Mitch Albom on Manti Te'O. Isn't this totally wrong?
For me, one of the benefits of the MGoBoard is as a labor-saving device. I don't follow recruting via Twitter, and thanks to all of you guys, I don't have to.
Same thing with Manti Te'O and the Notre Dame PR fiasco. Collectively, I trust you guys to keep up with the entirety of the story even though I don't care to. (For me, the one and only really big story is how deeply the Notre Dame PR machine was involved. I hope that they are shown to have been up to their necks in it.)
I read the original Deadspin story immediately when it broke, because they are emailed to me. I was one of several MGoBoard members who posted the link within those first few minutes and my post was among those taken down by the then-nervous MGoMods. (Actually, mine was not the first; I was guilty of a re-post by a few mintures, but only because I had taken the time to add to my post some of the links contextualizing MGoBlog's fraught relationship with Deadspin, going back to Tommy Craggs' infamously ill-advised ridiculing of us in the first days following the Freep Stretchgate story.)
So now we have our local hero Mitch Albom, weighing in on Te'O, and essentially saying that he technically hurt no one, and now it's only the butt-hurt sports mythmaking establishment that is crying about it.
That's an amazing assertion from the same guy (Albom) who gave us the heartwarming personal story of Mateen Cleaves sitting in the stands in his green sweater for an NCAA Tourney game when he wasn't even there.
But the essential, core paragraph from Albom was even more amazing. Here it is:
Te'o, by nearly all accounts, apparently was duped for at least most of this affair. The fact that he may have learned about the deception days or weeks before publicly admitting it -- or that he lied to his father about once meeting the woman -- is regrettable, but not a crime. I imagine he was embarrassed. Ashamed. He had become almost legendary in a single season. Asking a 21-year-old to immediately and voluntarily undo that is unrealistic, even if it would have been more ethical.
The emphasis in that block-quote is mine.
I had thought, that by nearly all accounts, including inescapable logic, Te'O could not possibly be "duped" for any considerable length of time, and that all reasonable conclusions are that Te'O played along with the active misleading of the media on the nature of the entire story at the beginning, middle and/or end of the story. And that indeed, Te'O has now been essentially caught red-handed in the deception at the end of the period in question.
Albom takes his "duped" idea to its illogical conclusion, where he ends up talking about "the victim" Manti Te'O.
In the meantime, Te'O nearly won the Heisman trophy, voted on by sportswriters, no doubt with some incaculable assistance from his 'personal story.'
So to all you guys who have been closely following this debacle and will know better than me: Is it true that "by nearly all accounts, [Manti Te'O] was duped for at least most of this affair"?
I was further wondering if Albom was a Heisman voter, and if there is any public record of how he voted. My understanding is that some writers choose to make public how they vote but that otherwise it is a secret ballot. Anybody know?
January 20th, 2013 at 6:03 PM ^
don't trust either of these two
January 21st, 2013 at 3:31 AM ^
January 20th, 2013 at 6:05 PM ^
There is no such thing as a reasonable conclusion in this whole thing, and anyone who would say they know exactly what happened and why it happened that way and everything else must be wrong is lying. Ask me to and I can make a plausible argument for any conclusion you like (within the realm of the story, in case you're thinking of involving aliens or something), which is why the whole thing is so bizarre to begin with.
Remember, the "affair" did not begin in December, or even in September when "she" "died." They were supposedly "together" for much longer than that, which makes what Albom said most likely true.
The more incredible thing here is that you of all people read a Freep story.
January 20th, 2013 at 6:08 PM ^
Disagree. There is a reasonable conclusion. The reasonable conclusion is that Te'o knew all along and did it purposefully to fuel a undeserved Heisman campaign and keep ND getting votes in the polls. It is reasonable to conclude this because it has been scientifically proven that ND is actually made up of evil space aliens trying to enslave us all from within our own society. It's obviously working in Albom's case.
January 20th, 2013 at 6:41 PM ^
I think you might be wrong..not sure though...
January 20th, 2013 at 6:25 PM ^
The more incredible thing here is that you of all people read a Freep story.
I don't limit myself to any particular cocoon of like-minded thinking. I read and observe a lot of news sources that I don't trust, or for which I might be critical. I never want to be accused of having a too-limited base of information.
I often read what is in the Free Press because it is the biggest newspaper in the state, and lots of other people are reading it. Many of them believe what they read in the Freep. And Mitch Albom is by far the most visible columnist, with the most prominent page-space, in Michigan's biggest newspaper.
You, Wahoo, happen to be a smart and well-informed guy, from my reading of your MGoBlog contributions. (I have a strong prejudice in favor of UVA folks.) I hate to be presumptuous, and I fear it may be onerous, but since you suggested it, can you make a clear and concise case for the notion that Te'O was "duped"?
