Breaking Down the Manti Te’o Mess

We’ll say that I’ve been waiting for the right story to break back into blogging, and this Manti T’eo hoax was eying me down for the last couple of days. It’s one of the most intriguing sports/entertainment stories for as long as I can remember, and even if you are annoyed of it or think it’s getting too much attention, you’re still following the story. Everyone still talks about all of the questionable and sketchy details that come out everyday, and still, no one has a clue what the truth is.

I’m going to start off by laying out some of the alleged facts that have come out since this story broke. The initial statements by Te’o and his lawyers at Notre Dame tried to lead this great nation to believe that Te’o had been duped by someone (reportedly some Tuiasosopo character) and Te’o was a victim of some sick joke. So just to make sure it’s clear, Te’o and his desperate Notre Dame family were telling us that some random guy had been faking as a dying girl for over a year, spent countless hours every week convincing Te’o he was a girl, got Manti to commit to a relationship before ever meeting face to face, to eventually just die of leukemia. I call bluff right away. What possible gain could come out of doing something like that other than seeing your buddies after a long day of being some guy’s online girlfriend and saying, “Dude, I got this guy to say he loves me today.” It just doesn’t add up, yet there were still many, many Golden Domers that bought into this story and defended their Slighting Irish. The next big plot twist in this Catfish episode was when Manti Te’o paid adage to the 1920’s and sat down with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap for a written interview with no cameras. Really, that’s your first move Manti? Nothing says innocent victim more than doing an interview the way someone who is guilty or lying would do it. I mean even Lance had the ball to sit down in front of a camera and lie. Some inconsistencies in stories came out in that interview and following it, but those are not worth noting. We have to remember Manti is still a kid and wherever and however this story started to spiral out of control, I can get him twisting his words as he knew the severity of whatever was actually happening.

At this point, most people believed either one of two things: Manti Te’o had been embarrassingly tricked by an elaborate plan and turned out to be more stupid and gullible than most Notre Dame fans, or that he was in on the hoax as some pathetic attempt to try to gain some sympathy hype from media outlets. Either way, Te’o comes out losing some sort of credibility from the public eye and from NFL teams. The latest news is that Tuiasosopo’s attorney stated that he was the one acting as the girlfriend for their hundreds of hours of phone calls and thousands of texts, and Te’o released voicemails left by the He-She voice on the other side of the phone in an interview with Katie Couric (whose publicist was hired by Te’o the day before the interview). Now I’ll let you find those voicemails online if you want but trust me, either Tuiasosopo needs to work alongside Seth McFarlane doing voice-overs or it’s a girl on the other side. Then we learn that Te’o and Tuiasosopo have met in person before and Te’o has greeted him with a hug before. All of this has led to a new third conclusion people have come up with which is that Te’o did have a meaningful relationship over the phone with Tuiasosopo, but they were man-to-man conversations with both fully aware of who they were. That basically it was all an act to cover up Manti’s sexuality, whether gay or bisexual. Unfortunately, this is the most convincing story that I’ve heard so far. It would explain the lies he told to media and his father over and over again as he was just trying to avoid the inevitable backlash. It would explain the phone records and the befuddlement as to how Te’o could fall for such a foolish prank. It would explain the period of time where many people were believed to have sat on the story and not release it to the public, including Notre Dame and ESPN. Can’t you imagine Te’o telling the real truth as to what was going on to Notre Dame, and Notre Dame relaying that news to ESPN when they came to Notre Dame for a statement. As evil as an empire as ESPN is, I don’t see them or Notre Dame going public with a player’s sexuality like that. They knew the consequences of going public with something of that magnitude and wanted to protect Manti in this situation.

I’m not saying that I think Te’o is gay or bi. I just think that story is the one that connects the most dots and answers the most questions. I actually pray that it isn’t the case and he is just really gullible or really desperate for attention. Just to be clear, I’m not saying that because I would have a problem with a gay, bi, or even just a confused player in a pro sport. I just hope that Manti didn’t fabricate this whole story, tell lies on lies on lies, ruin his reputation as a football player and person all because we still live in a society where whatever territory comes with that is a hell of a lot better than telling the truth about who he really is. That’s the worst possible scenario, in my opinion. Chances are we’ll never know the whole truth though, so to all you Manti Te’o skeptics and believers out there, Roll Tide!