So uh.... Notre Dame football star Monti Te'o faked his dead GF?

http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-the-most-heartbreaking-and-inspirational-story-of-the-college-football-season-is-a-hoax

WELP

edit: best part is ESPN crediting Deadspin

That explains all the spam threads.

I wasn't even aware a football player (let alone Notre Dame student) had the mental capacity to lie.

My reality is crumbling all around me.

What in the actual fuck? This is absolutely insane.

@LikeaSsur said:

I wasn't even aware a football player (let alone Notre Dame student) had the mental capacity to lie.

My reality is crumbling all around me.

I love football, but this indirectly sums it up.

What a moron (Te'o, not Mr. Ssur.)

Wow, that's...hilarious.

Wonder if this is going to affect his draft stock.

Lance Armstrong is behind it all! Trying to make us forget.

That's some good journalism right there. Crazy story

I heard about this on PTI this evening. Reminds me of "...my girlfriend? You wouldn't know her. She lives in Canada."

The story is sort of bizarre, but then again, who among us hasn't invented an undefined girlfriend to boast about to the other guys on the team, then "killed" her off to improve our chances at winning the Heisman Trophy? I've done it at least three times and I'll keep doing it until I win my damn trophy. Imaginary girlfriends beware, your days are numbered.

Wow, there's a website for these inventive relationships. I love the internet.

I love Deadspin when they dig down and investigate shit. Anyone remember the Sarah Philips shit they dug up last year? I'm interested to see what Notre Dame digs up on this. The story points out that friends of the guy who was playing the part of the girl are 80% sure Mantai was in on it. Meanwhile, I showed the story to a buddy of mine is a Notre Dame fan and instantly jumped to the conclusion Mantai was the victim of a hoax.

..... whoa

uh

geez.

This sounds like the stupid shit I used to do in junior high where I'd tell everyone about my great girlfriend and then tell them she went to a different school.

So now hes saying it was an internet hoax, even though he said they had met in Hawaii? And then ESPN, SI, AP, and the LA times reported on the story without even checking it out? Truly fucked up

I just got home and barely got wind of this. Deadspin's article pulls no punches, but i turn on ESPN and they are like "He was a victim of a hoax".

This reminds me of Stephen Ireland, former Manchester City player, who came up with a story about his dead grandmother so he could get a compassionate leave from the National Team. Someone phoned his grandmother, both of them, actually, and they turned out to be alive. The dumbest thing about that shit was the real reason for him wanting to leave: his girlfriend had a miscarriage. Dude had a legitimate reason for compassionate leave and he decided to come up with a moronic story.

Just trying to distract for the Alabama game.

Notre Dame strikes again.

you couldn't give a basic description of the story?, you just dumped in a url!!!, couldn't even make it a link....

@PenguinDust said:

Wow, there's a website for these inventive relationships. I love the internet.

That's so delightfully pathetic.

@bigsmoke77 said:

you couldn't give a basic description of the story?, you just dumped in a url!!!, couldn't even make it a link....

The basic description is he faked a fake person's death?

And yeah my phone makes it a pain to format posts, sorry you had to copy paste.

My local sports coverage mentioned the Deadspin article but also said it was a hoax. Seems odd considering all evidence the article mentions.

That said, the news coverage noted he was aware it was a hoax as of December because someone called him from his "dead" girlfriend's number.

For my marbles, we haven't heard the last of this - even if the above were true - there are way too many inconsistencies pointed out in the Deadspin coverage.

@Iodine said:

@bigsmoke77 said:

you couldn't give a basic description of the story?, you just dumped in a url!!!, couldn't even make it a link....

The basic description is he faked a fake person's death?

And yeah my phone makes it a pain to format posts, sorry you had to copy paste.

You best be. That is one mouse click and two seconds of my life back you owe me sir! ;D

Say what you will about Deadspin, that article is a beautiful piece of journalism.  
 
Notre Dame put out a statement saying that in late December the Te'o family came to them saying they were a victim of a hoax. Doubtful considering the details, but still, this is crazy as fuck.

Keepin' it classy Notre Dame.

@PenguinDust said:

I heard about this on PTI this evening. Reminds me of "...my girlfriend? You wouldn't know her. She lives in Canada."

The story is sort of bizarre, but then again, who among us hasn't inventing an undefined girlfriend to boast about to the other guys on the team, then "killed" her off to improve our chances at winning the Heisman Trophy? I've done it at least three times and I'll keep doing it until I win my damn trophy. Imaginary girlfriends beware, your days are numbered.

