2013 College Football off-season

[Andy]

So Schaap is releasing quotes on ESPN now and Te'o was referring to himself in the third person? wtf? Did I hear that right?

I didn't hear anything to that extent.

 

The only surprising thing I heard out of that exchange between Schaap and Jay Harris was that this Tuiasosopo apparently called Te'o two days ago and apologized for the scam (which would've been the same day, obviously, that this story came out). Schaap said this was backed up with Twitter messages which Te'o showed him.

[Andy]

Also of note is that Te'o did not know this was a hoax when he first got the resurrection phone call on Dec. 6 as widely assumed, that was just a continuation of said hoax. Until the apology call Wednesday, Te'o did not know for certain whether the girl existed.

[Guest]

So Te'o basically went to Notre Dame in late December with "I'm not sure if my girlfriend is real, can you look into that for me?"

[Smack]

So maybe he really is just that dumb.

[Andy]

So Te'o basically went to Notre Dame in late December with "I'm not sure if my girlfriend is real, can you look into that for me?"

If I'm reading between the lines correctly, Te'o suspected something was up when he went to ND, ND's report confirmed a hoax on Jan. 5. Te'o wasn't 100 percent certain there wasn't a Lennay Kekua (by which I assume he meant he didn't know if there was a girl at the center of this hoax) until Tuiasosopo apologized two days ago.

[Smack]

So he admitted to Schaap that he lied repeatedly.

[Andy]

So he admitted to Schaap that he lied repeatedly.

I think we all knew he did, otherwise this story wouldn't have blown up in the fall and it wouldn't matter now.

[manbearcub]

Has he explained the 8 hour phone calls, trips to hawaii, and meeting in the stanford parking lot yet.

[Andy]

Has he explained the 8 hour phone calls, trips to hawaii, and meeting in the stanford parking lot yet.

- He said the 8-hour phone calls didn't start until she was ostensibly in the hospital post-'car wreck'. They went from late April until her supposed 'death'

 

- He admitted that he lied to his parents about meeting with her, and his dad told the press that story

[Smack]

Has he explained the 8 hour phone calls, trips to hawaii, and meeting in the stanford parking lot yet.

- He said the 8-hour phone calls didn't start until she was ostensibly in the hospital post-'car wreck'. They went from late April until her supposed 'death'

 

- He admitted that he lied to his parents about meeting with her, and his dad told the press that story

 

He also admitted lying to the media directly about meeting her.

[Andy]

Has he explained the 8 hour phone calls, trips to hawaii, and meeting in the stanford parking lot yet.

- He said the 8-hour phone calls didn't start until she was ostensibly in the hospital post-'car wreck'. They went from late April until her supposed 'death'

 

- He admitted that he lied to his parents about meeting with her, and his dad told the press that story

 

He also admitted lying to the media directly about meeting her.

Yes. I was directly answering manbearcub's question, though.

[Smack]

So Schaap is releasing quotes on ESPN now and Te'o was referring to himself in the third person? wtf? Did I hear that right?

I didn't hear anything to that extent.

 

The only surprising thing I heard out of that exchange between Schaap and Jay Harris was that this Tuiasosopo apparently called Te'o two days ago and apologized for the scam (which would've been the same day, obviously, that this story came out). Schaap said this was backed up with Twitter messages which Te'o showed him.

 

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8859212

 

1:48 mark he's referring to himself in the third person

 

So I kind of tailored my stories to have people think that, yeah, he met her before she passed away

[Andy]

Oh. Well, he's speaking from the POV of other people so, yeah, that's a complicated sentence. He's not an English major, that's for sure.

[davell]

I feel bad for Schaap. Hopefully this transcript gets published online, at the very least. No question about her funeral, the flowers, why he wasn't there? Or why he readily brought it up even after hearing from her in December? Love of his,life supposedly. I think he was duped, but I think he's playing the hell out of THAT part of it and not the part where he was using it for his own personal gain. Human nature, obviously, but he needs to acknowledge and apologize for it, because he's not clear of any wrongdoing here. It'll blow over, as everything does eventually, but he likely thinks this was it. But it isn't going away THAT easy. Edited January 19, 2013 by davell

[Smack]

It's just one more weird thing. I still don't buy his explanations. It's too crazy and I still think the gay angle might be the best explanation.

[Andy]

It's just one more weird thing. I still don't buy his explanations. It's too crazy and I still think the gay angle might be the best explanation.

It could be. If so he's way ahead of the game as TMZ wrote recently about a girl he apparently dated for a couple of months until recently.

[OleMissCub]

Also weird that it's not a televised interview and that he waited til the weekend, when news gets buried, to do it.

So suspicious that he doesn't want his public humiliation to be at the top of the news, you're right.

 

just like pulling off a bandaid. this douche/gullible idiot/douchey-gullible idiot or whatever he is at this point just needs to get it over with and take his beating. We Americans won't be done with him until he tearfully apologizes to his family and fans and then enters some sort of rehab.

 

"We Americans"? You're bordering on psychotic.

 

Wow, dude you are way too emotionally invested in this story if you actually think the tone of that post had even a hint of seriousness to it. I suppose I should have written it as "by golly, we Americans"

[OleMissCub]

It's just one more weird thing. I still don't buy his explanations. It's too crazy and I still think the gay angle might be the best explanation.

