Manti Te’o Notre Dame hoax is like an episode from ‘The Twilight Zone’ -- Fake girlfriend, fake death, is a twisted tale about life online - VIDEO
By: Niall O'Dowd | Published Thursday, January 17, 2013, 9:45 AM | Updated Thursday, January 17, 2013, 9:45 AM
Manti Te'o and his fake girlfriend (Credit: Deadspin.com)
Manti Te’o’s lackluster performance against Alabama in the national championship game is now explained.
In a twist worthy of a Twilight Zone episode it turns out that Te’o, the Notre Dame stand-out, was the victim of a hoax girlfriend, a faked death and a professional scam perpetrated for no other reason it seems than to embarrass and seriously wound an outstanding young man.
The media is having a field day, especially the anti-Notre Dame shills. ‘Lying Irish’ is just one headline from The New York Post today.
I have just watched the entire press conference that Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick gave in South Bend and my head is spinning with the tale of deceit, lies and cold blooded callousness he revealed.
Much and all as we think a fake girlfriend would be an impossible trick to pull off, the fact is that online personas, avatars, and disguises are the stock in trade of millions of hucksters on the Internet.
We open our online accounts every day and there are a flood of such bottom feeders trying to inveigle their way into our lives.
In the case of Te’o they succeeded and in the process have created a sensational outcome that will deeply embarrass Notre Dame and all who sail with her.
Te’o’s only crime appears to be that he was so trusting that he was duped from day one in September 2011 when a woman masquerading as a Stanford student who was a big fan of his contacted him via Twitter.
Over the next 14 months or so it appears they carried out an intense online and telephonic relationship.
According to Swarbrick, there was a cast of characters who kept the dupe Te’o narrative going, an unbelievably cruel and sophisticated hoax.
The girl even came with a family, different characters who were introduced to Te’o who was obviously seriously smitten, strange as that may sound.
Or maybe not. People are smitten every day on the Internet by perfect strangers. Much of it is real, much of it is imagined. In Teo’s world the distant girlfriend became a constant presence.
As Swarbrick pointed out the scam was based closely on a documentary called ‘Catfish’ about this phenomenon of reeling in an unsuspecting person by virtue of a fable carefully constructed.
What possible enjoyment there could be from such a scam is hard to see but any scroll through the Internet reveals trolls and other evil people ready to do their worst.
Just yesterday there was a series of articles about one of the heroes of the Sandy Hook shooting , a man who took in several of the panic stricken children who fled the school, being abused anonymously online.
Such is the world we live in and we should not be surprised when a major figure like Te’o, clearly way too trusting for his own good, was roped in to a scam.
It is deeply embarrassing for Te’o and for Notre Dame. One can only imagine what Coach Brian Kelly was thinking when he was informed of the hoax days before the biggest game of his life.
But the real victim here is Te’o, a young man caught in the full glare of the media headlights and revealed as naive and far too trusting.
People will ask how come he never demanded to meet her and apparently several planned encounters were canceled at the last moment. Those should have been warning shots for Te’o but he won’t be the first or the last fool in love to construct his own reality around events despite glaring holes in the story.
What satisfaction these bottom feeders got from their hoax I do not know but it is a sad reflection on our modern world that such people exist and thrive. I hope for Te’o and Notre Dame’s sake he can put all this behind him and be the great NFL player he is destined to be.
Just when you think you have seen it all a story like this comes along. Sadly, it is a truly a reflection on the times we live in.
Good one! Thanks for the laugh, Jacers! At least someone on here has wit and a sense of humor :)
jacersagain | Jan 19, 2013, 08:31 AM EST
Yes, I agree Smyrnian… oul’ Georgie Knees is a right oul' windbag and eiriamach, Gearoid4 and IrelandNorth are not far behind. Out of respect, we won’t mention the Periscope fella and his cronies and cronyesses who rule the roost we rue.
