Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend is FAKE FAKE FAKE!

[Rowsdower!]

The thing is, given the alpha-male nature of college and professional sports, it's understandable why he would want to cover that up (if that indeed is the case). But the lengths to which he took it is f***ing insane.

 

[SpideyVille]

Maybe he felt that it was easier than paying someone to be his token girlfriend for a while.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Yeah, I guess so.

 

[Ghostvirus]

Why does this matter? There is no way he is the first person to fake having a girlfriend.

I have heard on ESPN that this was helping him get Heisman votes. Doesn't that speak about the lunacy of Heisman voting. What the hell does a dead girlfriend have to do with how good you are as a football player?

 

[Schlosser85]

If this was a ploy to cover up his homosexuality, it's one of the more elaborate and convoluted ways to go about it that I've ever heard of.

Wouldn't it have been simpler to just hire a beard? Not to mention make him look less pathologically insane.

 

[KalMart]

Trying to cover up homosexuality, as sad as that is that someone would feel pressured to, would actually make the most sense in this case. Just bad filmmaking, though.

 

[Liam_H]

Publicity, Heisman votes etc. As much as its suppose to be about just the game, voters love to look for the human element.

 

[terry78]

As much as you think homosexuality is becoming the norm, there are a lot of organizations where it can still destroy any chances you have at moving up within it.

 

[KalMart]

And again, the parents could have also thought that it would jeopardize his chances for the NFL, etc...so they also perpetuated the story.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Yeah. And as for why it's getting so much attention... Well, first you have the fact that he appears to have used this to up his chances of winning the Heisman along with raising his draft status because INTANGIBLES INTANGIBLES MORAL CHARACTER HE'S A TRUE HERO NEVER TOUCHED A DROP OF LIQUOR IN HIS LIFE OR SLAPPED A WOMAN'S ASS BLAH BLAH BLAHHHHHH.

And then there are the other repercussions. People created charities in this fake girlfriend's name, according to Deadspin. Granted, it's good that people were giving money to cancer charities, but I think they would have rather donated money to a charity that wasn't centered around a fictional character. And there's also the fact that they were using pictures of a real person, who is the only true "victim" in this whole scandal.

 

[Sakuraba]

My thinking is that the imaginary long distance girlfriend thing may have been his way to cover up his sexuality without having to go to the terrible links of actually having a girlfriend that he didn't love, but it was getting harder to fake having a gf and he was about to leave campus life behind, so they killed her off. She'd have to be there on draft day, right?

That's my speculation. "Lennay Kekua" was his girlfriend, so no one ever questioned why the superstar linebacker didn't hang with girls, pursue them, accept their advances, etc. How many gay celebrities in the past have gone so far as to enter a heterosexual marriage and even conceive children to cover up their sexuality?

If this is headed where I think it is headed, then there will be a talented, gay Mormon linebacker sitting in New York on draft day and a lot of conflicted NFL general managers.

I do want to give props to Stephen A. for asking maybe the most germane question in this story, "Where is Ronaiah Tuiasosopo?" There, I believe the truth lies. It was refreshing to hear Stephen A. speak with logic in between Skip Bayless masquerading as a concerned citizen and basically taking Notre Dame's word for it.

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

There's a pic to this, but here's what TMZ put up about this:

The Manti Te'o not-really-dead-girlfriend hoax was perpetuated by a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo -- who served as a representative for the family of the fake "Lennay Kekua" ... and TMZ has the photo proof.

Here's what we know ...

While Manti was "dating" Lennay ... a Notre Dame die-hard fan who we'll call "Jan" (to protect her identity) reached out to Lennay on Twitter and began an online friendship.

After Lennay's supposed death, Jan became involved with a group called "Wear a Lei 4 Manti" -- in which fans wore Hawaiian leis to ND football games to show their support for the football star.

When the "Wear a Lei 4 Manti" movement began to receive media attention, Jan says she noticed she gained a Twitter follower named U'ilani Rae Kekua.

Jan tells TMZ ... she reached out to U'ilani and asked if she was related to Lennay -- to which U'ilani replied, "Yes, that's my baby sister." The two became friends.

