The week before the Michigan State game where Notre Dame was an underdog, Notre Dame released a statement to the media, and to yours personally, stating Linebacker Manti Te'o has lost his grandmother and girlfriend in the same week. The story instantly went viral on the web, spreading quicker than Nutella on a warm bagel. The following week the Fighting Irish took their perfect record home for a matchup against the Michigan Wolverines. At noon on game day, Te'o asked to Irish head coach Brian Kelly what time it was. "12:01" Kelly responded. "I knew that was the time they were going to close her casket. So I took a minute there", referring to the funeral taking place in California for his recently deceased girlfriend. He played against Michigan as the Irish went on to victory. Te'o led Notre Dame to a perfect 11-0 season and was their leader on and off the field. Te'o's stock was at an all time high with many NFL analysts pegging him to go in the top 5 of the NFL Entry Draft. After Alabama dismantled Notre Dame easier than a lego set on national television, Te'o's stock began to plummet. Many people picked apart his game against Alabama calling him a "flash in the pan" as well as "overrated". Three days prior to the BCS National Championship, ESPN received the information of Te'o's girlfriend not being real but had to sit upon the information for 10 days before it could verified. Now as Deadspin verified the story some in the sports world were not surprised, most evidently LA Times sports writer Bill Plaschke. Plaschke posted on Twitter that this story has been around for a bit, noting that the South Bend Tribune ran the story of Te'o's girlfriend and had the same answers. Te'o now says he was on the end of a hoax. Te'o met his girlfriend online and apparently that is where he was tricked. A male friend developed an online interest in Te'o, pretending to be a female. Unfortunately, if this was true than Te'o was cruelly tricked but there is way too much to this story that does not add up.
First off, the timeline. The timing of such tragedy was done right before what was at that time a huge game against the Spartans. I am not saying he would lie to help get his team pumped and rallied for Michigan State but hypothetically this would be the perfect time to do it.
Secondly, Te'o did not attend the funeral of his girlfriend the following Saturday against Michigan. If this girl meant anything to him he would have been on a plane to California to say his goodbyes. Even if he felt he should be with his team, Kelly has to step in and direct his All-American linebacker to do the right thing and go to California.
Thirdly, if you watch the interview after the Irish victory over the Spartans you do not see the anguish you would think would come over a player that just lost "two of the most important women" in his life. Just seems weird he answers the questions by referring to his girlfriend as "my girlfriend" not by her first name Lennay.
Whether this is Te'o making up this story or he was actually tricked by some sadistic f***s, the media is the biggest "person" to blame. The fact that the story was never checked out by the media is one thing but to run it as a main story line without running a background check for at least some minimal information is pathetic. This is another merry go round of the media hopping on the Irish bandwagon hoping to be part of the breath that revives the tradition Notre Dame once was so strong in representing. If this was any other player at any other school, the story would be scrutinized or at the very least caught after a couple weeks. To let this story become the heartbeat of the Irish is almost unfair and cruel to players week in and week out. Every player who gave everything they had to only be overshadowed by Te'o and his heroics for playing through his personal pains must be feeling pretty upset. I do not know the inside information on the Irish nor do I give a rat's ass because the Irish, to me, are about as useful as Shaquille O'Neal playing hockey.
The media needs to take a majority of the responsibility on this matter and realize they fell in love with what seemed an awesome story line that could be run on every pre-game, halftime, post-game and sports show across the country everytime Te'o and the Irish went to battle on Saturday. It took a bunch of college kids at his own school to report the fake girlfriend, to only have it tucked away until 10 days ago!!!!!! I think some people either did not want to touch the issue and be that douchebag who questioned a death or wanted to believe Te'o so bad they tricked themselves into liking the story. I for one do not show any remorse towards Te'o. Many people everyday lose a loved one and sometimes at the worst time. I can bring up multiple examples, but one that stands out the most recently is Torrey Smith losing his brother the morning of a game. He went off for 127 yards receiving and two touchdowns. Athletes deal with losing loved ones all the time. ESPN and company just saw another opportunity to do a nice, heartfelt story and instead it blows up in their face. Now they try to blame Te'o. Vaffanculo as my grandparents would say. Te'o was in the wrong and maybe he was tricked but not as bad as the media was.
In closing I hope people realize that Te'o might have been a victim himself of a cruel prank or he could be a liar and scammed the sports fan of ever taking a story for face value ever again, either way curse out ESPN and the rest of the media numb nuts that did not fact check a single thing. This sounds like Mitch Albom and his terrible fact checking all over again.
Hope you enjoyed it! Get at me bro and broettes on how you are feeling. Leave your comments on Faceboon below the post and I'll gladly mix it up with you.
Later,
The Irate Italian
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