Smyrnian | Jan 19, 2013, 07:23 AM EST
A certain poster on this site has too much time on his hands and is a certified, inexhaustible, rambling, incoherent windbag. Guess who that is!
jacersagain | Jan 18, 2013, 09:42 PM EST
(My system of posting beyond ICentral gremlins, as given below, is working well, don’t’cha think?) Niall proclaims… “Manti Te’o Notre Dame hoax is like an episode from ‘The Twilight Zone’ -- Fake girlfriend, fake death, is a twisted tale about life online”. Shock! Shock!! … Gross! Unbelievable! Bizarre! Unprecedented! … Irish GUBU all over again! Let’s take that as a thought and a measure of Irish Central’s many authors’ articles bearing much of phoniness, hoaxes, scaring (to a lot of people) and little truth. But not all of them... Some are great and properly close to the bone on Ireland, its beauty and its native and over-seas people). Yes, ICentral is getting too close to GUBU imo… Niall might not like his Irish Central site being seen world-wide as GUBU in future world media history. Perhaps he should be boss enough to reign in the GUBU headlines stuff being written by quite a few of his article writers. After all, as a once potential Candidate for President of the Republic of Ireland, I don’t think Niall would like to leave a legacy of his foundation of Irish Central with a history in Ireland and across our global Irish world as a GUBU foundation. A Presidential Respect for Truth in his world available media’s content should be what matters.
jacersagain | Jan 18, 2013, 08:38 PM EST
(…cont’d) If ICentral had live online Moderators as most other media sites do, then posting external links to non-spam websites should not be a problem to IC techies. Finally, may I suggest a button for “Newest first” and “Oldest First’ within the “See all comments link”? The Irish Independent site has a good example of that for comments. The Irish Times site doesn’t. Pardon me if I say Irish Central needs to update its techie online media stuff, just like I and an awful lot of other IC posters need to update ourselves on using HTML. BTW Niall – the topic above is of no interest to most ICentral readers and posters. You've spent too much useless time recovering from your flu gremlins-induced excuse to avoid your Christmas time in Ireland. Ah well, I hope you are well-gotten well again... and make sure the IC gremlins are flushed away too. Try using Honey & Cinnamon powder mixes for every ailment... you and your staff will never need to see an expensive doctor again.
jacersagain | Jan 18, 2013, 08:17 PM EST
(…more advices to all stuck with repitious posts) If, like me, you are a long-winded poster and have more to say in a follow-on post, post yr second and subsequent comments in the same way, always ignoring the lingering ‘constant buzz’ mode appearance, wait those few seconds, click on ‘See all comments” and you should see yr comment appear as a normal post. (All of the foregoing advice offered without guarantees until ICentral’s Techies sort the problem out). On other posts tonight, a few times I saw the preview of my comments appear but when clicking on ‘See all Comments’, my post did not appear. Just repeat the process (it doesn’t take long but it is frustrating) and your post should appear, without duplication. One final piece of advice if I may: if you have a long post to make, compose it in a Word Doc first, keep it to maximum ard 250 words or 1400 Characters (with spaces) in a Word Doc format and use “Cont’d…” and “…cont’d”, or “More…” and “…more” or similar to break up a long post). I’ve still not taken time out as to learn how to break up comments into paragraphs using HTML as some IC posters do and neither have I learned to post hyperlinks for external websites, such as using ‘which you can see “here”(underlined) as IC staff writers are allowed to do. Wow and woe so slow is me! (Cont’d…)
jacersagain | Jan 18, 2013, 08:13 PM EST
Hi again Niall while I butt back into ICentral discussions apart from above… with aside notes on avoiding multiple posts. The gremlins under the IC ‘Submit’ button have prevented me and others completing some posts that were multi-posted earlier this week. No apologies from me on that, ask IC for the apologies. Actually, I see in making posts on other topics tonight, the gremlins haven’t quite been flushed away but I think I’ve found a way around them until Niall sorts it out. Meantime, to IC Posters… Ready for tips that also hopefully work for other posters? - Post your comment in the comment box as normal and click on ‘Submit’. (The ‘Submit’ box lingers in a pressed ‘constant buzz’ mode with no apparent response and your post stays in the comment box, seeming to go nowhere and the “Thank you for your comment” preview pane does not appear. Ignore that… and DO NOT CLICK the ‘Submit’ Button again). Wait 5-10 seconds (if you are edumacated enuff to count to ten), then scroll up a little bit to above the comment box where it says “See all comments” and click on that. The screen will blink to renew itself and then your post should then appear, mysteriously and miraculously, as a normal comment, without a preview message. (More…)
McNamara31 | Jan 18, 2013, 03:09 PM EST
This was covered by every major news channel last night ....my thought; who cares?
