Uh Oh for Manti Te'o?

[Mecza]

Figure there are a number of college football fans here. This is still kind of new but yikes if true.

Did you enjoy the uplifiting story, the tale of a man who responded to adversity by becoming one of the top players of the game? If so, stop reading.

Manti Te'o did lose his grandmother this past fall. Annette Santiago died on Sept. 11, 2012, at the age of 72, according to Social Security Administration records in Nexis. But there is no SSA record there of the death of Lennay Marie Kekua, that day or any other. Her passing, recounted so many times in the national media, produces no obituary or funeral announcement in Nexis, and no mention in the Stanford student newspaper.

Nor is there any report of a severe auto accident involving a Lennay Kekua. Background checks turn up nothing. The Stanford registrar's office has no record that a Lennay Kekua ever enrolled. There is no record of her birth in the news. Outside of a few Twitter and Instagram accounts, there's no online evidence that Lennay Kekua ever existed.

The photographs identified as Kekua—in online tributes and on TV news reports—are pictures from the social-media accounts of a 22-year-old California woman who is not named Lennay Kekua. She is not a Stanford graduate; she has not been in a severe car accident; and she does not have leukemia. And she has never met Manti Te'o.

Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax

[Jason]

No one's really going to care, unfortunately. People lying has become almost passe to most folks.

[LivnLegend]

He can have as many imaginary girlfriends as he wants if he comes to the Raiders and levels opponents.

[Marinersfan51]

They are saying something like he might not have known she wasn't real, I don't get how that works though. How have you never met your girlfriend face to face?

[Jordan]

^^^Happens on Catfish all the time, look that show up if you haven't seen it.

I very much don't want this to be true, but their are too many conflictions to the story. I'm thinking he was in on it

[Mecza]

Agreed. I wouldn't speculate as to WHY he did it because there are probably like 100 rumors, but 3 years and nothing was fishy until just recently?

[AnotherAlias]

Originally Posted by Marinersfan51

How have you never met your girlfriend face to face?

Certain cultures have arranged marriages where both people don't meet until their wedding day.

Originally Posted by Jason

People lying has become almost passe to most folks.

I actually experienced this exact same thing today...in this very forum.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Marinersfan51

They are saying something like he might not have known she wasn't real, I don't get how that works though. How have you never met your girlfriend face to face?

Mr Skippy

[ihatenames]

Originally Posted by Marinersfan51

They are saying something like he might not have known she wasn't real, I don't get how that works though. How have you never met your girlfriend face to face?

The internet makes the world a lot smaller and internet dating can and does happen. I would say it is unlikely, but not impossible he never met his 'girlfriend' face to face.

[kenyan_cheena]

Maybe he was like Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by LivnLegend

He can have as many imaginary girlfriends as he wants if he comes to the Raiders and levels opponents.

Just pray he does not play against any Crimson Tide alum.

[Jason]

The reason I don't buy the internet thing is that in several stories he mentioned being with her in person. So if it was an online hoax, how do you explain the stories of meeting in person?

[Skipaway]

@LennayKay just twitted less than an hour ago, and Reagan Mauia's comment about having seen her before is probably true.

https://twitter.com/LennayKay

[LivnLegend]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

Just pray he does not play against any Crimson Tide alum.

It would be a nice little twist if Te'o replaced that Bama Bust Rolando McClain on the Raiders' linebacker corps.

[CD1083]

Originally Posted by Jason

The reason I don't buy the internet thing is that in several stories he mentioned being with her in person. So if it was an online hoax, how do you explain the stories of meeting in person?

Maybe he was embarrassed to have never met her? I mean online dating is more common than it used to be, but those involved still know that it's sorta taboo in the sense most people don't think it's a 'real' relationship even though many online relationships are far more real than what others have in the physical.

It's safe to say if the online relationship went long enough and people asked he would simply lie and say that he had met her just to get people off his back.

Didn't we all know that kid in high school who never dated anybody from the school but had this boyfriend/girlfriend who went to another school? Did that person ever really exist? I don't know anybody who has ever met this imaginary SO wo went to another school.

This entire story is fairly benign when you really think about it. The person most hurt by it all is Te'o. Whether he's the victim of a hoax or elaborated a story about a fake girlfriend, he is currently a victim. He didn't hurt anybody, he didn't steal anything, he's a kid who is embarrased.

Give him a break.

[jaxmagicman]

I agree with Chase about the meeting. I considered myself to had met many of you even though I have never physically met. I would say that the ootp development boards is full of the craziest people I have ever met.

If one of you died, I would feel it just as much as I would if someone at my work died. Probably moreso depending on the person.

[abailey3313]

And I agree with both of you. He's 21-years-old. Unless he accepted donations or gifts in her behalf after her passing, the worst he's done is fabricate a story to exaggerate his national profile (or at least that's what I'd guess he did it for, if he did it). If he wasn't in on it, then he's been betrayed and humiliated.

I think the absolute least questionable thing here is the plausibility of an online relationship. Not only is it common in 2013, but it's been common for well over a decade. I guess you could make the argument that if this girl was, in fact, "the love of his life," then he'd have been at the funeral whether they'd met in person or not. But all that stuff seems like splitting hairs.

Now, of course, I don't ever remember the story where this girlfriend passed away, so maybe I don't have the proper perspective. But it really doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me from what perspective I do have.

[ukhotstove]

Kind of sad the world we live in, this season he won countless awards making him the most decorated defensive player in college football, coming second in the Heisman and playing on a team that only lost one game that being the BCS National Championship Game and he only gets a mention on this board because of an internet story.

[jaxmagicman]

Originally Posted by Skipaway

@LennayKay just twitted less than an hour ago, and Reagan Mauia's comment about having seen her before is probably true.

https://twitter.com/LennayKay

You don't know anything, you don't 'twitted', you 'tweet'. Which makes the rest of your post totally irrelevant since you used a word wrong.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tweet

[AnotherAlias]

Originally Posted by jaxmagicman

I agree with Chase about the meeting. I considered myself to had met many of you even though I have never physically met. I would say that the ootp development boards is full of the craziest people I have ever met.

If one of you died, I would feel it just as much as I would if someone at my work died. Probably moreso depending on the person.

Which list do I make?