ND Press Conference - Thoughts?
I realize there is a thread about the general topic below, but I'm very curious about the responses to the press conference in particular. For me, I find the lack of notification to authorities very puzzling. Did your opinion shift after listening to Swarbick?
January 16th, 2013 at 10:15 PM ^
if you visit deadspin they have a link up... i think they've earned themselves the extra clicks today so i wont cut and paste the direct link to nbcsports.
edit - doesnt seem to be working for me actually. seems i posted too quickly on that one. internet fail.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:12 PM ^
If that was supposed to convince me Te'o didn't know, that was horrible.
"He was going to tell you guys next week, we swear."
Yea, sure.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:13 PM ^
Jack swarbrick had been a lawyer for 28 before coming to notre dame and has 3 weeks to be ready for this to drop in the media..thats what makes this more disturbing. Complete cover up..how deep will it really go..that is the scarey sick part
January 16th, 2013 at 9:13 PM ^
I'm still perplexed that the ND AD used the "Catfish" defense as his first reason why they believe Mantei.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:14 PM ^
If you thought your girlfriend of one year had died, and then suddenly you get a call from her, you don't go to authorities? You don't wonder, "holy shit, is this person real? Is she hurt? Is she really dead? Has there been a huge mistake and someone else is dead?" I would call the police in five minutes. The fact that Teo and ND did not is a huge issue for me.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:23 PM ^
I don't recall reading this aspect of the case? I heard them reference it in the press conference, but what exactly was that part of the story?
January 16th, 2013 at 9:25 PM ^
He said he got a phone call around Dec 26 from the same person he thought was his gf, she said she wasn't dead but she wasn't really who he thought she was, it was a hoax.
January 17th, 2013 at 12:58 PM ^
Again, you're confused. There was a 3 week gap between the call and him telling ND because "he wanted to tell his parents over break"
January 16th, 2013 at 9:26 PM ^
Swarbick said that on the night of an ESPN award ceremony, Teo received a call from his "girlfriend" who he believed to be dead (as did the rest of the country). Instead of going to authorities, he went to his coaches the next day. That doesn't make any sense.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:30 PM ^
Brian Kelley is good a reporting incidents to authorities.
/s
January 16th, 2013 at 9:30 PM ^
Honestly, i wouldn't go to authorities first. I'd probably talk to my parents or counselors/coaches too.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:33 PM ^
Ok, but you would go to them soon after, no? And even if you didn't, don't you think the University of Michigan would? Am I really supposed to believe that ND admins thought "'hmm, she was supposed to be dead? Oh well, I guess it's just a hoax!" ?
January 16th, 2013 at 10:34 PM ^
I'm not really sure what i'd do. I wouldn't have viewed this as a crime. I'd have viewed it as a prank. I mention this below, but this happened to a friend of mine around 1999 in HS. A few acquaintances thought this was funny, and had him going for a couple of months. When all was said and done, he didn't go to the cops, he was humiliated, devastated. I mean, can you imagine mean High Schoolers would get you to talk about and admit to?
January 16th, 2013 at 10:46 PM ^
I'm not trying to insult you, but I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here. You have a girlfriend of 3 YEARS. You think she's dead. Suddenly, SHE calls you up and tells you she's not dead. You seriously don't contact the police?
January 16th, 2013 at 11:00 PM ^
Honestly, I for one probably wouldn't. What's the crime? I don't know off hand if there is one. Do I really want to explain the whole thing on the record? Nope. The whole thing is just so bizarre, it's hard to say what someone might do.
January 16th, 2013 at 11:14 PM ^
Thank you, i think you nailed what I was trying to say. I don't know what the crime is? I'd be embarassed that it was clearly a hoax.
That said, i'm making a lot of assumptions about Manti and the case.
Also, I don't know who keeps downvoting my posts just because i'm offering an explanation or giving someone the benefit of the doubt.
January 16th, 2013 at 11:33 PM ^
It's not about implicating someone in a crime. It's the fact that this person may not dead! Maybe she is behind it, maybe she has been kidnapped, maybe she in hurt, maybe she is dead and these people are involved, maybe she is a con artist, maybe she is extorting, etc etc. I honestly can't believe you wouldn't call the police.