cillowen | Jan 18, 2013, 02:52 PM EST
how smart are NDer footballers
falconflash | Jan 18, 2013, 10:54 AM EST
hollabuck girl: By Catholic ethos do you mean anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage? Sounds like the ethos of God too.
Nicopernicus | Jan 18, 2013, 07:05 AM EST
This will be the replacement story For "Lance the Liar" What did Manti Know? when did he know it? This will go on for a long time until and the truth ultimately will prevail. We will find out that an otherwise seemingly smart student and solid athlete manipulate the emotions of his fans and fellow students by continually perpetuating a mythic relationship after a brief internet encounter even after he discovered it.
pilib04 | Jan 17, 2013, 09:26 PM EST
Niall, just read the comments of the bottomfeeders, right here at Irish Central. They have all come out from under their rocks. Disgusting cretins.
Smyrnian | Jan 17, 2013, 06:35 PM EST
And this idiotic topic is relevant for an IC article because?????
hollabackgurl | Jan 17, 2013, 04:21 PM EST
If the gay 'rumors' turn out to be true, then perhaps the nation would see how far some people, particularly religious people and athletes, are willing to go because they still fear an unloving world. That's damn sad.
Paul Hogan | Jan 17, 2013, 04:15 PM EST
I am sure it was MI5.Who Else?
KweenOHearts | Jan 17, 2013, 03:27 PM EST
"We are witnessing the power of media supported deception techniques by a tiny tail to wag a big dog.
Throw enough uncomfortable words like
"discrimination",
"hate speach",
"homophobia",
"bigot"
& "marriage equality"
at a population devoid of reasoning skills & a large number, including politicians & lawyers, salivate like Pavlov's dogs."
KweenOHearts | Jan 17, 2013, 03:25 PM EST
Alexander Deme We are witnessing the power of media supported deception techniques by a tiny tail to wag a big dog.
Throw enough uncomfortable words like
"discrimination",
"hate speach",
"homophobia",
"bigot"
& "marriage equality"
at a population devoid of reasoning skills & a large number, including politicians & lawyers, salivate like Pavlov's dogs.
PatriciaMarya | Jan 17, 2013, 03:01 PM EST
This sort of online duping was just on Dr. Phil. Turned out it was a woman masquerading as a man and she worked with the women that she "fished!" The Internet is creating a strange sort of bizarre world and cruel cowards having a field day hiding behind the masking technology. Those of us who lived before this was invented are watching with amazement. How many people have been hoodwinked by that Nigerian Prince wanted to cash that check?!
Nicomax | Jan 17, 2013, 01:21 PM EST
Since Division-I college football, and certainly the FBS portion of that, is essentially a minor-league for the NFL, then to avoid these ever-increasing problems for the colleges, they should go back to having true students play the game if they chose as an extra-curricular activity, and let the NFL establish a full-fledged minor league.
hollabackgurl | Jan 17, 2013, 12:44 PM EST
He's gay in two hostile environments: the NFL and Notre Dame's Catholic ethos. He's created a smoke screen in order to live the life he wants without the pitfalls that prejudice ensure will happen.
irishpjk | Jan 17, 2013, 11:38 AM EST
wtf.This guy thought he had a girlfriend for fourteen months, and then he thought she died, isn’t he lucky he never thought he married her. That explains what happened to me for about eighteen months when I was seventeen, one or two nights a week she would show. Then she just stopped coming, I never knew what happened so I concluded it was a dream, maybe he was dreaming too. There was more in the media about his grandmother dying the same day or was that more thinking. By the way I am a ND football fan; just some things are hard to take seriously.
