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Manti Te’o and the catfish
Posted on 11/9/26 at 7:48 am
Posted on 11/9/26 at 7:48 am
Saw Manti commentating before one of the NFL games yesterday and thought back to the circus around this guy and the infamous ‘catfish’ during college.
Do ya’ll really believe this at face value? A great college athlete in love in an online relationship so much so he spoke so much about publicly but could never meet her? If I remember correctly he was up for the Heisman and used his online girlfriend as his biggest support. Nothing against the guy, but this all just seems like total horseshite. What y’all think about this OT?
Do ya’ll really believe this at face value? A great college athlete in love in an online relationship so much so he spoke so much about publicly but could never meet her? If I remember correctly he was up for the Heisman and used his online girlfriend as his biggest support. Nothing against the guy, but this all just seems like total horseshite. What y’all think about this OT?
This post was edited on 11/9/26 at 7:50 am
Posted on 11/9/26 at 7:49 am to BabyTac
Have you seen the women at Notre Dame…? Very plausible story
Posted on 11/9/26 at 7:50 am to BabyTac
Watch the documentary. I think it was real, and he was just a naive dumbass for believing any of it
Posted on 11/9/26 at 7:50 am to BabyTac
quote:
catfish
Posted on 11/9/26 at 7:51 am to BabyTac
Well he is Mormon so, you know, he’s at least a little gullible.
Posted on 11/9/26 at 7:51 am to BabyTac
I think he was really catfished. He does not come off as very smart, so it is plausible. A normal IQ guy would see the obvious red flags after a few conversations with "her"
The kid doing the voice on the phone is a pretty weird situation though.
The media holds a lot of the blame, they were slobbering all over him and his "dying girlfriend" every week. He rode that wave all the way to the Heisman ceremony, which is actually pretty crazy.
I remember one of his interviews when he said she is too sick to meet him and being like - "WTF he has never met her?!?"
The kid doing the voice on the phone is a pretty weird situation though.
The media holds a lot of the blame, they were slobbering all over him and his "dying girlfriend" every week. He rode that wave all the way to the Heisman ceremony, which is actually pretty crazy.
I remember one of his interviews when he said she is too sick to meet him and being like - "WTF he has never met her?!?"
This post was edited on 11/9/26 at 7:53 am
Posted on 11/9/26 at 7:51 am to BabyTac
Did you not watch the documentary
Posted on 11/9/26 at 7:53 am to slinger1317
quote:
I remember one of his interviews when he said she is too sick to meet him and being like - "WTF he has never met her?!?"
Dude had all the resources in the world. If the love of my life was on her death bed, I’d find a way to be present in some capacity.
Posted on 11/9/26 at 7:54 am to BabyTac
I think he’s a really dumb nice guy and was actually catfished.
Posted on 11/9/26 at 7:57 am to BabyTac
I remember the deadspin article that broke the story heavily implying he was in on it because Manti was familiar with the guy doing the hoax.
Posted on 11/9/26 at 8:01 am to Robin Masters
quote:
Well he is Mormon so, you know, he’s at least a little gullible.
Yeah, Mormons are weird. Nice, but weird. I could see him getting caught up in it.
Posted on 11/9/26 at 8:04 am to BabyTac
Why couldn't he just fall in love with an AI chat bot like a normal person
Posted on 11/9/26 at 8:51 am to BabyTac
He’s a Polynesian LDS, they’re not know for being the brightest crayon in the box and also some of the most easily manipulated people on the planet. So it’s likely very true which is scary
Posted on 11/9/26 at 8:54 am to BabyTac
I never understood it either. I’m not the smartest cookie in the box either, especially when it comes to technology. But I’ve used dating apps and stuff before, and you can tell who’s fake and who isn’t pretty easily I think. Or you can just tell who’s potentially a fake and you can avoid them all together.
Posted on 11/9/26 at 8:57 am to BabyTac
He got fooled but we should really focus on the media who just ran with the story. Zero due diligence on their part (or simply decided to go with the bullshite regardless). If I remember correctly It wasn’t hard to figure out this person didn’t exist: no obituary, no record of this person was a student at Stanford, not even a high school yearbook
This post was edited on 11/9/26 at 9:09 am
Posted on 11/9/26 at 9:03 am to danilo
quote:I think it was Manti doing the least dude diligence
Zero dude diligence on their part
Posted on 11/9/26 at 9:08 am to danilo
quote:
Zero dude diligence on their part (or simply decided to go with the bullshite regardless)
ESPN eventually figured it out, they just sat on the story until Deadspin broke it. Probably because they would look just as stupid bc they did no investigation of their own despite pimping the story to death all season.
Posted on 11/9/26 at 9:09 am to BabyTac
You have to understand that back during that time, Catfishing was just becoming a thing, dating apps hadn't taken off yet to a large degree. It was not something people were overwhelmingly concerned with online. It was a lot easier to be a victim back then if you were a target
This post was edited on 11/9/26 at 9:10 am
Posted on 11/9/26 at 9:13 am to BabyTac
sub 90 IQs get conned easily
Posted on 11/9/26 at 9:40 am to BabyTac
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