Manti Te'o - First-round bust for Cleveland Browns | Page 3 | Barking Hard

Manti Te'o - First-round bust for Cleveland Browns

They now apparently have a suspect who apparently was pissed at Te'o for no reason and took a class mates photo to make the fake one. The suspects name is Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and apparently he knows Te'o. It could close the door on this "Manti did it for press" deal. That always struck me as odd considering Manti was a top recruit and never struggled to get press. He had "first round pick" written all over him from the get go.

Now a lot of people are backing Te'o from coaching staff, team mates and writers saying you cannot fake the kind of raw emotion you saw from Te'o.

But now Arizona Cardinals fullback, Raegan Maui'a, claims Lennay Kekua (The fake girl) is actually a real person he has met and became friends with.

What the fuck is going on!?
 
It's just insanely weird. Lot of people saying she was created in 2008 by Teo's friend Tuiasosopo, some of those people friends and relatives of the latter. If this ex-Cardinal says Tui introduced him to her in Hawaii, and we know she doesn't exist at least in any legal sense, he was carrying out the rouse with a "live fake girl."

So many questions. Teo's family talking about meeting her when she visited Hawaii, Teo certainly talking about her as someone he saw in person, and the school letting the media write long stories about the relationship long after they (allegedly) knew she didn't exist. If you buy their version, they sat on it until after the Heisman voting.

It doesn't play out super well for him either way.
 
I'm going to think suggesting he made up a lie years ago because he somehow knew he'd be a close second in Heisman voting and thought it might give him the win is probably an idea more to generate website hits rather than for anyone rational to take seriously.

I agree with the guy over at NFL.com - Te'o found out just before the Bama game and that's why he didn't have his head in the game.
 
Kind of agree with you... but either version ends up with a lot of weirdness. "The lie" was never spoken of until this year, which is interesting, too. His family indicating they'd met her... keeping it on the QT through the big game and Heisman voting... emerging likelihood that a friend of his made her up... it's all so strange.
 
I actually think he's probably more likely lying, but KoK has a strong point about being unwilling to date non-Mormons. When you're that deep in, things like that control and define you.
King of Kings said:
In all seriousness?

This guy is a returned Missionary and fervent believer in a religious cult that believes some wacked out bullshit such as Jesus and his Apostles came down from the skies to ordain a 15 year old, well known con artist with a new and improved bible and made him the chosen one, that you can baptize spirits out of hell and into heaven which btw, they also believe is a physical planet in the cosmos. A cult that believes members of their church become Gods after death, that space aliens came to Earth and knocked up the virgin Mary, that the garden of Eden is in Missouri or Illinois and that Native Americans are actually Israelite Jews. A cult that teaches Adam is actually God and Jesus is merely his son. A cult that until recently followed a belief that non-whites were descended from satan and cursed with dark skin, that God preferred you to take 12 year olds as wives(plural, as in multiple) and that the leaders of their church have regular visitations from God one on one.
.
Click to expand...
My favorite part is the bit about the Jews and Native Americans: it is objectively untrue. DNA testing shows the Native Americans are not displaced Jews.
 
He's not gonna be able to pull off the innocent victim thing. Way too many conflicting details over the past six months. At best, he played along. Domer teammates don't seem surprised and so far aren't giving a lot of support.

He's gonna end up with some "weird" on him to go with the 'Bama game. Needs to rally to stay in the first round.
 
Speaking of unfair..

His team mates have been nothing but supportive of him as well as many other players from around the ranks, and have started to fire back at this report from someone too cowardly to show their face.

Said Goodman via Twitter (@jgoodman81):

“Who do u think u r? If you were on the team, chances r ur reading this. I hope u see it. Embarrassment. Classless. People r gona find out ... Whichever one of our teammates kept their name ‘anonymous’ in that PepperOnSports article is a complete coward and I hope they r embarrassed.”

Lewis-Moore (@KLM_89) posted:

“You bled and sweated we all went through 2 a days, Went through this special season and you gonna say stuff like that... Seriously. #LOW”

Here is two of them.
 
Chest beating. Blech. You can't tell the truth about this situation on the record. Not while your school is spinning like a top. The other guys are just toeing the company line and I don't think it becomes more noble because you call out the guy who told the truth. Sports writer of the student paper says a lot of teammates weren't surprised at all and thought Teo loved the attention a little too much.

