Open Friday Manti Te'o Thread: What would convince you that Te'o was duped? [New info]
For me it's pretty simple: the receipt for those white roses and his phone records. They should be pretty easy to produce. In fact, I bet he has already done so for that independent investigation paid for by Notre Dame. Either that or we can't trust Jack Swarbrick any more and that's just incomprehensible to me.
[ED - PGB: Put all of your Manti Te'o related comments here rather than starting new threads and bumping other content off the front page. Thanks!]
Mod edit two: BILG found this new piece on ESPN. I'd say it's big enough to go in the OP up here, but falls just short of needing a new one. If Te'o or ND has something to say, that should be a new thread; try to keep anything else in here. JGB
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8857057/friend-says-ronai...
January 18th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
But add a Te'o/ND Friday Open Thread so we don't get 20 of these.
January 18th, 2013 at 10:51 AM ^
THIS THIS THIS
January 19th, 2013 at 3:23 AM ^
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January 18th, 2013 at 11:30 AM ^
Interesting, I am trying to collect all the arguments on whether he was hoaxed or not... http://www.the-counterpoint.com/discussion/2P. So far I think it is very hard to think that he had nothing to do with it.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^
I mean, in retrospect, this looks awfully fake. For minimal annoyance, go to 1:40:
January 18th, 2013 at 11:54 AM ^
if you look around, you see his teammates are actually laughing too, it's becoming like 97.9% certain he was pulling a stunt.
January 18th, 2013 at 12:01 PM ^
It really looks like some guys are holding back from bursting into laughter, but that could be reading into it now that we know the facts.
January 18th, 2013 at 12:11 PM ^
you are not reading too much into anything. I noted more than one eye-roll as well.
January 18th, 2013 at 12:06 PM ^
I am not good at reading lips, but I would love it if one of them was caught saying something like "What a bunch of bs?"
January 18th, 2013 at 12:52 PM ^
January 18th, 2013 at 1:04 PM ^
I didn't even notice him... you're right. His posture completely changes, he puts his face/mouth into his windbreaker jacket.... once Te'o is done and Prince SHembo comes on, he changes posture completely.
January 18th, 2013 at 3:59 PM ^
Yeah seems like they actually like Shembo,but you can tell they don't really feel that fond of Teo.
January 18th, 2013 at 1:42 PM ^
The guy at the far left with the buzzcut seems to be enjoying Te'o's heartfelt speech, too.
January 18th, 2013 at 1:34 PM ^
Keep in mind that his grandmother did die (which I have no reason to believe is not true) BUT...
Sure looks wierd to me, his teammates are definitely trying to hold back.
And that is one of the worst speeches I have ever heard: "Four years ago I made a decision to come here and I didn't really know why. Now I know why."
What? Next time I hear someone say that kids put a ton of thought into their college choice during recruiting decisions, I won't be able to get that quote out of my head. I get it now, a lot of it is just random.
January 18th, 2013 at 5:12 PM ^
Even Manti was cracking smiles at about the 1:40 mark. Cons
January 18th, 2013 at 10:50 AM ^
If he was tested and found to be ligitimately retarded i would believe he was duped. It's pretty simple.
January 18th, 2013 at 10:58 AM ^
times 1000! No way was he duped no wayyyy i say!
January 18th, 2013 at 11:31 AM ^
nice.
January 18th, 2013 at 10:51 AM ^
a wonderlic test score lower than Morris Claiborne....
January 18th, 2013 at 10:52 AM ^
If he had a receipt for the roses I'd like the address they were delivered, because most florists I know don't deliver to imaginary houses or funerals. And if he has an address of a conspirator they were sent to, then it can be cross checked to see who lives there and thus reveal who did it.
January 18th, 2013 at 1:38 PM ^
To your point, didn't he ever get her a present for her birthday or valentine's day or christmas or anything? I know most women expect gifts for all those occassions (my wife definitely does). It just doesn't make sense to believe you are actually dating someone and never have to buy them anything... so there should be receipts for all those things as well.
January 18th, 2013 at 10:53 AM ^
Unfortunately.
January 18th, 2013 at 12:15 PM ^
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January 18th, 2013 at 1:58 PM ^
Yes, BKFinest told me so.
January 18th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
Somebody's gonna go after those phone records at some point-- if I were a betting man I'd put good money on one of the reporters that did a sit-down and feels humiliated by the whole thing.
If there in fact was some girl that he sat on the phone with all night discussing his hopes and dreams, certainly she's gonna come out at some point, probably in some exclusive paid interview, book deal, or otherwise a cash grab. Unless, that is, she's already been given a sizeable sum to vanish, as it were.
Lies produce more lies, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the 'truths' of the case revealed this week may very well be retracted as the story continues to unfold. Perhaps Swarbrick himself may end up selling the kid up the river and discussing how the ND athletic community was lied to by Te'o in a final effort to distance the Golden Dome from this whole thing.
