AJHawkfan;2293445; said:
This has got to be the most bizarre sports story I've ever heard.
Either Te'o was truly taken advantage of, and was fooled by someone, making him one of the biggest morons on the planet.
Or, he was one of the co-conspirators, along with his family and the ND administration, making them some of the biggest liars on the planet.
Either way, the happiest guy in the country right now is Lance Armstrong. This whole Te'o story has dropped Lance from the front page in record time.
Here's a possible scenario:
Let's say Te'o is homosexual. (While I don't personally approve of that lifestyle, I'm not a LGBT basher, either.)
Te'o is found out while attending the University of Golden Domers. Somewhere in his junior season, people witness him having an all to inappropriate relationship with this guy (Ronaiah Tuiasosopo).
Te'o and his family knows about the backlash that would happen both on the team as well as for the university if it's found out that the star team captain LB is outed as a closeted gay. They come up with this elaborate hoax that he has an absentee girlfriend that you can't see, because she's home....sick.
Unfortunately, for them, Domer had a much better season than expected. The media (ESPN) catches wind of this 'inspirational' story and grabs hold of it. They've got media GOLD. They mention it every chance they get.
IN the meantime, someone who has heard this 80 million times gets curious and wants to find out more about Te'o and this 'girl' - not for negative purposes, but just to find out more about the situation. Their research turns up that there's a possible cover up/lie, which prompts them to email the folks at Deadspin.
Deadspin pokes around on Google, places a few phone calls, and does what most media organizations could have done - vetted the story. They find out the truth, and it goes public.
So, here we are. And now, if Te'o thinks it's rough now....
It has only just begun. When CNN gets hold of this, your life takes on a new direction. Since 7:15 this morning, I've heard this on CNN three times already. They interviewed Timothy Burke from Deadspin this morning.