning. Why else hold a rushed Presser right after you found out about the Deadspjn article? Now, ND will distance themselves as much as they can.

I hate that there are people in this world stupid enough to buy this bullshit.

When asked why he never visited his dying girlfriend he replied "it never crossed my mind." Say what? That doesn't sound like the type of guy that would fall asleep with his girlfriend over the phone every night.

Deny, delay and obfuscate - same tactics used by tainted politicians.

Everything occurring in the last 72 hours is directly COUNTER to the best practices in PR to maintain a reputation. Cover-ups are never forgotten.

He clearly perpetrated or continued the hoax for publicity reasons

As others have pointed out, this is just ESPN trying to save face.

Te'o is opting to look like a moron instead of a pathological liar. Possibly getting some cash from Mickey Mouse.

ESPN has every incentive to make Te'o play the fool because otherwise it means they were the ones who were duped. Like Lenin said, man, you look for the person who benefits and uh..... um.....

And make no mistake: no matter how stupid and unreasonable this all sounds, there are plenty who will buy it. ESPN gets their official line and plausible deniability. Te'o gets to extend his publicity stunt.

Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket.

A lot of people, supposedly in the know, are claiming this whole hoax story will not affect his draft status.  All I can say, any GM who doesn't see Teo's stock falling is an idiot.  Talk about a distraction. This "interview" is only fueling further speculation. 

Otoh, the MSM is already complicit in this story, and this whole Teo interview ploy that ESPN was happy to participate in (and likely paid him a pretty penny for) means there is the possibility the sports reporters will just let the story die, and just pretend there's no elephant in the room everytime they interview him. 

Watching this slowly unravel is such a guilty pleasure for me.  I have tremendous faith in two things occuring simulantiously which is why I enjoy the farce as much as I do:

1. The MSM, who have a vested interest in keeping Teo's story at least reasonably plausable to protect their own reputations, will continue to try and protect him

2. The Bloggosphere will have none of it and are working night and day to confirm the truth of what really happened (what did he know and when did he know it so to speak).  You know....the way reporters used to do things back in the day.

I'm hitting refresh for updates here - not on any of the conventional "news" sources cause I know it's only through the alternative sites will real investigative reporting get done.

Did we really expect the company that employed a fake person to really dig deeper?

I realize you guys are rivals and prone to being haters.  But seriously, is it that hard to feel that a stupid kid got duped?  The dupers prayed on the phone with his parents fergodsakes.  So here is the Deadspin idiot:

And the DMs the guy sent to Teo apologizing:

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2013/0119/ncf_t_teolennaytweet_400.jpg