Manti Te’o documentary (Netflix)

#51
#51
Watched the first episode. I can't say that my opinion on this situation has changed yet, but I will say that in some ways there is a subtle attempt to paint the scammer as a sympathetic figure, which is absolutely insane.
 
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#52
#52
K-town Vol Fan said:
Just finished watching it. I dont think there's any chance he was in on it. It basically ruined his life. I do think due to his background and lack of previous relationships he was too quick to label Lennay his GF. I also think labeling her his GF helped his Heisman campaign, and I think that influenced his decision to use that label.

I wonder how this has effected his faith. He hated ND. He didn't want to go there. He wanted to go to USC all along but some ND fan in the church said "go to ND" and Manti just went because he thought it was God's plan. THIS was God's plan? Ruin your life, ruin your career, make you a literal joke forever. Wouldn't sit well with me.

If he has just followed his heart and went to USC none of this would have ever happened.
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There's got to be more behind why he didn't go to USC. You see how he looked announcing on NSD and during some of those first media appearances at ND? It looks like a hostage video.
 
#53
#53
Firebirdparts said:
I thought you were gonna say that the real story was how he was so overhyped as a player. I guess he did fine in the NFL. I don't doubt that you get a boost if the media believes your girlfriend died. I still remember, all these years later, in the 2012 Championship game, somebody posted/Youtube/something a drinking game in which one of the rules was "Every time Mante Teo misses a tackle you take a shot".
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He was awesome until his head got royally ****ed up.
 
#54
#54
bamawriter said:
You shouldn't feel bad for him. He "got screwed" because he decided to embellish the story, tell it to any reporter that would listen, and soaked in the adulation of yet another Notre Dame myth. Whether or not he was actually duped (and I'm still not convinced 10 years later), he told so many lies that were of his own making, not the scammer's. And as for folks asking if he was gay, those folks were NFL personnel guys rather than reporters. And frankly, it's a totally fair question to ask.
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Wait, you think he was in on it?
 
#56
#56
05_never_again said:
Watched the first episode. I can't say that my opinion on this situation has changed yet, but I will say that in some ways there is a subtle attempt to paint the scammer as a sympathetic figure, which is absolutely insane.
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You don't have sympathy for people with gender confusion? ****, I do. Doesn't make everything alright but it helps to understand what happened.

Gender confusion wasn't even a topic when I was a kid. My peers with gender confusion were ****ed and a lot of them probabky did bizarre things because they don't know what was happening to them, much like this confused person.
 
#58
#58
"After we get caught, you'll transition into being a woman so we can explain your strange behavior and throw people off the scent of our PR conspiracy." - Manti Te'o, probably
 
#60
#60
n_huffhines said:
Wait, you think he was in on it?
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I do. I cannot imagine another scenario short of him being the dumbest MFer that ever lived. If he thought she was a real person, how is it that he figured he could make up so much BS about their "relationship" and not expect to be called on it? I mean, if he thought she was real, how is it that he wasn't worried about her family going to the press and saying "Our daugher/sister/cousin never went to Hawaii to meet his parents, he never sent flowers to her funeral, <insert any other easily disprovable BS>"?

He wasn't worried about it coming out because he knew these people didn't exist.
 
#61
#61
bamawriter said:
I do. I cannot imagine another scenario short of his being the dumbest MFer that ever lived. If he thought she was a real person, how is it that he figured he could make up so much BS about their "relationship" and not expect to be called on it? I mean, if he thought she was real, how is it that he wasn't worried about her family going to the press and saying "Our daugher/sister/cousin never went to Hawaii to meet his parents, he never sent flowers to her funeral, <insert any other easily disprovable BS>"?

He wasn't worried about it coming out because he knew these people didn't exist.
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Honestly, I don't find it that unbelievable that he would be gullible enough to get catfished. It happens. There are many documented cases. I also don't find it unbelievable that a 21 YO kid with a national spotlight didn't know how to come out with the truth once he knew what it was.

I find this scenario far more plausible than it being a PR conspiracy.
 
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#62
#62
I also find Manti to be convincing. I think he has a pure heart. He seems like exactly the kind of guy who would be gullible.

Probably a little bit of prejudice/stereotyping on my part, but Polynesian Mormons are either the salt of the earth or kinda gangster, and he's definitely not the latter.
 
#63
#63
bamawriter said:
I do. I cannot imagine another scenario short of him being the dumbest MFer that ever lived. If he thought she was a real person, how is it that he figured he could make up so much BS about their "relationship" and not expect to be called on it? I mean, if he thought she was real, how is it that he wasn't worried about her family going to the press and saying "Our daugher/sister/cousin never went to Hawaii to meet his parents, he never sent flowers to her funeral, <insert any other easily disprovable BS>"?

He wasn't worried about it coming out because he knew these people didn't exist.
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Weren't the roses sent to "her" house? What am I missing about the roses?
 
#64
#64
n_huffhines said:
Honestly, I don't find it that unbelievable that he would be gullible enough to get catfished. It happens. There are many documented cases. I also don't find it unbelievable that a 21 YO kid with a national spotlight didn't know how to come out with the truth once he knew what it was.

I find this scenario far more plausible than it being a PR conspiracy.
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But there is a PR angle either way. He either made up everything, or he got catfished and made up a large chunk of what he told the media. It's hard for me to believe that he thought she was real AND that he thought her friends and family would never call him out on the lies. That is a level of gutsy stupidity that I have trouble believing.
 
