<p>DS3’s why ND essay touched on Te’o’s stories. Even though one of the stories is questionable, the school spirit he described may help to support the student body during this time: </p>
<p>“Notre Dame football is a vehicle by which members of this close-knit community harness a collective spirit, one that surpasses the sport itself. Together, they share the excitement of the triumphs, and support each other through the hardships. These are no longer individual players, students, or fans. They are members of the Notre Dame family.”</p>
<p>I think that he might have already gained some wisdom before attending the school.</p>
<p>[Highlights</a> of Manti Te’o interview with Jeremy Schaap - ESPN](<a href=“http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8859544/highlights-manti-teo-interview-jeremy-schaap]Highlights”>Highlights of Manti Te'o interview with Jeremy Schaap - ESPN)
Read the transcript of the interview. My child at ND has met Manti, and they know people in common. Manti grew up in an incredibly sheltered Mormon family. There is a a naivete about him that is not typical of many college students. He is a sweet kid and wears his heart on his sleeve. It is easy to imagine how he could fall for a girl with so many problems. Being a student at ND and playing football is a pretty heavy time commitment, so investigating someone you met online and knew casually for awhile would not be a priority. I also don’t think anyone, especially Manti, could imagine that the news media would make the dying girlfriend story the frenzied headline that it became. He really thought she had died on the same day as his grandmother, so his grief was real even if the girlfriend wasn’t. He used the grief constructively and inspired the team. It’s humiliating to him, but he did nothing wrong, in my estimation as a parent. I’m surprised that he is so forgiving of the people who did this - I would be mad as h***!!! As a parent, I would be furious at anyone who would do this to my child.</p>
<p>This makes the most sense of this I can process thus far. He does seem genuine…though she did not prove to be so. Why would it have progressed as it did…would he not have thought it would be revealed eventually as a falsehood, if he knew all along it was? He appears to be a great althlete and, though, as dramatic as the narrative of the dying girlfriend was, I can’t believe he needed or relied on it to showcase his prowess.</p>
<p>At this point, being gay would be far better than this outcome … 1,000 hours of talking with some guy pretending to sound like a woman. How many of those hours were phone sex? How soon to the next SNL skit about this. Wow.</p>
<p>@ctyankee… If you were paying any attention to the story you would know it is getting better. Voice analysis shows that the voice in the msgs is 100% consistent with the voice pattern of a woman and could not have been a man. A relative of Tuiasosopo stated that the phone calls were made by a female cousin.
Teo has been interviewed by 2 people now and both said that they believe his account of events and they believe that he was not in any way part of the hoax. </p>
<p>Funny how many people are so quick to indict Teo but foolish enough to believe the statements made by the perpetrator, a confessed liar, to his lawyer. If there is one thing you should have learned by now it would be that not everything printed in the paper is a confirmed fact. </p>
<p>You may want to come on here and sensationalize the story and try to make Teo look bad, maybe you think you are funny, but the Notre Dame family knows the character of this young man and the truth is finding its way to the surface.</p>
<p>Can you imagine being 21 years old and villified by not only the media but by the people that you thought supported you? There is a lot to be learned from this, not only about being too trusting of on-line relationships, but about jumping to quick condemnation and ridicule before the facts are known. This will follow Manti forever, but I hope he can handle it with humor and, in his usual fashion, find a way bring good out of it. As a parent of an ND student of the same age, I can (unfortunately) understand how this could happen. Our kids do unwise things, and we hope they come away unharmed and learn from them. Manti deserved better than he got from those who adored him only weeks before. So far, I have seen no evidence that he knew the girl was not who she pretended to be, nor that the events she and her partners reported to him (accident, illness, death) were untrue. Until that happens, I will give him the benefit of a doubt, and be appreciative of all the dedication he has shown the university.</p>
<p>Te’O is a confessed liar, and the most logical conclusion at the time, whether you like to admit it or not, was that he was in on it. Some of his statements still make no sense at all, like not visiting her after the “car crash.” I do believe it was a female voice, but it hasn’t even been proven that those were long ago voicemails from the fake dead girl. Could’ve been taped right before the show for all i know.</p>
<p>He does deserve better - to have judgement reserved until the facts are known rather than instant condemnation. There is no “logical” conclusion. As information is still forthcoming, any conclusions are only the opinions of individuals. As a friend said, “The only thing I’ve seen that he is guilty of, so far, is being a lousy boyfriend.”</p>
<p>Lol about the lousy boyfriend comment. I dropped out of the cafe thread on Manti because of the vitriol expressed. When you love ND, you understand that not everyone does. It has been illuminating to understand that many of the hostile posts have UM MSU or BC connections, and a few posts were from brand new posters, who apparently were inspired to set up an account just to spew a little venom around. The caustic remarks aren’t just for Notre Dame either, the Catholic Church took her share of insults.
The good news is that Manti will be just fine. If he was once astoundigly naive, he is no longer. He has the love and support of his family, and he realizes that is what really matters.</p>
<p>The Bama fans are truly caustic, but moreso on other sites. Nothing new, just a fresh target for them. Most comments from the NFL people have said, essentially, that the whole situation is weird, but nothing illegal has occurred and it really has nothing to do with football. One sportswriter even said he discussed it with his college-aged kids, and they didn’t think it was weird at all. He decided he was just too old to understand!
I expect Manti will have the last laugh. “Dropping” a bit in the draft will usually land you with a better team, and he will most likely go in the first round. I hope he stays out of the limelight and lets it fade away. The only ones he needs to answer to in the future are NFL interviewers.<br>
Like others, I have had a hard time understanding the extreme hatefulness of so many commentators.</p>
<p>He is either lying or shockingly stupid. I suspect it’s both, but more of the latter for someone who knew him to seriously think he could pull stunt like that for so long and get away with it. He was being played for a fool and fell for it big time. However, he definitely said they met and that’s not possible. The school should be embarrassed to have such a dumb “student”.</p>