It could be. If so he's way ahead of the game as TMZ wrote recently about a girl he apparently dated for a couple of months until recently.

 

He was catfishing her into thinking he's straight.

[Smack]

Schaap asked why Te'o didn't go to see Kekua in the hospital.

 

"It never really crossed my mind. I don't know. I was in school," he said.

 

It never really crossed his mind, to go see the love of his life in the hospital.

 

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8859077/manti-teo-notre-dame-fighting-irish-denies-being-part-hoax-late-girlfriend

[Guest]

Schaap asked why Te'o didn't go to see Kekua in the hospital.

 

"It never really crossed my mind. I don't know. I was in school," he said.

 

It never really crossed his mind, to go see the love of his life in the hospital.

 

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8859077/manti-teo-notre-dame-fighting-irish-denies-being-part-hoax-late-girlfriend

 

LOL. Awesome.

[Guest]

Schaap asked why Te'o didn't go to see Kekua in the hospital.

 

"It never really crossed my mind. I don't know. I was in school," he said.

 

It never really crossed his mind, to go see the love of his life in the hospital.

 

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8859077/manti-teo-notre-dame-fighting-irish-denies-being-part-hoax-late-girlfriend

 

@TravHaneyESPN: Excuse me, ND didn't have classes from May 11 until June 18. Plenty of time for hospital visit, I'd think. http://t.co/V9Tqv03b

[Tracer Bullet]

It's just one more weird thing. I still don't buy his explanations. It's too crazy and I still think the gay angle might be the best explanation.

 

The guy called to apologize. I mean. What else do you need?

[davell]

Schaap asked why Te'o didn't go to see Kekua in the hospital.

 

"It never really crossed my mind. I don't know. I was in school," he said.

 

It never really crossed his mind, to go see the love of his life in the hospital.

 

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8859077/manti-teo-notre-dame-fighting-irish-denies-being-part-hoax-late-girlfriend

I would take a couple days off at a time to play Super Tecmo Bowl. I think anyone could find time to see "the love of their life".

[UMFan83]

I thought this excerpt from Bill Simmons Mailbag was appropriate here:

 

Q: You have established the Levels of Losing. This whole Manti Te'o thing has got me thinking of the Levels of Indefensibly Defending Sports Figures. There has to be a certain level to where you can't defend your favorite stars without coming off as a pathetic, nonsensical fan. If there were five levels in all, Joe Paterno's supporters would be the highest (Level 5). Mel Gibson's fans are a 4 but dying to be a 5. Every Notre Dame fan defending Manti right now would probably be a 3 (with the chance to climb). This idea is in its infancy stages, how can you help?

—Joe, Syracuse

 

SG: Come on, you barely need any tweaking! You were right there! Fine, I'll help. You should have gone with six levels (you missed one).

 

Level 1: Reserved for harmless stuff — like Boston fans defending Kevin Garnett every time he acts like a bully or an a-hole (just because he's on our team and we love him and that's what you do when it's your guy), or Cowboys fans blindly defending Tony Romo's litany of choke jobs just because they love Tony Romo, or Miami fans refusing to admit that Dwyane Wade is an occasionally dirty player, or Utah fans arguing that Karl Malone really DID have some clutch moments. All benevolent fan-defending goes here.

 

Level 2: A blown-out version of the first level — the stakes are a little higher only because there's a little more of that hits-too-close-to-home sensitivity. Like how Ravens fans fly off the handle every time someone jokes about Ray Lewis's incident from 2000. Yes, you could throw Kobe and the Lakers fans in here. As well as Red Sox fans post-2004 right after any steroids joke about Manny or Papi.

 

Level 3: Any longtime O.J. Simpson fan now making the "If we're going to make excuses for Junior Seau, why can't we make the same excuses for everything that happened to O.J. after he retired? What if he has CTE, too?" defense. This gets its own level. By the way, I'm all-in on the CTE O.J. defense. He should start pushing it right now.

 

Level 4: Any Notre Dame fan pushing the whole "Look, Manti is the one who's a victim here!" scenario. If you play the catfishing/naive angle hard enough, the "victim" door is juuuuuuuuuuuuuust open enough that they don't sound completely insane. Just marginally insane.

 

Level 5: Anyone defending baseball cheaters (Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, etc.) with the always hilarious "We don't know for sure" defense or the equally hilarious "Come on, everyone was cheating, any competitive person would have done what they did" defense. All PED defenses go here. So does everyone defending Lance Armstrong's last two decades of lying/cheating/bullying/threatening/intimidating because "he did some real good, too."

 

Level 6: Anyone who wanted the Paterno statue to stay up; anyone who thinks that Paterno and/or Penn State's administration didn't have an inkling that something was at the very least a little off with Jerry Sandusky; anyone who rushed out a mostly flattering post-scandal biography about Paterno without waiting for the entire investigation to play out; and anyone who said the words, "Well, this may have complicated Joe's legacy, but it didn't change all the great things he did." Welcome to the highest level of Indefensibly Defending Sports Figures.

[USSoccer]

Te'o's interview reads like someone frantically trying to mix truths with half truths with outright lies to try and dig their way out of a hole.