We’ve all heard the lies athletes tell about ways they cheat such as taking steroids, corking their bats and doping.
It’s nothing new to the sports world to say that people cheat.
But it was a new one when Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o announced to the world that he had a “girlfriend” who “died.”
The online timeline for the complicated, twisted story is full of cover-ups and misunderstandings and is nearly three pages long.
What it comes down to, however, is that Te’o’s “girlfriend” was never a real person.
She existed purely online and someone whom he had never met. He claims that he was pulled into a hoax and believed she was real. Many, however, claim that Te’o knew she was fake all along and continued to go along with it for media attention.
What really captured everyone’s attention was when Te’o made the claim that his girlfriend had died. He says he thought it was real all along.
But then, according to a USA Today article, Te’o admitted he “didn’t lie about the hoax until December.”
If Te’o confessed this much, I feel like the more he is pushed the more he might admit.
With each interview he does, more information seems to come spewing out, and in a couple weeks, I think more confessions are bound to be made. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if slowly but surely he pushes back the time period that he knew it was a hoax.
I know that things like online relationships are all the rage nowadays, but for those to be successful I think the people have to meet at some point. So I find it very hard to believe that Te’o really thought this online girlfriend was real the entire time when he had never even made physical contact with the (non-existent) woman. Let alone that he was completely in love with her.
It’s one thing for an athlete to lie in order to cheat. It’s obviously completely wrong, but for him to lie about his or her personal life brings it to a whole new level. How desperate for pity and attention is the guy?
If he was trying for media attention, he was definitely successful. Manti Te’o quickly became one of the most well-known names in college football.
And he may have even started a new trend. Now instead of Tebowing we can start Te’oing: posing with your arm around an invisible significant other.