Springfield9 | Jan 17, 2013, 11:28 AM EST
In the face of all the disasters underway, who cares about this jerk?
CroughPatrick | Jan 17, 2013, 10:39 AM EST
he says he found out it was a hoax on December 7th but he waited until December 26th to tell ND officials.
and what does ND do? do they immediately go to the FBI? of course not.just like Joe Paterno and Penn State, they do their own investigation while the team prepares for the big game against Alabama.
you call this kid a victim? he did not attend the funeral because there was none to go to. he never went to her bedside at the hospital while she was dying, because he knew she was fake.
in his statement, he says he now wants to prepare for the NFL draft; why isnt he preparing for his last semester at school, studying for final exams, getting ready for graduation? thats right, because he's just a glorified jock who doesn't know right from wrong.
and dont forget ND covered up the rape of a girl by a football player last year.
jamieLM | Jan 17, 2013, 09:33 AM EST
Oh, pu-lease. Yes, she's a low-life, but a guy that smart can't be THAT clueless. I'm not believing for a second that he is just an innocent victim. He had not ONE SINGLE DAY in his "off time" in MORE THAN a YEAR to make arrangements to visit his girlfriend and/or to check her and her story out in the age of Google??? I think he was using this to "up" his profile. All that attention... I'm sure more is going to come out about this hoax and his part in it.
stephendoyle | Jan 17, 2013, 08:28 AM EST
If only I was so lucky and my ex-wife was faked. I would be so much richer!
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Smyrnian | Jan 20, 2013, 07:53 AM EST
Good one! Thanks for the laugh, Jacers! At least someone on here has wit and a sense of humor :)
jacersagain | Jan 19, 2013, 08:31 AM EST
Yes, I agree Smyrnian… oul’ Georgie Knees is a right oul' windbag and eiriamach, Gearoid4 and IrelandNorth are not far behind. Out of respect, we won’t mention the Periscope fella and his cronies and cronyesses who rule the roost we rue.
Smyrnian | Jan 19, 2013, 07:23 AM EST
A certain poster on this site has too much time on his hands and is a certified, inexhaustible, rambling, incoherent windbag. Guess who that is!
jacersagain | Jan 18, 2013, 09:42 PM EST
(My system of posting beyond ICentral gremlins, as given below, is working well, don’t’cha think?) Niall proclaims… “Manti Te’o Notre Dame hoax is like an episode from ‘The Twilight Zone’ -- Fake girlfriend, fake death, is a twisted tale about life online”. Shock! Shock!! … Gross! Unbelievable! Bizarre! Unprecedented! … Irish GUBU all over again! Let’s take that as a thought and a measure of Irish Central’s many authors’ articles bearing much of phoniness, hoaxes, scaring (to a lot of people) and little truth. But not all of them... Some are great and properly close to the bone on Ireland, its beauty and its native and over-seas people). Yes, ICentral is getting too close to GUBU imo… Niall might not like his Irish Central site being seen world-wide as GUBU in future world media history. Perhaps he should be boss enough to reign in the GUBU headlines stuff being written by quite a few of his article writers. After all, as a once potential Candidate for President of the Republic of Ireland, I don’t think Niall would like to leave a legacy of his foundation of Irish Central with a history in Ireland and across our global Irish world as a GUBU foundation. A Presidential Respect for Truth in his world available media’s content should be what matters.