January 20th, 2013 at 6:40 PM ^
It's not onerous at all. Keep in mind, though, that what I'll try to do here really is prove a negative, which is to say, prove he wasn't in on it from the start. His motives for being in on it supposedly are the Heisman campaign and keeping Notre Dame afloat in the polls. Yet the "relationship" goes back to 2009. It's a lot more logical to believe he was being catfished that whole time than that he was faking it that whole time - there's no motive at all to do so.
After that it's a question of when he really found out about the whole thing - and not only found out, but came to grips with it. (It would help if I knew whether you felt he stopped being duped in September, December, January, or was in on it from the very beginning, even in 2009. I think it's plain, though, that what he didn't do was fake an online girlfriend in 2009 to boost his 2012 Heisman campaign.) Let's keep in mind also that he doesn't have to know she's fake, in, like, October in order to use it for a Heisman campaign. He could certainly have been playing up the story and been totally fooled at the same time.
People offer up as evidence he was "in on it" that he talked about his dead girlfriend two days after "learning" she was fake all along. It doesn't help that he's been obviously less than truthful about the whole thing. But either way this has got to be completely the most embarrassing thing ever; it's not hard to believe that it took a little while to sort through things in his head and try to save face. People are expecting Te'o to go, "oh, it was all fake then. Right, I guess that's that," as if the revelation that people you thought were your friends were leading you through an emotional three-year relationship is supposed to be that easy to swallow.
To say he was in on it and not duped is also to say that Swarbrick and Notre Dame are lying about the PI report they commissioned, which is moving into conspiracy theory territory. We're not talking about ignoring something that did happen, a la Penn State, we're talking about concocting a whole new fable. Conspiracy theories rarely end up true.
There, that's my attempt at a plausible case. Please don't take too much out of the Freep jab, either, I only meant that as a throwaway joke.
January 20th, 2013 at 7:09 PM ^
There is no plausible conclusion because none of us have discernible facts. We only know what we have been told by deadspin and the msm via Teo. Frankly, I was over this in less than 24 hours. He is a dumbass, ND proves once again to be schumbags and the media will do anything for page clicks even if it is slanting to the wrong side or ignoring the obvious.
January 20th, 2013 at 8:12 PM ^
When you say "no one understands" do you mean nobody but you? Because you make some awfully strong statements about "the obvious" and "the wrong side" for someone who claims not to understand and to have no discernible facts.
January 20th, 2013 at 9:04 PM ^
but, he admits that he lied to his parents and mislead others about meeting her. He was not forthcoming in interviews after the alleged December 6th call. So how do we know that he is telling the whole truth now?
I really do not want to hear opinions based on what what said. What I want to know is what florist sent the flowers and where are the receipts. I repeat, where are the flower records. These are very simple to obtain. If there are such records and the flowers were sent to the address he states, then I may start to believe some of his statements.
How about producing his phone records, email records or online communication records. These records reach deeply into his privacy and this may be too intrucive, but just produce those phone records itemizing those 8 hour phone calls. Then maybe there will be a consensus that he was duped - for a period of time.
Without these records and unless someone talks (unlikely), it just he said, they said (ND). Believe them if you will.,
January 21st, 2013 at 9:02 AM ^
I have a hard time understanding how you can claim in one paragraph that Wahoo's explanation makes no sense because he doesn't know the facts, then say that this proves ND are scumbags and the media is in on it based on what I can only presume are your own opinions.
Honestly, this is a sad tale for all involved. But unless you believe in super-long cons with no discernible payoffs, the timelines involved here point to Te'o either being duped for a part of this ordeal OR a complete psychopath, which could be the case but seems less likely.
January 21st, 2013 at 1:12 PM ^
I'm missing something here. Do we have any evidence that this really did start in 2009, as opposed to being something that was invented this past year? I know the backstory is that this supposedly started in 2009, but is there anything to that besides the say-so of those involved?
January 21st, 2013 at 1:24 PM ^
Great question, succinctly articulated.
January 20th, 2013 at 7:13 PM ^
This is a good discussion, and yours is a good contribution.
I'm like you. Conspiracy theories are practically made to fail. My instinct is to disbelieve anything that sounds like a conspiracy theory.
If you have engaged in all of the facts as to how far back there is a record of communication between Te'O and a fake internet girlfriend, you know more than I do and I respectfully defer to you.
I'm still sort of dumbfounded about what a guy does and says when the national media is doing huge feature stories on my "girlfriend," when she's been no girlfriend at all.
In your own pro-Te'O retelling of the story, you acknowledge that Te'O could very well have been cognizant of how phony it all smelled, but went along with it, even without full knowledge of the depth of the fraud, because it helped his Heisman candidacy. And to that I say, you betcha.
Anyway, thanks for writing.
January 20th, 2013 at 8:03 PM ^
January 20th, 2013 at 8:07 PM ^
Considering the PI report consisted of mainly google searches I don't see how that moves into conspiracy theory territory.