Seen this one a ton of times, the players calling out the "rat."

EDIT: This makes me think of Hillis. Guy looked a certain way, seemed all "lunch pail," but there was a lot more going on inside.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Quit Deadspinning

Brown Warrior said:
Chest beating. Blech. You can't tell the truth about this situation on the record. Not while your school is spinning like a top. The other guys are just toeing the company line and I don't think it becomes more noble because you call out the guy who told the truth. Sports writer of the student paper says a lot of teammates weren't surprised at all and thought Teo loved the attention a little too much.

Seen this one a ton of times, the players calling out the "rat."

EDIT: This makes me think of Hillis. Guy looked a certain way, seemed all "lunch pail," but there was a lot more going on inside.
Click to expand...
Shep, you are not helping clear anything up with your posts. You are posting half-truths and half-facts based on incomplete and poor reporting.

Anyone who wants to get good summaries of what's happening should read Brian Hamilton, Chicago Tribune ND beat writer at www.chicagotribune.com/sports and @ChiTribHamilton.

Anyway, the fact is that there aren't enough reliable facts yet to draw hard conclusions on Te'o's role in this but it is clear he's either a super goat or a super liar.

It's hard to believe Te'o could be duped for so long but KoK brings up a GREAT point about how his upbringing/religion could have made him susceptible to this. KoK's theory is supported by the ABSENCE of such questions in the press. The press is staying away from that angle because it is not P.C. to ask those questions but also because they were so burned by Deadspin.

I'd expect Deadspin, in fact, are the only ones who would take on Te'o's religion and how it played a part. Keep in mind that the alleged mastermind here is a son of a Christian minister. Could this have religious motivations? Absolutely could.

While I think it looks terrible for Te'o that he isn't speaking out and that his silence makes him "seem guilty", I do still lean to him being super-duped.

KoK touched on one reason -- he may be an especially easy mark because of his personality/upbringing/religion -- but the main reason I believe he was duped is that ND is supporting him.

Keep in mind that AD Swarbrick said ND hired an investigator and the information given to them made them believe Te'o's version of events.

I HAVE to believe that Swarbrick and ND can't be so stupid as to put their own reputations on the line for a kid who could have kept up this charade.

I also have to believe that once a semi-competent investigator gets on the case that there are TONS of signals that would point to one side of this or the other so it's very telling ND is supporting Te'o. Cell phone logs would be available to track whom he spoke with, how long, where and when and assuming Te'o used the university network for some of this online communication, they'd easily be able to track his website trail. Unless he's a Liestrong level deceiver, there's NO WAY he could hide this over three years.

Unless, he did, somehow, in which case ND and Te'o deserve whatever they get.

But if the competing theories are 1. Te'o got Catfished by super savvy, super clever people or 2. Te'o is super savvy, super clever himself, I'd have to say the evidence so far points to #1.

Because if he was smart enough to set this up with the intention of gaining something from it, you'd have to think he'd have been smart enough to avoid looking this dumb.

No, I think it's more likely he's pretty dumb and because he's pretty dumb he started lying about things to cover his embarrassment and stupidity. That makes a LOT more sense to me.

As for the draft, he's not dropping that far over this. Keep in mind the kind of miscreants who get drafted. This is soap opera stuff, not 60 Minutes stuff.
 
I haven't actually posted any truths, half or otherwise. I've said we don't really know yet but no version of it makes Teo look very good. But I know we have some Domers here and I respect that.

Grey, you're gettin' up my arse pretty regular these days. Did I hurt your feelings somehow?
 
I have the feeling Shep is taking the opportunity to burn the prospect he doesn't want the Browns drafting. Let's say this is one of the defensive ends or Geno in this situation, I doubt I am the only one who can see Shep defending them to the death and insisting they shouldn't drop and we should still draft them.
 
You absolutely couldn't be more wrong. Unlike a lot of people, I'll change my mind (which EE just gave me mad props for). I don't marry an idea or a prospect.

I'm not that into "burying" Teo because he seems like a nice kid and he was never getting drafted by the Browns. I do think he got a lot of bump for being a folk hero and I never saw him as a top 10 pick. But I never saw Richardson as the next Adrian Peterson either. Ray Rice? Yes. And that's a pretty good thing to be.
 
Top Bottom