But yeah, the OP is right-- if he is the victim he claims to be, it's time to pony up some proof.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
As Reilly pointed out - Who's going to fake a 4 hour phone call???
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January 18th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
January 18th, 2013 at 10:57 AM ^
Given the info out at this point, I will never believe him.
January 18th, 2013 at 10:58 AM ^
believe he was duped, but I believe he became unduped a long time(and many accolades) before he shared that with anybody else.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:01 AM ^
"It does fully line up," Swarbrick said of Te'o's story about the hoax.
People who don't believe Te'o? Swarbrick has something to say to them.
"Then you don't know Manti, is my answer," he said.
Damn I don't know Te'o so I guess I am just wrong... although....
"The thing I'm most sad about is ..." Swarbrick paused, sipped from a cup of tea, composed himself and forged ahead. "The single most trusting human being I've ever met will never be able to trust again in his life."
More than Te'o not being able to trust I would say the most logical conclusion is Te'o can never be trusted again
January 18th, 2013 at 11:22 AM ^
Maybe, Manti handed him an envelope right before the NC game with a note that said, "By the way, my girlfriend was fake."
January 18th, 2013 at 10:58 AM ^
He seemed to still be blathering on about it after he realized it was a hoax. That makes me believe that he got so used to telling his lies that he forgot to stop.
"Manti Te'o on 12/8, 2 days after hoaxers call again: "I don't like cancer at all. I lost both my grandparents and my girlfriend to cancer." Why, after just learning this person was not dead, would he discuss her death?
Here's the link to the whole story "Discrepencies in Mantei Te'O Defense".
http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/01/17/mati-teo-fake-girlfrien…
January 18th, 2013 at 10:58 AM ^
who the F saves receipts? the phone records are whats gonna nail him.. ie her phone numbers that he supposedly called. i bet he'll say he lost the phone numbers.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:06 AM ^
Uh, people who use credit cards have this thing called a bill. Most of them are available online. You aren't calling in a flower order long distance with your check and routing number.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:06 AM ^
Unless he paid in cash, there would be an electronic record in his credit card or checking account.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:09 AM ^
Retailers save the receipts. He didn't buy a bunch of flowers and mail them in a box. Whoever he had send the flowers will keep records. Plus, that is the type of purchase almost always made by credit card, so there will be more evidence. He doesn't need to remember her phone number either. AT&T could give him a copy of his bills with detailed information.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:28 AM ^
January 18th, 2013 at 11:02 AM ^
A DeLorean and Doc Brown.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:02 AM ^
This question has never really occured to me at all over the last few days. And now that I think about it, I don't think there is anything he could say or "proof" that could come out that would make this whole thing make sense.
I don't think i'll ever get over the fact that he never facetimed with the woman he loved or that he never visited her after the car accident, recovery, graduation, coma, lukemia or deathbed.
So, in short, nothing.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:17 AM ^
Facetime, Skype, nothing? Just a phone. What is this 1983? I call Bullshit!
January 18th, 2013 at 12:07 PM ^
...is if it turns out that a girl pretending to be LK actually spent time Skyping with Manti. Maybe this girl even showed up in Hawaii a few times because she wanted a free trip to Hawaii or something.
That would be a huge conspiracy. But it might make sense, since that girl was probably also trying to scam the Cardinals player (which is why he says he's met her, but then immediately shut up about details).
January 18th, 2013 at 12:13 PM ^
January 18th, 2013 at 1:19 PM ^
Ultimately, this is just salacious and nobody was really harmed, except perhaps the media who reported it without fact-checking. And anyways, fuck the media. They screw people all the time and leave them half-dead by the side of the road and never think twice about it. I LOVE that ESPN and the like have egg on their faces.
What's more interesting to me is the Notre Dame culture. They seem to NEED myths and stories like the Te'o "tragedy". I know several very bright people who went to Notre Dame, not just fans, and they all share this odd need to be "special," whether it reaffirms their religion or whatever. I saw the same thing at the very good Catholic prep school I attended. They did a very thorough job of convincing us that we were somehow special, better, different, a cut above. It's a powerful thing when you can get a lot of people thinking that way together.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:04 AM ^
absolutely nothing that Te'o could say or do or produce to convince me that he wasn't in on it. Especially in light of any comments he made after December 6th when it supposedly came to attention that the girl was fake, most notably the Dec 8th comments cited above. I'm still sticking with the theory that this was either a beard or a ploy to gain attention.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:07 AM ^
The biggest question I have is will this be the biggest sports story to ever come out in our lifetime? I can't imagine anything topping this...the reveal, the silence, the questions, the crazy rumors.
I mean this is something that supercedes sports: it's about relationships, new media, religion, journalism, ethics. So many angles. So many questions. I don't want it to end.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:13 AM ^
the schadenfreude of this all. For an ND hater this story is the gift that is going to keep on giving for a very very long time.