Manti T'eo

[VikingLord]

I would stay away from T'eo. Not impressed by his performance in the bowl game against Alabama and now this story comes out that his "girlfriend" never existed. So this person he corresponds with and has a deep emotional connection to dies and he doesn't attend the funeral? He uses this relationship as a reason he's motivated and people can rally around him, and yet it's apparently not deep enough for him to have talked with anyone in this girl's family during the entire time before and after her supposed death?

Where there is smoke there is fire. This guy is a fraud, probably in more ways than one.

[Texas Vike]

I would stay away from T'eo. Not impressed by his performance in the bowl game against Alabama and now this story comes out that his "girlfriend" never existed. So this person he corresponds with and has a deep emotional connection to dies and he doesn't attend the funeral? He uses this relationship as a reason he's motivated and people can rally around him, and yet it's apparently not deep enough for him to have talked with anyone in this girl's family during the entire time before and after her supposed death?

Where there is smoke there is fire. This guy is a fraud, probably in more ways than one.

Having read the following, I agree with you: http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-teos- ... -is-a-hoax

I remember watching the Heisman show and thinking that something seemed pretty off when he talked about his recently deceased "girlfriend".

I would stay far away from him. I'm guessing he's going to free fall.

[yesmanfan]

and yet it's apparently not deep enough for him to have talked with anyone in this girl's family during the entire time before and after her supposed death?

my guess is rt after the death is when he figured out it was a hoax

[Demi]

my guess is rt after the death is when he figured out it was a hoax

I thought he claimed to have met her, and talked to her though? And reading deadspin it was actually a guy he knew who was behind the hoax. Sounds a lot more fishy then just being tricked by a family/friend.

[yesmanfan]

I thought he claimed to have met her, and talked to her though? And reading deadspin it was actually a guy he knew who was behind the hoax. Sounds a lot more fishy then just being tricked by a family/friend.

he said he talked to her but never met her. apparently the guy was good at sounding like a girl.

[HornedMessiah]

I thought he claimed to have met her, and talked to her though?

He also referred to her as the love of his life. If this was all an "online hoax" as their story goes now, how does he defend that "love of my life" comment. Maybe it's just me, I dunno, but I would probably reserve that term for someone I actually MET. Everything about this screams STAY AWAY FROM THIS GUY. It's gonna be really interesting in the next couple days when this is analyzed from every angle and the web starts to become untangled. I can't wait for his teary-eyed confession on Oprah

What a weird news week for sports. Lance Armstrong the POS is back in the news and now this Manti story today. All of these grand lies are going to turn me into a cynical bastard. How do we know what's real anymore? All the MLB superstar sluggers I idolized as a kid were steroid using cheaters. There are other sports stories as well, but it doesn't end there. Great achievements through history, which are genuine and which are complete fabrications made in the quest for fame, money, and power? I guess I can be comforted in the fact that in today's internet-media world, these kinds of lying psychopaths will be exposed more easily than in the past.

[dead_poet]

What a weird news week for sports. Lance Armstrong the POS is back in the news and now this Manti story today. All of these grand lies are going to turn me into a cynical bastard. How do we know what's real anymore? All the MLB superstar sluggers I idolized as a kid were steroid using cheaters. There are other sports stories as well, but it doesn't end there. Great achievements through history, which are genuine and which are complete fabrications made in the quest for fame, money, and power? I guess I can be comforted in the fact that in today's internet-media world, these kinds of lying psychopaths will be exposed more easily than in the past.

Two words: Adrian Peterson.

Just look to him, his highlights, this season, etc. and all will be right with the world.

[losperros]

PFT just addressed this subject:

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... will-hurt/

This is a good article because Mayock talks about the one thing that bothers me the most about Manti Teo, which is that when he faced top quality competition (basically NFL level competition) on the field against Alabama, he basically flopped. During the game, it didn't take long to see that the Crimson Tide had designed plays directly aimed at Teo. They saw something in him that they knew they could exploit with their blockers and RBs Lacy and Yeldon. What's more, Yeldon is a freakin' freshman. It makes me wonder just how pro ready Teo really is.

[UKno1VIKING]

I think his quickness was always a concern anyway and whether he could keep up with the speed of the NFL.
This latest incident with his "girlfriend" just confirms that i would not risk taking him. His big upside was a big ticker, now thats in question, theres no way i would have him.

I prefer C.J Mosley anyway, big talent and an awesome athlete. Although he's come out and said he's staying for his senior year.
Although i don't like him as much as Mosely, i'd still take Javis Jones over T'eo.

Wouldn't be suprised if T'eo puts up mediocre numbers at the combine (and i think he will) that he will go late 2nd-3rd round.

[jackal]

well he will have to nail it at the combine if he wants to stay in the first round

[PurpleMustReign]

I'd stay away, at least in the first round. If he's there in the 2nd I'd take a shot though.

I would take him in the third. Unless he craps out in the combine or something. He seems a little mentally unstable to me, kind of like Dimetrius Underwood.

[PsyDanny]

I would take him in the third. Unless he craps out in the combine or something. He seems a little mentally unstable to me, kind of like Dimetrius Underwood.

I was thinking exactly the same thing

[Texas Vike]

It's weird. To be honest, looking at the deadspin article, makes me think any number of things. My gut feeling? He was a victim. Look at this through a different window, what ,if in fact there is a what, would he have to gain by doing this so sloppily? I mean if he was in fact doing this, what made him think a plan so NOT thought out wouldn't end up being exposed eventually? I mean seriously, did he even think this through at all?

I'm pretty good at sniffing this stuff out, and there's a pretty good chance i'm wrong here, but it sounds like its a scam aimed at him that went awry somewhere and had to be cut short fast, hence the "death". It was the perfect diversion to buy themselves time to lose the scent. The real story here is, and probably the deciding factor is if in fact he met a girl after the stanford game, who was it? ND's paper is quoted as saying "they stared at each other lovingly" or some bs. Were there witnesses? Did anyone in fact see him with a woman there? If they did who was she?

Again, I think this was a scam and he is a victim. Time will tell though

What do you make of Te'o's friendship with the guy that invented the girl? There's quite a few red flags in the story; too many for me to think he's the victim.

[Texas Vike]

Apparently the guy who invented the girlfriend was on the sidelines as a guest of Te'o at the ND-USC game this year.

Yes, I read the Deadspin article that I linked up thread and saw that. My question was apparently unclear: I mean to say that it seems very suspect that Te'o was friends with the guy that made up this girlfriend. Certainly, that doesn't automatically imply that Te'o was in on the hoax, but it certainly is odd.

[Hunter Morrow]

Hmm, a man's boy friend, not his BOYFRIEND, but his boy friend, because if it was his BOYFRIEND that would be the worst thing ever...
Because gay.

Told him a story about a girl dying of leukemia. "Oh, you can't meet her. She's in the hospital."

Why was that so obviously a lie that it was a joke, a one liner, when Liberace or Paul Lynde said it but now...

"Oh, I just don't know why a guy would make up a story like that!"

He read the climate wrong. The first gay college athlete? Playing for SACRED NOTRE DAME after his grandma died? He'd be the PC Tebow.
We'd never get away from the guy.

His only out is "I'm gay and I didn't want to say it because I was in sports, something that is very 'manly man' and frowns on gayness and society doesn't associate homosexuals with sports." That is his out. He'd be Ellen Degeneres in body armor. Maybe he could get a deal with K-Mart after draft day.