When I first heard of it, I really didn't know what to make
of the recent Manti Te'o revelation that the "girlfriend" whose death
he mourned along with his grandmother's was actually nonexistent ... a hoax.Te'o had said he met Stanford student Lennay Kekua online in 2009 and had regular phone conversations with her as she went through chemotherapy. He never actually met her in person. It turns out she never existed; even pictures on her Twitter account were of someone else. The perpetrator says Te'o was at least 80% complicit with the hoax.
Te'o, his parents, and Notre Dame maintain he was a victim.
If what Te'o says is true (that he was the victim of a cruel joke), then one has to question his maturity and self-esteem, not to mention his naïveté. And if he actually did know about the ruse and was just playing along to enhance his chances of winning the hearts of his fans, he can join the list of liars that includes Olympic star Marion Jones and Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.
ESPN analyst Mark Shlereth says that when it comes to the NFL, talent and performance trump character issues and the new information probably won't affect his draft status. Which, in my opinion is a shame and says a lot about the character of the league.
Manti Te'o may never be able to fully and truly trust anyone again. Unfortunately, as long as there is doubt, people never be able to trust anything HE says again.
2 comments:
I don't know what to think about this situation. Giving him the benefit of the doubt for the time being but the story gets weirder by the minute! Like Michelle Wie, this is a case of a talented young athlete being wrongly managed by his parents, agent, coaches etc. Plus, there's so much pressure for these star athletes to succeed that they end up making wrong choices.
IMHO, if he is completely innocent, how can he ever be trusted to make the right decisions. All his innocence would do is brand him at the very least, a gullible fool, no?
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