In fact, Jan says they both mentioned how they were going to attend the Notre Dame vs. USC game in L.A. on November 24, 2012 ... so Jan sent U'ilani her cell phone number in case she wanted to meet up.

Here's where the story takes a turn ... Jan tells TMZ she got a phone call from U'ilani on the day of the game directing her to the famous Tommy Trojan statue in front of the stadium, so they could meet up.

But when Jan arrived to the statue, U'ilani was NOT there ... but guess who was -- Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. Jan and Ronaiah even took a photo together

Pics are at the link...and the story continues from there.

http://www.tmz.com/2013/01/17/manti-teo-ronaiah-tuiasosopo-scandal-hoax-notre-dame-photo-girlfriend/

 

[Sakuraba]

Why does this matter? There is no way he is the first person to fake having a girlfriend.

I have heard on ESPN that this was helping him get Heisman votes. Doesn't that speak about the lunacy of Heisman voting. What the hell does a dead girlfriend have to do with how good you are as a football player?

It's not that he had a fake girlfriend, it that his fake girlfriend died tragically, the press bought into it without vetting the story in the slightest, 80,000 people wore leis in his honor, it boosted his Heisman candidacy, and the "it" was a lie.

If it wasnt done for publicity, then it may be one of the biggest football stories ever. Because, as I just wrote, you could have an openly gay man waiting to be drafted into the NFL. That's a much bigger story then having an imaginary girlfriend.

 

[Rowsdower!]

There's a pic to this, but here's what TMZ put up about this:



Pics are at the link...and the story continues from there.

http://www.tmz.com/2013/01/17/manti-teo-ronaiah-tuiasosopo-scandal-hoax-notre-dame-photo-girlfriend/

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is Tyler Durden. It all makes sense now.

 

[terry78]

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

 

[JaD]

There's a pic to this, but here's what TMZ put up about this:



Pics are at the link...and the story continues from there.

http://www.tmz.com/2013/01/17/manti-teo-ronaiah-tuiasosopo-scandal-hoax-notre-dame-photo-girlfriend/

I'm even more confused now. I don't know if it's because of all the different Hawaiian names I can't even pronounce or all these characters. Probably a little bit of everything.

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

I'm even more confused now. I don't know if it's because of all the different Hawaiian names I can't even pronounce or all these characters. Probably a little bit of everything.

Ha. Yeah, me too. I read it twice and still confused with the whole story.

 

[Sakuraba]

There's a pic to this, but here's what TMZ put up about this:



Pics are at the link...and the story continues from there.

http://www.tmz.com/2013/01/17/manti-teo-ronaiah-tuiasosopo-scandal-hoax-notre-dame-photo-girlfriend/

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was Lennay's sister on twitter, an account that was created in November, and Manti Te'o tweeted out to get "her" some followers and tweeted that "'she' is one of the realist people I know."

Interesting...

 

[KalMart]

....Because, as I just wrote, you could have an openly gay man waiting to be drafted into the NFL. That's a much bigger story then having an imaginary girlfriend.

That's what I'm saying...a la, looking to avoid the former.

 

[X Knight]

I am totally and utterly confused.

 

[Schlosser85]

Makes it sound even more to me like Ronaiah is Manti's real "significant other" who hid behind a fake identity as a fictional girl to hide their relationship.

Why not just hide it, though? Why go to the convoluted lengths of creating Lennay? Just to explain why he didn't show interest in other girls?

If this is really the motive behind this, then I think Manti and/or Ronaiah (whoever's twisted idea this was) made things way more complicated than they needed to be.

 

[SuperT]

There's a pic to this, but here's what TMZ put up about this:



Pics are at the link...and the story continues from there.

http://www.tmz.com/2013/01/17/manti-teo-ronaiah-tuiasosopo-scandal-hoax-notre-dame-photo-girlfriend/

OMG! lol

I cannot wait for the Lifetime movie version of this entire story!

 

[KalMart]

I'm even more confused now. I don't know if it's because of all the different Hawaiian names I can't even pronounce or all these characters. Probably a little bit of everything.

Iwana Nockayapupu


That's Polynesian for leave race out of this.

 

[Schlosser85]

Love By Any Other Name....A Lifetime Original Movie.