2012 LGP College Football Thread

[Alejandro Rojas]

[slappybrown]

kenny the kangaroos mom instantly said that it reminded her of the simpsons episode "bart the lover"

You expect me to believe you have a mother? I might have been born yesterday but I stayed up all night, you can't fool me.

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

[DudeMan2766]

So since Te'o was quoted in interviews that he has met her, why is this "do you believe he was duped' even a discussion??

[KennyTheKangaroo]

or spent 8 hours on the phone with her overnight?

[CBear3]

Having had a mostly online relationship, I can totally buy lying about how they met.
But even I hooked up in person with my French Model internet girlfriend.

[Tomas]

So it looks like his teammates knew :

http://deadspin.com/5976762/manti-teos- ... manti-te.o

The debate among teammates wasn't whether or not Manti actually knew this girl - it was clear that they had been in contact; no, players just didn't think that it was fair to call Lennay Kekua Manti's girlfriend, period (it is well-known on campus that he has had relations with other girls during his time at Notre Dame). They recognized what was going on for what it was - a terrible publicity stunt used to fuel Manti Te'o's Heisman campaign. In fact, many of the players privately commented that they didn't want the students to wear leis in support of Manti and wouldn't participate themselves - they cited that the team never responded so publicly to tragic events for other players. But there was also the feeling that Manti didn't deserve to benefit from publicity from the death of somebody he barely knew.

[Dickie Dunn]

So it looks like his teammates knew :

http://deadspin.com/5976762/manti-teos- ... manti-te.o

The debate among teammates wasn't whether or not Manti actually knew this girl - it was clear that they had been in contact; no, players just didn't think that it was fair to call Lennay Kekua Manti's girlfriend, period (it is well-known on campus that he has had relations with other girls during his time at Notre Dame). They recognized what was going on for what it was - a terrible publicity stunt used to fuel Manti Te'o's Heisman campaign. In fact, many of the players privately commented that they didn't want the students to wear leis in support of Manti and wouldn't participate themselves - they cited that the team never responded so publicly to tragic events for other players. But there was also the feeling that Manti didn't deserve to benefit from publicity from the death of somebody he barely knew.

The bolded part just furthers my point about his "passion" and "desire" and "motivation" and "leadership". All this nonsense that the sports media keeps building up about him so they can project their hero as a top ten pick even though his talent level doesn't put him there. College teammates didn't buy in to his actions and demeanor, you really think NFL players are going to care? You really think NFL veterans are going to care what some 22 year old rookie linebacker is spouting, let alone a rookie linebacker who has fake girlfriend "scandal"? The only people that care about this crap are the adoring media.

Leadership is a valuable commodity in professional sports, but being an unproven leader doesn't mean jack, especially in the NFL. Leadership comes from veterans. Leadership comes from experience. You don't draft leadership. Someone can be a "potential leader" or have "leadership qualities", but without the experiences to back up the character traits none of it means anything.

[newarenanow]

The Girlfriend's twitter account went active again last night and there was a tweet that she'd be revealing information today at noon PST. So in about 3 minutes.

[Tomas]

The Girlfriend's twitter account went active again last night and there was a tweet that she'd be revealing information today at noon PST. So in about 3 minutes.

L K ‏@LennayKay

My statement: This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but I have been told by Alabama's offense that Manti Te'o is not real.

https://twitter.com/LennayKay

[KennyTheKangaroo]

OMG.

[DudeMan2766]

that joke was made about a thousand times yesterday

[Stoosh]

So since Te'o was quoted in interviews that he has met her, why is this "do you believe he was duped' even a discussion??

It feels like this "do you believe he was duped" angle is being pushed mostly through the mainstream media to keep the focus off what Deadspin's diligence with this story made patently obvious - that the ESPNs and the other major media outlets that bought this story hook, line and sinker didn't do theirs.

It's not much different, really, than ESPN driving TebowMania - keep telling the world he's a star, and at least some people will believe he really is a star, despite on-field evidence that clearly shows otherwise.

Keep bringing up the notion that Te'o may have been duped, despite published evidence to the contrary, and at least some people will continue to believe he was duped. And more importantly, they won't wonder why the same media outlets who bought into these stories never bothered to investigate it further.

I've seen the point raised on Twitter more than a few times since this mess broke, but it's amazing how Yahoo Sports and Deadspin have been doing circles around ESPN and some of the other networks in terms of breaking these kinds of stories. Thought this sentiment was best expressed yesterday by Gawker's Emma Carmichael, who tweeted the following last night:

"btw deadspin's @jackdickey, one half of the team that schooled sports media today, starts his final undergrad semester on tuesday. lol."

[newarenanow]

The Girlfriend's twitter account went active again last night and there was a tweet that she'd be revealing information today at noon PST. So in about 3 minutes.

L K ‏@LennayKay

My statement: This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but I have been told by Alabama's offense that Manti Te'o is not real.

https://twitter.com/LennayKay

Ha, is that all it was?

[MRandall25]

That's some class A trolling, if I've ever seen it.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

It now makes you wonder what the deal is behind twitter account

[Puffymuffin]

So it looks like his teammates knew :

http://deadspin.com/5976762/manti-teos- ... manti-te.o

Seems like the whole school knew
http://collegespun.com/big-east/notre-d ... riend-hoax

[Tomas]

Freakin' Malcolm Gladwell finally commented on the issue!!!!

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/885 ... -manti-teo

So what is so fantastic about the Manti Te'o story? It is all three narratives, all in one. It's Love Story meets Icarus meets inspirational outsider. It wasn't enough that Manti's love affair be doomed, that his girlfriend had leukemia, and that he drew from her death the inspiration to go out and get 12 tackles in the crucial defeat of Michigan State. She also had to be severely injured in a car accident. It's a combo platter! It's so over-the-top I am in awe. You couldn't be more right that this is an "aggressively modern" scandal. Why would anyone in the 21st century settle for just one played-out story line?

What's not modern, though, is the made-up part. "Billy," Knute Rockne's son? Totally healthy back home in South Bend.

[Puffymuffin]

So first Deadspin with the scoop and now TMZ with more info
http://www.tmz.com/2013/01/17/manti-teo ... irlfriend/

I see sportsjournalism in the US is at an all time high

[PhantomJB93]

It now makes you wonder what the deal is behind twitter account

What's funny is that is the actual account he was tweeting to months ago when he was supposedly in this "relationship" with this person. I don't even know what to make of that because I can't imagine anybody who was directly involved in this would be stupid enough to tweet a joke like that right now, I wonder if the account got hacked.

[shafnutz05]

It amazes me that Notre Dame immediately hired a private firm to investigate this story, yet when a woman claimed she was raped by a football player (who played this year, btw) and subsequently committed suicide, it was dismissed.

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

I wouldn't be surprised if Notre Dame never actually hired a security firm.

[Dickie Dunn]

Pretty sure they hired Gene Parmesan.

[Rocco]

http://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index ... witterfeed

I'm not an anti-trust lawyer, but good luck with that argument Maryland.

[legame]

Didn't they openly agree to the exit fee as a voting member of the conference? I'm not sure how they plan on getting out of it...