Wow, there's a website for these inventive relationships. I love the internet.

I'm in tears. Thank you so much for this gift.

You don't know her, she goes to a different school!

I feel better about watching them get shelacked in the national championship, a little bit. Granted Nick Saban is the devil and probably forced Monti T'eo to fabricate the existence of a girlfriend; stupidity of the national media notwithstanding.

I'm guessing he posted a girl advice thread on our forums, and one of us suggested he fake his own death. Something got lost in translation, I'm sure.

Te'o is absolute human garbage, he said he met her multiple times in person and then did this everywhere:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BGgIwSc8M3M#!

Now he claims he was not in on it and just got Catfished. Fuck that.

I bet he will be able to convince a lot of people that he was tricked the whole time. Clearly, the dude is a master manipulator.

It's like people forget the internet and media exists, why bother trying to lie?

@HaltIamReptar said:

I bet he will be able to convince a lot of people that he was tricked the whole time. Clearly, the dude is a master manipulator.

It's documented that he said things that indicated she existed. How can you reliably deny what you said in the past if it was recorded?

@golguin said:

@HaltIamReptar said:

I bet he will be able to convince a lot of people that he was tricked the whole time. Clearly, the dude is a master manipulator.

It's documented that he said things that indicated she existed. How can you reliably deny what you said in the past if it was recorded?

I've been reading various comments and reactions around the internet, and there are loads of people who are buying into the "no I meant we met online" or "she never showed every time we tried to meet" stuff. I don't know what I'm saying here. It's just interesting to me that people want to believe him so badly they will eat up anything he says.

I'm really interested to see how all of this plays out. I hope for Te'o's sake that, as embarrassing as it would be, he was not actually in on it. But try as I might, I just can't see a way that he's the victim in this one.

So there's two sides to this story - One he says he was victim to a terrible and mean prank and she never existed in the first place. Second the alleged perpetrator of the prank (a high school teammate of his) says Monti Te'o knew she wasn't real and used her death as publicity for himself.

Haha holy fuck, this picture

I knew something was fishy when he showed a picture of his dead "girlfriend."

It's also crazy (not really) how no news organization bothered to do any research this whole time. "There's no record of her existing anywhere, but he's a star linebacker for a famous university and she has a Twitter account, so of course she's real."

He's totally in on it, but it looks like the other dude will take the fall, it seems.

A star athlete who's full of shit?

Has the world gone topsy-turvy?!

An average player makes up a story about a dead girlfriend to become more marketable? What the fuck has happened to sports!

College athletics is a scummy business and I find it unwatchable. ESPN hasn't done much investigative journalism in years and have been known for stealing stories. It funny when ESPN reports a story that other sites like Yahoo, Fox Sports or Deadspin broke first. Monti Te'o has some explaining to do. I beat his interview for the NFL combine will be a dossy. He'll claim he was the victim of a prank but all the evidence presented in the Deadspin article points that he might have been involved.

The person who should be thanking Monti is Lance Armstrong. People will forget that Lance confessed to Oprah about taking performance enhancing drugs. After years of strongly denying he took them to win seven consecutive Tour de Frances.

This shocking, dramatic news could not possibly affect my life less.

This just keeps getting better and better the more that comes out. I love the blind faith I've seen Notre Dame fans give to Te'o. It's amazing. Remember how when the dirt came out about Joe Paterno and Penn State refused to accept that their idol could do any wrong while the rest of the country could only look on and think that Penn State fans just didn't get it? Congratulations Notre Dame fans... you're the new Penn State fans.

I personally have a difficult time believing the universities statement given their handling of the 2010 case where two players raped/sexually assaulted a 19 year old girl and nothing ever came of it. It's certainly tells me a ton about the lengths you're willing to go protect your athletes.

As for Te'o, I'm willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but it doesn't look good. If she wasn't real, why did he say things in interviews like, "I can't wait to see her again?" And if the Te'o family knew about this in December, why is it just now coming out? The Big Lead also had a few interesting tidbits from Te'o where he said he was getting letters from her long after she had passed?

@BRich said:

Te'o is absolute human garbage, he said he met her multiple times in person and then did this everywhere:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BGgIwSc8M3M#!

Now he claims he was not in on it and just got Catfished. Fuck that.

In all fairness, he could have claimed he met her in person because he was embarrassed. There's a serious stigma about online relationships in this country that big macho guy like Te'o would want to avoid.

Not saying that's what happened, but with the limited details available to us now it's plausible.