College Football 2012 Season

[Guynemer]

Why go to the trouble of inventing a beard, only to kill her off?

Makes no sense.

[-Jrabbit]

Whatevs. I've got no skin in this game.

[Al B. Sure!]

Arizona Cardinals fullback Reagan Mauia is claiming he met the fictional woman:

Reagan Mauia, an Arizona Cardinals fullback, said he believes Kekua existed because he met her in person when he and other Polynesian teammates and Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu went to do charity work in American Samoa in June 2011.

"This was before her and Manti," Mauia said Wednesday evening. "I don't think Manti was even in the picture, but she and I became good friends. We would talk off and on, just checking up on each other kind of thing. I am close to her family. When she was going through the loss of her father, I was -- I offered a comforting shoulder and just someone to bounce her emotions off. That was just from meeting her in Samoa."

A tweet posted Wednesday night by @LennayKay, Kekua's assumed Twitter account, read: "It isn't fair to drag Reagan and Troy into this.. a lot of truths and myths need to be addressed here, and they will be at noon PST tomorrow."

Mauia said Tuiasosopo -- whom Mauia believes is Kekua's cousin -- introduced the two. After the initial meeting, Mauia said he met her at an "after-party" for all of the athletes involved in the camp.

"She was tall," he said. "Volleyball-type of physique. She was athletic, tall, beautiful. Long hair. Polynesian. She looked like a model ... "

He said it is his understanding that Kekua's mother is operating her Twitter account. He said he'd never met her mother. When told by a reporter that she apparently might not have existed, Mauia said: "No, she is real."

Apparently others went down this rabbit hole

[Imran Siddiqui]

Not at all. People get duped over the internet all the time.

But he actually met her. Supposedly multiple times.

[MRT144]

Te'o is either a liar or an idiot. Neither is flattering.

[-Jrabbit]

That's all I was really getting at.

Incredibly naive is another possibility.

[SlowwHand]

It's also possible that he only saw what he expected to see. That wouldn't make him an idiot.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

What if the chick was Manti's beard?

This is the most reasonable explanation for all of this that I've been able to come up with. As for why kill her...who knows? Could be lots of reasons.

But if that's what it is why did ND, who apparently hired an investigator to track this down a month ago, come out with a statement saying he was duped? I can see them agreeing not to out him but I have to think they'd do it with a "no comment" instead of a lie.

In any case, I can only assume that this means he's now the Jets first round pick. If he really was duped then he may be the first player to get a negative score when he takes the Wonderlic.

[ColdWizard]

This was all perpetrated by Lance Armstrong to deflect attention from his confession.


Or love is blind and Te'o hadn't yet learned that people on the internet are incredible douchebags.

[MRT144]

"Now, we're both pronouncing the name differently but there's no real way to check the pronunciation, because she doesn't exist." NPR is the best.

[Al B. Sure!]

What if I told you, the Hawaiian was lyin'? ESPN 30 for 30. No Dame: the Manti Te'o Story


Also, a new web craze has replaced Tebowing:

[Boris Godunov]

So sorry for Boris... Oregon goes back to obscurity.

I'd make a substantial wager that Oregon goes to a BCS bowl next season. Meanwhile, Wisconsin will be Ohio State's *****.

[Boris Godunov]

I just don't see a clear motive for him to do this, Jr.

Publicity stunt. Read the Deadspin article.

Having a sob story in the media is a good way to garner attention in sports. And that attention might lead to sympathy votes in a certain award race...

[-Jrabbit]

Certainly Joe THEESman could shed some light on Notre Dame's willingness to do whatever it takes to snag some individual post-season awards.

[Boris Godunov]

Te'o mentioned his dead girlfriend at least twice after the point when he allegedly knew it was a hoax:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/manti-t...85--ncaaf.html

[Guynemer]

Publicity stunt. Read the Deadspin article.

Having a sob story in the media is a good way to garner attention in sports. And that attention might lead to sympathy votes in a certain award race...

He had a real dead grandmother. Not sure that adds up.

[Boris Godunov]

He had a real dead grandmother. Not sure that adds up.

Dead grandmothers are pretty common. News outlets don't really go nuts over grandparents dying.

But a gorgeous 22-year-old girlfriend dying of Leukemia, now that's news. It's practically designed for those ESPN vignettes.

Did I mention Te'o was still talking about the girl as if she were real after the date he claims he knew she was a hoax?

[Ben Kenobi]

Boris, what if I told you she was real? Then this all makes sense. I think I know the scam he's doing. All this actually helps him, btw.

[Al B. Sure!]

The person who allegedly orchestrated the hoax was a Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. Recognize the name? I'm sure MRT does. Remember him?



Former 2nd round pick out of Washington, Raiders and Jets QB, Marques Tuiasosopo is his cousin.

[DanS]

That Te'o story sounded really bizarre at first, but I can see how somebody could be duped. Many of the people that I know are internet-only friendships and I casually dated somebody internet-only for a short time. The fact that the relationship developed over 3 years probably made him trust more.

Him implying that he met her in person is no big deal. Parents of a certain generation may not get it. And him not spilling the beans two days after he received a phone call from the dead Lennay seems perfectly normal -- I bet he didn't know what to believe then.

There are some amazing twists and turns to the story. Like whether the person to whom he was talking on the telephone was actually a girl. I'm betting it actually was a girl. Like Tuiasasopo's cousin or whatever.