Ah Bruce. You always find a way to make a bad situation better. So, who has a bad situation to make better? Mr. Manti Te'o. A Mormon Samoan from Hawaii who played in a Catholic Notre Dame university who finished second in the Heisman voting. He had a girlfriend that was a dude. That he never met. And loved for 3 years. Who died. The same day as his grandmother (who was real). I am writing this post now to fully express my thoughts on the situation and will never ever address it again.
Sure, we have all been in love. We do stupid things for love. Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear. Romeo killed himself because he was too dumb to check for a pulse. Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't find another piece of driftwood. I guess when you decide to dedicate your life to someone, you realize there are things you will give up to ensure that person is healthy, happy, and complacent. I have done my fair share of things. Most concerning of which was growing my hair out. Thank God I am fine with my buzz cut hair and will be so for the foreseeable future.
I won't get into the details of the history, but basically Manti Te'o was a great college linebacker who apparently stuck to his faith, dedicating a part of his life, specifically his love life, to some girl he met on the Internet. He liked the girl's picture and her personality, and he fell in love. Apparently, she developed leukemia last year after surviving a horrid car crash. One of his cousins gets diagnosed with Leukemia as well. Then on September 11th his grandmother dies, and on the 12th his girlfriend dies. The names of all the people other than Manti are too hard to spell, so I will make up names.
It is then broken to the public a week ago that his girlfriend was a hoax, never really existed, and perhaps Manti had some devilish plan to garner sympathy for Heisman trophy voting. The news of the deaths of his loved ones inspired him and drew sympathy from the college sports and sporting world beyond belief. Now people feel betrayed by a player who was playing more like an inspiration than a devious mastermind.
The most shocking part of this to me is that, while I knew the name Manti Te'o, I never knew he had a girlfriend and/or grandmother who passed away that drew the nation's sympathy. Not mine. I didn't know of that. As a man who's last remaining grandparent is pushing through life in her 90's, I understand what the thought of losing her would feel like. Nobody wants to see that happen.
So it comes out that this guy, let's call him Roger, perpetrated the whole thing. Even as far as playing the voice of the girl. Whether he did it on his own or a voice machine we may find out later. Sooner or later Roger will have to talk on this matter, but by then I think the football player's name can be cleared. The story has dominated my beloved sports talk radio while I am more interested in one upcoming, potentially great Super Bowl.
One of the topics of discussion is if this whole hoax, and Manti's refusal to acknowledge it was a ploy to cover up his sexual orientation. He even moved on in December finding another woman to date. I'm sure this woman sympathized with him and was there as a support for him. One radio show said that Manti was invited by the fake girl to meet him at a hotel once. He wanted to, but didn't. This doesn't make him gay. If he is devout to his religion, and focused on being the best athlete he can be to ensure his future career, well I don't think he did anything wrong by not seeking her out. A man is a man, and he knew the temptation that would be there after meeting her the first time after 3 years. Good for him showing some values. Perhaps this moment was when the reveal of Roger as the girl would come to pass, and Manti and him could have had a real laugh.
However, the odd part of the story is that he once claimed to have met her a couple times. Even some other guy in the NFL claims to have met her, coincidentally when this guy Roger was also in the area. A person in New England once thought he was going to meet the girl as well, before the Manti experience, but only met Roger instead. If I was Manti, and had my relationship questioned, in light of facing embarrassment from his peers and opponents, I would lie and say to the national media I met her as well. Who wants to be known as the big bad football player with a girl he loved and never met? That is a lie, and a little bit of chicanery, but innocent on his behalf, I believe.
A couple weeks after she died, and after he lost the Heisman award to a freshman, he got a call from his girlfriend saying she was not dead. Manti says he went on a rage. Imagine his whole life being flipped upside down. The dude thought he lost a lovely girl, while also mourning a real person in his life. He had to split his emotions between the two people he loved who died. I can't imagine the regret he must feel maybe not mourning his grandmother more, or the way he thought he would. The "leukemia" story was an out for Roger, to pull the trigger on her dying any time he wanted. The major car accident didn't turn Manti away from her, nor did the leukemia. And on top of it, his cousin is diagnosed with the same disease. Perhaps this led to the man Roger to finally feel the weight of a bad situation getting heavier and pulled the trigger. When his grandmother died, it was literally the next day, two hours after the two talked on the phone, presumably about his grandmother, that she suddenly died from leukemia. I know somebody with leukemia, and this type of play on emotions and real problems for good people is quite offensive to me.
The timing was perfect for Roger to kill off the fake girlfriend. Manti was already lost in the death of his grandmother, so he would not split his time to attend two separate funerals. Plus I am sure that when Roger revealed the girl had leukemia, that talked about how whatever happens to her that he should keep playing. Thus the reason why he played a game on the day of her funeral, and he had, from what I read, a great inspiring game.
The bottom line now is that Manti Te'o is a top draft prospect for the NFL. And now he is viewed as everything from a liar, to gay, to a communist, to a stellar athlete, to a sympathetic figure at the heart of a "Catfish" scandal.
Turns out, like 45 Redskins players have been fooled by an online hoax as well. That is why they still suck.
The worst part for Manti will be when he plays, wherever he plays, the story will follow him. Wait until he is on a Monday Night or Sunday Night Football broadcast. They will Man-tire out the entire thing. Get it? See what I did there? Word play, motherfucker!
Sorry for the cussing. Let's get back to the fake love life of a football player. I feel bad for Manti. He will now go on the field against people, and maybe even teammates, who will taunt him with jabs about his imaginary girlfriend, imaginary friend, being in love with a fake girl, being in love with a girl that a man made up, being in love with a man. I don't think this story should hurt him in the eyes of teams that might have wanted to draft him. Roger has explaining to do, at this point, not Manti. I think he got a bad break on this after everything else has broken right for him. Enough is enough on this story. Let the man get his life back on track and focus on his foosball skills and then let's see what type of player he has become. Duba, OUT!
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