January 16th, 2013 at 11:36 PM ^
I thought I heard or read somewhere that she called to inform him that it was a hoax.... so why call the cops at that point? If she called to continue the "relationship" then i'd probably call the cops.
January 17th, 2013 at 12:59 PM ^
According to Swarbrick she called in character attempting to continue the relationship fwiw
January 16th, 2013 at 11:22 PM ^
I wouldn't.
January 16th, 2013 at 11:26 PM ^
Ok, not that this is a credible source, but this is bad:
http://pepperonsports.tumblr.com/
"In defense of the Heisman Trophy candidate, the source said he believes the lie may have indeed started with somebody duping Te’o using a phony twitter account, and eventually, faking their own death.
Early in my conversation with the source, the Notre Dame player said, “He lied, but the media blew it up.” In response to my follow-up question asking if the source thought that Te’o kept the story going because of the media attention, the player replied, “Yeah. Right after the Michigan [State] game. He should have never brought her in the media. His grandma passing was enough.”
January 16th, 2013 at 9:35 PM ^
But wouldn't you eventually go to the authorities? ND is claiming that he got the call on Dec. 26. It's three weeks later and they still haven't gone to the police, even as Swarbick claims that crimes have been committed.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:44 PM ^
What FreeTheFabFivePlz said above, does ND really have a reputation for doing just that? Alleged rape resulting in suicide doesn't rise to that level so why would a fake girlfriend?
January 16th, 2013 at 9:45 PM ^
If i got a call from my dead girlfriend of six months I wouldnt go to the police or my partents or my coach or the local authorities.
I'd go to the highest ranking religous figure I could find.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:54 PM ^
I'm flattered.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:59 PM ^
Good call. If I was Catholic, I'd also be splashing on Holy Water like it was cheap cologne.
January 17th, 2013 at 4:58 PM ^
Dec. 6, not 26th, the 26th is when he supposedly came to ND.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:29 PM ^
Girlfriend of 3 years...
January 16th, 2013 at 9:16 PM ^
Fake presser and just trying to spin flimsy excuses for Mant'i. Now, if the rumors are true and he is gay, then maybe my opinion will change. But from what happened today, this is just absolute mismanagement and everything about this story seems shady and questionable.
January 16th, 2013 at 10:34 PM ^
Why would your opinion change if it turns out he's gay? Either way, he used a series of lies to gain admiration from the media and fans. He's either an attention whore or a gay attention whore.
January 16th, 2013 at 11:28 PM ^
I'd say my opinion of Notre Dame would change. I'd support ND's decision to protect their own, however it's not a good message to teach kids how to clean up messes. But if he doesn't want to come out, (if he were gay) then kudos to ND for supporting him.
January 17th, 2013 at 5:24 AM ^
Regardless of his original intentions for making up the story, he used this story to gain fame and sympathy. Had he not profited from the lies, I dont think he'd receive the same criticism. If the university decides that hiding the fact that he's gay justifies the lies, shame on them.
January 17th, 2013 at 8:22 AM ^
It's not about justifying the lies, it's about making the best decision for him, given the current point he's currently in. It's not a university's right to get involved, it's a university's right to protect its students privacy. That said, if he were gay, and he made this lie, it's about the worst thing you can do, because you're calling attention to yourself and your sexuality. Really dumb if he's lying.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:14 PM ^
...cover up the fact that it was a 100% online relationship than anything malicious. Still a pretty embarassing spotlight on their star player though.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:29 PM ^
at the very least, Te'o exaggerated his relationship with this girl to gain national sympathy for his heissman run. At the worst, he orchestrated it all.
Lots of questions remain for me, including inaccuracies between previous interviews and his story, the delay in timing, why ND didn't say something before the national championship game, the relationship between Te'o and the supposed orchestrator, etc.
