Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o announced Wednesday that the woman he believed was his girlfriend turned out to be fictitious. Through the Irish’s drive to the national championship game, the nation learned about the young woman who first was reported to have been in a car accident, then died of cancer. It turns out she never existed at all, and Te’o maintains he was shocked when he learned of the hoax.
Here’s what writers and columnists are Just Sayin’ about Te’o:
Gregg Doyel, CBSSports.com:
Nothing about this story has been comprehensible, or logical, and that extends to what happens next. I cannot comprehend Manti Te’o saying anything that could make me believe he was a victim. That doesn’t mean such a tale cannot be told. It just means I can’t conjure it in my head. You could give me three months to come up with a legitimate ending for this story that explains how Manti Te’o didn’t know that his “girlfriend” of three years was a hoax.
And after three months, this is what I would write:
“…”
Michael Rosenberg, SI.com:
Technically, Te’o did not lie. But he did tell a lie of omission — somebody asked him about his dead girlfriend, and he declined to tell the truth: That she did not exist.
This was a pattern for Te’o. Everybody assumed he met her in person, and he certainly indicated that he did. (Notre Dame athletic director Jack) Swarbrick says when Te’o said “met” he included online communication. By that standard, most men in this country have spent time alone with Kate Upton.
Te’o appeared to shave the truth, and that, along with Deadspin’s implication, has led many people to assume that Te’o was in on the scam.
Rick Telander, Chicago Sun-Times:
Why would Te’o allow the young woman to be real for three years before she begins suffering from leukemia, gets in a violent car crash, lingers gloriously between life and death in a hospital bed and then dies — amazing coincidence — on the very day (or not) when Te’o’s real grandmother Annette Santiago actually dies. …
(Here’s) what I believe is the real reason Te’o — and apparently his father, at least — went along with this scheme: the Heisman Trophy.
When I was talking with Te’o in the tunnel of the Coliseum after Notre Dame thrashed USC in its final regular-season game, another writer asked him what the low point of his career was.
He promptly said, “September 12.” The other writers nodded knowingly.
I had no idea. His grandmother and girlfriend both died, a writer hissed at me.
Da-yang, I thought. Wow. I voted Te’o first on my Heisman ballot. He finished second.
Thank God.
Al Lesar, South Bend Tribune:
Outside of a statement published Wednesday by ESPN.com, Te’o, was silent.
Was it the embarrassment of having his misplaced trust escalate into a national story? Or, as the Deadspin story insinuates (crediting an anonymous friend to a guy who is believed to be Teo’s friend now that’s credibility, right?), was it because Te’o was actually in on it for the publicity?
Since when does the best linebacker in Notre Dame history need publicity?
The big-picture implications of this story run the gamut.
For starters, Te’o’s legacy at Notre Dame will forever be tarnished.
A great athlete is now a punchline.
No matter how this is resolved; if, in fact, it is resolved completely, it isn’t going to change how weird and creepy this feels.
Mike Lopresti, USA Today Sports:
Manti Te’o story just became unforgettable for a very different reason. And Te’o in the same sentence with the term “fantasy league” is now a running online joke.
What if he had actually won the Heisman, largely through the national warmth of his tale? Think of that mess.
“I miss them,” he said after one game about the genuine grandmother who really died, and the imagined girlfriend who didn’t. “But I know I’ll see them again one day.”
Words that moved people then, and haunt Te’o now. Words that frame a sorry question which seems out of place in a golden age of information.
Can we believe anything?