jacersagain | Jan 18, 2013, 08:38 PM EST
(…cont’d) If ICentral had live online Moderators as most other media sites do, then posting external links to non-spam websites should not be a problem to IC techies. Finally, may I suggest a button for “Newest first” and “Oldest First’ within the “See all comments link”? The Irish Independent site has a good example of that for comments. The Irish Times site doesn’t. Pardon me if I say Irish Central needs to update its techie online media stuff, just like I and an awful lot of other IC posters need to update ourselves on using HTML. BTW Niall – the topic above is of no interest to most ICentral readers and posters. You've spent too much useless time recovering from your flu gremlins-induced excuse to avoid your Christmas time in Ireland. Ah well, I hope you are well-gotten well again... and make sure the IC gremlins are flushed away too. Try using Honey & Cinnamon powder mixes for every ailment... you and your staff will never need to see an expensive doctor again.
jacersagain | Jan 18, 2013, 08:17 PM EST
(…more advices to all stuck with repitious posts) If, like me, you are a long-winded poster and have more to say in a follow-on post, post yr second and subsequent comments in the same way, always ignoring the lingering ‘constant buzz’ mode appearance, wait those few seconds, click on ‘See all comments” and you should see yr comment appear as a normal post. (All of the foregoing advice offered without guarantees until ICentral’s Techies sort the problem out). On other posts tonight, a few times I saw the preview of my comments appear but when clicking on ‘See all Comments’, my post did not appear. Just repeat the process (it doesn’t take long but it is frustrating) and your post should appear, without duplication. One final piece of advice if I may: if you have a long post to make, compose it in a Word Doc first, keep it to maximum ard 250 words or 1400 Characters (with spaces) in a Word Doc format and use “Cont’d…” and “…cont’d”, or “More…” and “…more” or similar to break up a long post). I’ve still not taken time out as to learn how to break up comments into paragraphs using HTML as some IC posters do and neither have I learned to post hyperlinks for external websites, such as using ‘which you can see “here”(underlined) as IC staff writers are allowed to do. Wow and woe so slow is me! (Cont’d…)
jacersagain | Jan 18, 2013, 08:13 PM EST
Hi again Niall while I butt back into ICentral discussions apart from above… with aside notes on avoiding multiple posts. The gremlins under the IC ‘Submit’ button have prevented me and others completing some posts that were multi-posted earlier this week. No apologies from me on that, ask IC for the apologies. Actually, I see in making posts on other topics tonight, the gremlins haven’t quite been flushed away but I think I’ve found a way around them until Niall sorts it out. Meantime, to IC Posters… Ready for tips that also hopefully work for other posters? - Post your comment in the comment box as normal and click on ‘Submit’. (The ‘Submit’ box lingers in a pressed ‘constant buzz’ mode with no apparent response and your post stays in the comment box, seeming to go nowhere and the “Thank you for your comment” preview pane does not appear. Ignore that… and DO NOT CLICK the ‘Submit’ Button again). Wait 5-10 seconds (if you are edumacated enuff to count to ten), then scroll up a little bit to above the comment box where it says “See all comments” and click on that. The screen will blink to renew itself and then your post should then appear, mysteriously and miraculously, as a normal comment, without a preview message. (More…)
McNamara31 | Jan 18, 2013, 03:09 PM EST
This was covered by every major news channel last night ....my thought; who cares?
cillowen | Jan 18, 2013, 02:52 PM EST
how smart are NDer footballers
falconflash | Jan 18, 2013, 10:54 AM EST
hollabuck girl: By Catholic ethos do you mean anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage? Sounds like the ethos of God too.
Nicopernicus | Jan 18, 2013, 07:05 AM EST
This will be the replacement story For "Lance the Liar" What did Manti Know? when did he know it? This will go on for a long time until and the truth ultimately will prevail. We will find out that an otherwise seemingly smart student and solid athlete manipulate the emotions of his fans and fellow students by continually perpetuating a mythic relationship after a brief internet encounter even after he discovered it.
pilib04 | Jan 17, 2013, 09:26 PM EST
Niall, just read the comments of the bottomfeeders, right here at Irish Central. They have all come out from under their rocks. Disgusting cretins.
Smyrnian | Jan 17, 2013, 06:35 PM EST
And this idiotic topic is relevant for an IC article because?????
hollabackgurl | Jan 17, 2013, 04:21 PM EST
If the gay 'rumors' turn out to be true, then perhaps the nation would see how far some people, particularly religious people and athletes, are willing to go because they still fear an unloving world. That's damn sad.