It comes down to either:
Te'o is a naive angel, who as a star athlete feel for an internet gf he never saw in person, never skyped, and never meet her family or saw her grave
or
Te'o orchestraed a hoax for heissman publicity and/or motivation for his teammates.
With ND and Te'o not releasing their findings or his phone records I'll go with the latter for now.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:51 PM ^
So he would drum up this story long before he was on the Heisman radar and long before ND was anywhere near the top10?
January 16th, 2013 at 10:02 PM ^
here's a preseason article listing him as NDs top heisman canidate. He has always been on the radar ever since he was a top recruit.
edit: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/college-football-rapidrep…
January 16th, 2013 at 10:31 PM ^
I've got to say this is a strange case, but I have to admit... this happened to a friend of mine. (No seriously, not me... a friend of mine.) He'd been a victim in HS to something similar, a group of guys created a fake screen name (this was like 1999) and had an online relationship with him for a few months. This of course, was before having skype or anything like that was common place.
I don't know if i do or do not believe Te'o, but I doubt he invented this to win a heisman. You don't win heismans for sympathy. And if anyone voted for him based on that, they shouldn't be allowed to vote.
January 17th, 2013 at 9:30 PM ^
Just imagine that this online profile actually spoke to you on the phone. Thats the hook here.
January 16th, 2013 at 10:05 PM ^
I have the perfect bridge for him. It's barely been used.
January 16th, 2013 at 10:33 PM ^
The part about seeing her grave is actually a great point. It's small details like this that often can lead to solving mysteries, and the fact that he never visited her grave leads me to believe Teo was in on it.
He called her the love of his life. He didn't go to the funeral because it was her wish for him not to miss any games.... ok, I can buy that. But if she was THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE, how is it he still had't visited her grave more than 3 months after her death?
Yes "she" lived in Cali and Teo was a student athlete in the middle of football season.... Still there has to have been a time he could've gone out there, right?
For one, ND played at USC, I find it really hard to believe that if he wanted to go out there a day early to visit his late girlfriend's grave, that the ND AD wouldn't have moved heaven and earth to accomodate him in that. So, why wouldn't he have done that?
January 16th, 2013 at 9:14 PM ^
the AD at ND had to hold a press conference to explain that the best player in at ND in 20 years had an imaginary girlfriend is just hilarious.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:22 PM ^
Harvey. She was Jimmy Stewarts ex.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:49 PM ^
Rick Mirer was pretty good.
January 17th, 2013 at 9:46 AM ^
didn't he win 3 Heismans ..... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Go Blue!
January 17th, 2013 at 4:29 AM ^
LOL, that's an absolutely brilliant way of putting it.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:21 PM ^
that ND and media were parading this apparition's name through the media and the world and not one of them tried to contact her fictional family.
Also, I find it hilarious in the South Bend Tribune article, it talks of Te'o using Skype with his family but never occured to him to use it with his girlfriend.
January 16th, 2013 at 9:31 PM ^
This gets me, too. No skype. No google-stalking. Te'o didn't make arrangements to meet her? Ever? Did he send her cards? Flowers?
And no one else tried to find her either. Not Te'o's family. Not ND. Not a single media outlet fact-checked any of the story. It took four months for anyone to reveal that their was no obituary. No on attended or reported on her death or funeral despite the spotlight on Te'o. How is this possible?
January 16th, 2013 at 9:58 PM ^
You would send cards and flowers? Well now I know why I've been single for so long...
In all seriousness though, I think you are spot on. The fact that not ONE media outlet even confirmed the funeral is truly unbelievable.
January 16th, 2013 at 10:07 PM ^
I hate to go all RCMB here, but wouldn't you have had to consumated the relationship to carry the torch like this? I can understand forming an ideal partner in your head and all of that, but even internet relationships end by meeting or end by never meeting and you figuring out that the person you were talking to was a phony. I have to think that Manti had his choice of women. So either he did and this was all publicity, or he didn't and is incredibly naive. I'm too cynical to believe the latter.
As far as the media's utter failure here. If I'm Thammel or someone from the South Bend rag I'm going on vacation for a few weeks.