January 20th, 2013 at 6:04 PM ^
but they're mostly old dudes who are 40+ and don't understand how the internet works. Everyone under 30 seems to be decidely more skeptical because it would require an incredible amount of stupidity and gullibility (is that a word?) to truly fall for that trick for a year
January 20th, 2013 at 6:14 PM ^
The ESPN and SI people are because they have to seeing how awful their reporting was. He still hasn't explained how he could go a couple of years without actually seeing his girlfriend. His skype excuse was pathetic. She's a Stanford grad and has no webcam on her laptop?? Or how she was in a car accident, diagnosed with cancer, and died, and he still didn't go see her. Or the fact that several of his teammates have spoken to the media and said they suspected him in September.
The vast majority of twitter responses you see are from people who don't believe him. The fact he has taken so long to speak and refuses to speak to anyone who might actually ask a tough question makes him look guilty.
January 20th, 2013 at 6:22 PM ^
Yeah, us old dudes who are 40+ and built the internet don't understand how it works.
I'd say most of us old dudes who are 40+ a) are also skeptical and b) have seen more of life and so understand that just about any damn thing is possible.
January 20th, 2013 at 8:02 PM ^
but I know many a dad who would say "SON. TODAY ON THE INTERNET I READ THAT OBAMA IS AN ALIEN FROM JUPITER. Stupid dems..."
January 20th, 2013 at 8:26 PM ^
That sounds more like a function of your social circle than the age of any particular members of it.
January 21st, 2013 at 9:08 AM ^
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Still a bit younger than 40, but old enough to remember the internet as mostly colleges and cranky 2400 baud modems.
The notion that kids who "grew up" with facebook and social media outlets are too wise to be duped like this ignores the myriad examples of people falling for false identities and clever ploys. I'm not saying Te'o isn't in the wrong here, but this idea that 21-year-olds are immune to falsehoods seems to be emanating from that part of the internet that thinks everyone is a sheep while they scour 4chan and reddit for funny pictures of cats and people being hit by cars.
January 20th, 2013 at 6:06 PM ^
I just can't believe that with how technology-savvy his generation is (that makes me sound so old at 28), that he didn't know. He didn't try to Skype or Facetime? He didn't ask for random impromptu photos? He never tried to meet her, even when his team was out in California? He didn't fly out when all those bad things happened to her? It's just implausible.
January 20th, 2013 at 7:15 PM ^
From what I've read (I believe this was the ESPN interview) he did try to Skype, but the video was always black. He did ask for a dated photo after "she" called in December. He did try to meet "her" in Hawai'i, "she" never showed up so he lied to his dad.
January 20th, 2013 at 8:10 PM ^
January 20th, 2013 at 7:50 PM ^
January 20th, 2013 at 6:10 PM ^
Also, if you consider that this "affair" supposedly started in freakin' 2009, it doesn't matter whether he was technically "duped" for most of it...because it lasted like three years. He could have been duped for all of a month and he still would have been playing along for publicity.
The crux for me is the letters she supposedly wrote to him. He purportedly received the last letter after the Stanford game of this year...which was a month after her reported death.
Just yesterday, ESPN reported that she allegedly called Te'o early in December about how she faked her own death to evade drug dealers. I mean, WTF? It's like they're making this shit up as they go. The story looks worse for Te'o the longer it goes on purely on the plausibility factor.
January 20th, 2013 at 6:11 PM ^
January 20th, 2013 at 6:29 PM ^
I don't know how common it would be for a big-time athlete to leave his team to visit an ailing girlfriend. Hell, some guys miss the births of their own children to play in athletic competitions. And a "girlfriend" to some is someone you've been dating for a couple weeks, all the way up to someone you've been dating for four years...or in this case, someone he never technically went out on a date with.
This might sound cold-hearted, but if I'm Brian Kelly and my star linebacker wants to leave to see a girl he's only talked with on Twitter/Facebook/the telephone, I might be having a long talk with the guy about where his priorities are...
Anyway, Te'o never even met her in real life, so I don't think he's a "shit bag" for not visiting her. And for all we know (unless I've missed this part), he may have tried to go see her and was rebuffed with "No, I don't want you to see me like this" or something like that.
There are lots of things to criticize here, but that angle doesn't seem like one of them.
January 20th, 2013 at 6:55 PM ^
In response to a question about why he didn't visit her in the hospital, "It never really crossed my mind. I don't know. I was in school".
He had at least a three week break between semesters in May. He would not have had any team responsibilities during much of that time either, would he? Also, why would Brian Kelly think he had never met her in person? It's hard to know what conclusions to draw, but his story is confusing and doesn't fit together very well.