Paul Hogan | Jan 17, 2013, 04:15 PM EST
I am sure it was MI5.Who Else?
KweenOHearts | Jan 17, 2013, 03:27 PM EST
"We are witnessing the power of media supported deception techniques by a tiny tail to wag a big dog. Throw enough uncomfortable words like "discrimination", "hate speach", "homophobia", "bigot" & "marriage equality" at a population devoid of reasoning skills & a large number, including politicians & lawyers, salivate like Pavlov's dogs."
KweenOHearts | Jan 17, 2013, 03:25 PM EST
Alexander Deme We are witnessing the power of media supported deception techniques by a tiny tail to wag a big dog. Throw enough uncomfortable words like "discrimination", "hate speach", "homophobia", "bigot" & "marriage equality" at a population devoid of reasoning skills & a large number, including politicians & lawyers, salivate like Pavlov's dogs.
PatriciaMarya | Jan 17, 2013, 03:01 PM EST
This sort of online duping was just on Dr. Phil. Turned out it was a woman masquerading as a man and she worked with the women that she "fished!" The Internet is creating a strange sort of bizarre world and cruel cowards having a field day hiding behind the masking technology. Those of us who lived before this was invented are watching with amazement. How many people have been hoodwinked by that Nigerian Prince wanted to cash that check?!
Nicomax | Jan 17, 2013, 01:21 PM EST
Since Division-I college football, and certainly the FBS portion of that, is essentially a minor-league for the NFL, then to avoid these ever-increasing problems for the colleges, they should go back to having true students play the game if they chose as an extra-curricular activity, and let the NFL establish a full-fledged minor league.
hollabackgurl | Jan 17, 2013, 12:44 PM EST
He's gay in two hostile environments: the NFL and Notre Dame's Catholic ethos. He's created a smoke screen in order to live the life he wants without the pitfalls that prejudice ensure will happen.
irishpjk | Jan 17, 2013, 11:38 AM EST
wtf.This guy thought he had a girlfriend for fourteen months, and then he thought she died, isn’t he lucky he never thought he married her. That explains what happened to me for about eighteen months when I was seventeen, one or two nights a week she would show. Then she just stopped coming, I never knew what happened so I concluded it was a dream, maybe he was dreaming too. There was more in the media about his grandmother dying the same day or was that more thinking. By the way I am a ND football fan; just some things are hard to take seriously.
Springfield9 | Jan 17, 2013, 11:28 AM EST
In the face of all the disasters underway, who cares about this jerk?
CroughPatrick | Jan 17, 2013, 10:39 AM EST
he says he found out it was a hoax on December 7th but he waited until December 26th to tell ND officials. and what does ND do? do they immediately go to the FBI? of course not.just like Joe Paterno and Penn State, they do their own investigation while the team prepares for the big game against Alabama. you call this kid a victim? he did not attend the funeral because there was none to go to. he never went to her bedside at the hospital while she was dying, because he knew she was fake. in his statement, he says he now wants to prepare for the NFL draft; why isnt he preparing for his last semester at school, studying for final exams, getting ready for graduation? thats right, because he's just a glorified jock who doesn't know right from wrong. and dont forget ND covered up the rape of a girl by a football player last year.
jamieLM | Jan 17, 2013, 09:33 AM EST
Oh, pu-lease. Yes, she's a low-life, but a guy that smart can't be THAT clueless. I'm not believing for a second that he is just an innocent victim. He had not ONE SINGLE DAY in his "off time" in MORE THAN a YEAR to make arrangements to visit his girlfriend and/or to check her and her story out in the age of Google??? I think he was using this to "up" his profile. All that attention... I'm sure more is going to come out about this hoax and his part in it.
stephendoyle | Jan 17, 2013, 08:28 AM EST
If only I was so lucky and my ex-wife was faked. I would be so much richer!