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#66
#66
bamawriter said:
But there is a PR angle either way. He either made up everything, or he got catfished and made up a large chunk of what he told the media. It's hard for me to believe that he thought she was real AND that he thought her friends and family would never call him out on the lies. That is a level of gutsy stupidity that I have trouble believing.
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Manti Te'o hopes 1-800-FLOWERS receipt from arrangement he sent to funeral proves he was duped by 'fake girlfriend' Lennay Kekua
 
#69
#69
bamawriter said:
No. He said he sent them to the funeral.
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He may have thought that. He sent them to an address. He might have just assumed the address he was given was to a funeral home. Idk. It is weird, after doing some digging, he had multiple family members say that Manti and her met at Stanford, and they witnessed it. I wish they would have addressed this in the doc.
 
#70
#70
05_never_again said:
I can't put myself in his shoes, but I also can't envision myself having a supposed attachment like that in the first place with a person I'd never met, and I'd probably be too embarrassed to tell the media about my obsession with an online girlfriend I'd never actually met in person.

I've already said that insofar as he was genuinely duped I feel sorry for him. However, it is also a fact that even if he was 100% duped, he fabricated and exaggerated details of the "relationship" when he talked to the media, and I think it did it with an eye towards his Heisman campaign. If you want to talk about cynicism, now that's pretty cynical. Insofar as he did that, I have absolutely zero sympathy for him.
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See, that's the problem though.
I don't know you in person that I know of. Couldn't pick you out of a lineup if my life depended on it . That being said, I can tell that you're probably a guy over the age of 40 or 45. No problem, I am also.

My point being that at 21 or 22 we probably did things the old fashioned way. Saw a girl out somewhere you thought was cute, flirted, got the digits, and so on and so forth.

Things just don't work like that anymore. Well, they do just not for most people. Hell, I have a niece who is engaged to some guy she has met one time for a week. The rest of their 2 year relationship has been online/phone.
 
#71
#71
K-town Vol Fan said:
He may have thought that. He sent them to an address. He might have just assumed the address he was given was to a funeral home. Idk. It is weird, after doing some digging, he had multiple family members say that Manti and her met at Stanford, and they witnessed it. I wish they would have addressed this in the doc.
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They touched on it briefly. But it's yet another reason why the catfishing doesn't add up.
 
#72
#72
K-town Vol Fan said:
He may have thought that. He sent them to an address. He might have just assumed the address he was given was to a funeral home. Idk. It is weird, after doing some digging, he had multiple family members say that Manti and her met at Stanford, and they witnessed it. I wish they would have addressed this in the doc.
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The newspaper tells readers today that the earlier story was based in large part on "a taped interview on Oct. 10 with Te'o's parents, Brian and Ottilia, Te'o's father said the initial meeting between Manti and [the girlfriend] came in person in late November 2009, when Notre Dame played Stanford in Palo, Alto, Calif. The detail included the touching of hands and the fact Manti thought she was cute."

The young woman who Te'o had said was his girlfriend, and who he said he had been told died last September, was supposedly named Lennay Kekua. Te'o now says, according to Notre Dame Vice President Jack Swarbrick, that it "was exclusively an online relationship."

Swarbrick was asked Wednesday if it is his understanding "that Manti and this woman have never physically met face to face?" His response: "correct."

But here's what the Tribune, based on its interview with Te'o's parents, wrote in October about how Te'o met "Kekua":

"Lennay Kekua was a Stanford student and Cardinal football fan when the two exchanged glances, handshakes and phone numbers that fateful weekend three seasons ago.
"She was gifted in music, multi-lingual, had dreams grounded in reality and the talent to catch up to them.
"The plan was for Kekua to spend extensive time with the whole Te'o family when upwards of 40 of them came to South Bend in mid-November for ND's Senior Day date with Wake Forest.
" 'They started out as just friends,' Brian Te'o said. 'Every once in a while, she would travel to Hawaii, and that happened to be the time Manti was home, so he would meet with her there. But within the last year, they became a couple.
" 'And we came to the realization that she could be our daughter-in-law​

Manti Te'o: Story Attributed To Parents Hard To Reconcile With Hoax Report
 
#75
#75
K-town Vol Fan said:
The newspaper tells readers today that the earlier story was based in large part on "a taped interview on Oct. 10 with Te'o's parents, Brian and Ottilia, Te'o's father said the initial meeting between Manti and [the girlfriend] came in person in late November 2009, when Notre Dame played Stanford in Palo, Alto, Calif. The detail included the touching of hands and the fact Manti thought she was cute."

The young woman who Te'o had said was his girlfriend, and who he said he had been told died last September, was supposedly named Lennay Kekua. Te'o now says, according to Notre Dame Vice President Jack Swarbrick, that it "was exclusively an online relationship."

Swarbrick was asked Wednesday if it is his understanding "that Manti and this woman have never physically met face to face?" His response: "correct."

But here's what the Tribune, based on its interview with Te'o's parents, wrote in October about how Te'o met "Kekua":

"Lennay Kekua was a Stanford student and Cardinal football fan when the two exchanged glances, handshakes and phone numbers that fateful weekend three seasons ago.
"She was gifted in music, multi-lingual, had dreams grounded in reality and the talent to catch up to them.
"The plan was for Kekua to spend extensive time with the whole Te'o family when upwards of 40 of them came to South Bend in mid-November for ND's Senior Day date with Wake Forest.
" 'They started out as just friends,' Brian Te'o said. 'Every once in a while, she would travel to Hawaii, and that happened to be the time Manti was home, so he would meet with her there. But within the last year, they became a couple.
" 'And we came to the realization that she could be our daughter-in-law​

Manti Te'o: Story Attributed To Parents Hard To Reconcile With Hoax Report
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None of that says they personally saw it. He said he told them he met her because he was embarrassed to say he hadn't. They took him at his word, and the sports media didn't scrutinize or dig any deeper at all, that's the real story, they were so eager to boost up Notre Dame and this whole deal that they took it and ran with it. It happens all the time, with far more serious subjects.
 
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