January 20th, 2013 at 7:04 PM ^
There's a big difference between "I have leukemia" and "I'm dying from leukemia." Assuming her story true, I don't think May would have been soon enough to determine, since she clearly fake-lived for another four months. And as a senior likely to be captain, he may not have had many "official" team responsibilities, but those guys never stop weightlifting, running 7-on-7s, etc.
Additionally, Brian Kelly may not have known ahead of time that Te'o had a girlfriend whom he had never visited, but if Te'o asked for leave, I would assume the coach would ask questions (How long have you been dating? Are thing serious?). The truth may or may not have come out about their lack of face-to-face meetings.
There's just too much wiggle room in there to be too mad at Te'o for this. I refuse to get mad at a guy for not visiting his long-distance, strictly online, fake girlfriend when he's a captain of a national championship-caliber football team and potentially on the path to a multi-million dollar career.
January 20th, 2013 at 8:41 PM ^
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8859544/highlights-manti-teo-interview-jeremy-schaap
Te'o says that he was planning to see her on his way home in May. He was expecting to meet her in San Diego before flying to Los Angeles. But since she was in a hospital in Los Angeles he didn't see her. Apparently that idea never crossed his mind?
January 20th, 2013 at 8:21 PM ^
Whether she told him she was dying of leukemia or had leukemia anyone would go visit. I don't know how anyone could suggest otherwise.
January 20th, 2013 at 8:47 PM ^
that she was the one calling off their planned meetings (for obvious reasons). Now I see that he was doing it too. He went to a friend's house close to where she was staying in Hawaii, but didn't have a car and couldn't get to her house. Then he lied to his dad about seeing her. He was supposed to visit her around the 4th of July but his parents asked him to go to Utah instead.
Every mention of Kelly in the interview makes him look bad.
January 20th, 2013 at 8:57 PM ^
I really don't care about this Te'o story enough to argue vehemently, but I disagree about judging him for not visiting "Lennay." There are too many outside factors that we don't know: schedule, team responsibilities, money, timing, religious obligations, coach's rules, her refusal to meet, etc.
January 20th, 2013 at 9:23 PM ^
I know you were initially answering someone else's assertion. I'm inclined to think his story is calculated and fishy. I'm interested to see what happens after his statements get checked. My guess is that he didn't try to visit because he never really felt that close to her, not because he was a callous boyfriend.
January 20th, 2013 at 10:47 PM ^
Any and all of those would be trumped by a girlfriend with a cancer.
January 20th, 2013 at 8:13 PM ^
The not visiting your dying girlfriend is absolutely something to criticize. Missing a birth is alot different then not going to see a dying girlfriend. His story was she was sick for a couple of months or something. Your telling me he couldn't find one day to go see her. That is not plausible. Brian Kelly at that point had no idea he'd never met her (or at least he had better have had no idea he hadn't met he).
January 20th, 2013 at 6:11 PM ^
is obviously not Teo's forte. One is left wondering however if ND is using the same media consultants Penn State did.
January 20th, 2013 at 6:16 PM ^
MSM, of which Mitch Albom is a card-carrying member, have an agenda to protect their reputation which has been badly tattered. If you'll notice it's basically only the MSM who buys the ND/Teo party line that he was "duped". Read the comments in any of the articles on line and you'll see that the vast, vast majority of people commenting do NOT believe Teo was a victim on any level.
The Blogoshpere, on the other hand, seems unified in their believe that both Teo and ND are lying through their collective teeth for one simple reason. EVERYTHING Teo has done since this was made public reeks of someone complicent in the hoax. Everything.
So on one hand you have the embarrassed MSM desparately trying to save face by supporting Teo's story and on the other you have the great unwashed not buying a bit of it.
January 20th, 2013 at 6:24 PM ^
Yeah, I'm not buying the train of thought that MSM is all pissed off because they got played and now are leaning towards Te'o being a victim. This story is absolutely huge. Anything written about it gets a monster amount of hits. MSM doesn't want to sweep this under the rug because they are embarassed, rather they want it to drag on as long as possible for dramatic effect.
January 20th, 2013 at 6:18 PM ^
January 20th, 2013 at 11:26 PM ^
January 20th, 2013 at 6:18 PM ^
January 20th, 2013 at 6:26 PM ^
Absolutely. You figure that would have been the first thing he brought to the Schaap interview. But nope. All he came with were the first facebook messages she sent him introducing herself and the eventual apology from the culprit from a few days ago (per Schaap). That alone smells fishy.
January 20th, 2013 at 7:33 PM ^
January 20th, 2013 at 6:18 PM ^
Deadspin uncovered this pretty thouroughly. I have yet to see a systemic dissection and disproof of any of their main points. All we have now is spin..
January 20th, 2013 at 6:25 PM ^
January 20th, 2013 at 6:26 PM ^
January 20th, 2013 at 6:28 PM ^
Fake girlfriends created to shield one's homosexuality probably work better when they are, ya know, supposed to be alive.