The NFL Thread 2012: Baltimore Ravens win Super Bowl XLVII

[theRepublic]

Since this website isn't really sport focused, I will drop this story here instead of making a new thread. The draft is coming up and this sort of ties into that.

http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-the-most-heartbreaking-and-inspirational-story-of-the-college-football-season-is-a-hoax

It is a long story, but a great read. Someone took the time to do some actual real journalism. It turns out that Manti Te'o's girlfriend that died earlier this year does not exist. How no one else figured this out boggles my mind. All the interviews and stories about him meeting her and her family giving him support through the tragedy were completely made up.

Notre Dame is trying to spin this as Te'o was the victim of an internet hoax, but that does not make any sense. Who is going to carry on a hoax like this for over 3 years? Who spent hours on the phone with him?

It turns out that the person operating "her" twitter account was a friend of Te'o's. This could be a big publicity stunt, or the more I and more I read it, it seems more like a cover. It could be that Te'o is gay and had a relationship with his friend. But it is all very confusing. The PR angle just does not make sense to me. Neither does Te'o being fooled for over three years, but still lying to the media about meeting her. Then his friend turns out to be behind the Twitter account? No, the hoax angle does not make sense either.