Thread: Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend Story a Hoax

Originally Posted by inchibearfan

Not to get political and I want to keep the responses directly related to the actions, not to the policies of Democrats and Republican, etc., but how does this compare and contrast with this story:



Is the difference simply that Te'o made up the death of the girlfriend or that we hold our football players to higher standards than our politicians? We immortalize our sports figures and are let down when things come out about that sports figure, but not with our elected officials (this could be because 95% of them have lied at some point in time). Because both Te'o and the President fabricated these girlfriends to gain something in the end. Why does one story get so much media attention and the other simply fades away?

Difference is Obama was writing a book, and was telling a story. And as such, details can get compressed if the author is trying to provide a better narrative (plus as a composite, its still based on people that actually existed).

Whereas Te'o (if he concocted this whole story), gave everyone a story about someone who didnt exist, never existed and was done with the intent of purposefully misleading the public.

Originally Posted by inchibearfan

That is a plausible explanation. I do think Te'o made this up, I don't think he was the victim in this situation. I do, however, also think we hold our sports figures to a higher standard than we do our politicians. I think we have come to expect this out of all of our politicians and are not disappointed when something happens because it doesn't matter because both options you have lied about something. We want to think our sports starts are sincere and take them at face value.

lol, not really....people have been pissed at politicians for lying ever since the dawn of politics.

Originally Posted by inchibearfan

This guy is also just a little over 20 years old. It was a stupid thing to do but should he be tarred and feathered over it?

He made up a story about his cancer stricken, dying girlfriend, then said she died a couple days after his grandmother. IMO, pretty bad. Much worse than compressing the memories of two ex girlfriends.

That being said, if he falls to #20 in the 2nd.......... Urlacher is getting older, but then again.... this guy is crazy.

Originally Posted by inchibearfan

Not to get political and I want to keep the responses directly related to the actions, not to the policies of Democrats and Republican, etc., but how does this compare and contrast with this story:



Is the difference simply that Te'o made up the death of the girlfriend or that we hold our football players to higher standards than our politicians? We immortalize our sports figures and are let down when things come out about that sports figure, but not with our elected officials (this could be because 95% of them have lied at some point in time). Because both Te'o and the President fabricated these girlfriends to gain something in the end. Why does one story get so much media attention and the other simply fades away?

I don't want to be an ass, but if you can't see the difference in the two, I'm not sure what to tell you.

It's not a provocative juxtaposition on society's values. Te'o played this whole thing up to the national media with tearful stories of tragedies and suffering. He did it even after he claimed to have discovered he was duped. This psuedo-Obama girlfriend issue wasn't brought forth in dramatic fashion prior to the public discovering the truth. No real cards were played from this. I doubt 99.9% of people could have told you anything about her, whereas Te'o's girlfriend dying and his circumstances surrounding the timing were a huge sports story which he fed. Sorry, it just sounds like a comparison that was conjured on some crappy Ayn Rand Tea Party political website.

Honestly, the only thing i've agreed with anyone yet is that he shouldn't be drafted on a team without multiple defensive leaders, because at best he is naive, and worst, not trustable. I honestly would take him on this team, because this would be back page stuff behind:

Urlacher's last year
Devin's last year/how much the Bears miss Devin
O-line issues
Jay Cutler
Trestman's 1st year
And when in doubt, have Lance Briggs crash something or get pissed off about money.

Anyhoo, if he were to fall, we need to grab him, if we have made strides on the o-line already. If we have already signed a few FA's, then use the rest of the draft to try and add another starter/more depth. Te'o is an unbeliveable talent and if he were to slide, this is an Aaron Rodgers/Randy Moss/Brady Quinn/Dan Marino type drop that we'd be fools not to take advantage of.