Perhaps one of the hottest trending topics at the moment is about a Deadspin report claiming that the late girlfriend of the star player of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football team - Manti Te'o - never existed. Their heartwarming romance and her heartbreaking demise was well publicized in newspapers and TV. But beyond the gossip value, there is a silent elephant in the room. Some speculate that Te'o may have been involved in manufacturing a charming dream and sob story to curry sympathy with voters for the Heisman Trophy, an annual award given to the most outstanding college football player. And from all the tortured explanations I have heard, I can only wonder whether this story is far from over and whether criminal prosecutions are just around the corner.
What a week this has been. First Lance Armstrong is reported to have admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance enhancing drugs which helped him win a record seven Tour de France Titles. And within that same theme of lies and deception in professional sports we have this story.
In short, Deadspin highlights several highly credible news sources which provided detailed reports and accounts of how Te'o met his girlfriend over a year and half ago, her trips to Hawaii to meet his family, her sudden car crash and diagnosis of Leukemia. This led to her untimely death just shortly after his own grandmother had also passed (this last incident actually occurred.) The Deadspin story reports that the only public picture of Te'os girlfriend happens to be that of a Southern California woman who had never heard of Te'o. However she had a connection with a young man who allegedly solicited that photo and certainly knows Te'o - an odd coincidence.
Just when you thought this story couldn't get more bizarre, University of Notre Dame athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, held a press conference to reinforce his faith in Manti Te'o and insistence that Te'o was the victim of a cruel hoax. The story is now that Te'o never met his beloved girlfriend and he only begun to suspect something strange when she never showed up in Hawaii to meet his family. Notre Dame believes that this story was similar to those appearing on MTV's "Catfish" TV show that documents the truth and lies about online dating. They hired an investigator several weeks to look into who might have been the cruel perpetrator of this terrible fraud.
My gut tells me that something isn't right when neither the player nor the school makes any effort to correct several detailed stories printed by highly visible and credible and reputed news sources such as Sports Illustrated. That Notre Dame actually knew about this awful hoax at least as early as several weeks ago makes me wonder how much Notre Dame officials actually knew prior to the Heisman Trophy voting and whether they may not have been averse to the possible positive effects it could have on the Heisman voting.
Was this an extensive fraud perpetrated to raise Te'o's chances to win the Heisman? Perhaps, difficult to say about a fraudulent story that has been running for at least one year. Others speculate that this is Münchausen by Internet, the modern version of Münchausen by Proxy. It is defined as follows in Wikipedia:
Münchausen by Internet is a pattern of behavior in which Internet users seek attention by feigning illnesses in online venues such as chat rooms, message boards, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC). It has been described in medical literature as a manifestation of factitious disorder or factitious disorder by proxy.
Whatever the truth is, I'm sorry for this young man who was a certain first round pick in the NFL draft even after a poor showing in the NCAA College Football Championship Game against Alabama.
What a week this has been. First Lance Armstrong is reported to have admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance enhancing drugs which helped him win a record seven Tour de France Titles. And within that same theme of lies and deception in professional sports we have this story.
In short, Deadspin highlights several highly credible news sources which provided detailed reports and accounts of how Te'o met his girlfriend over a year and half ago, her trips to Hawaii to meet his family, her sudden car crash and diagnosis of Leukemia. This led to her untimely death just shortly after his own grandmother had also passed (this last incident actually occurred.) The Deadspin story reports that the only public picture of Te'os girlfriend happens to be that of a Southern California woman who had never heard of Te'o. However she had a connection with a young man who allegedly solicited that photo and certainly knows Te'o - an odd coincidence.
Just when you thought this story couldn't get more bizarre, University of Notre Dame athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, held a press conference to reinforce his faith in Manti Te'o and insistence that Te'o was the victim of a cruel hoax. The story is now that Te'o never met his beloved girlfriend and he only begun to suspect something strange when she never showed up in Hawaii to meet his family. Notre Dame believes that this story was similar to those appearing on MTV's "Catfish" TV show that documents the truth and lies about online dating. They hired an investigator several weeks to look into who might have been the cruel perpetrator of this terrible fraud.
My gut tells me that something isn't right when neither the player nor the school makes any effort to correct several detailed stories printed by highly visible and credible and reputed news sources such as Sports Illustrated. That Notre Dame actually knew about this awful hoax at least as early as several weeks ago makes me wonder how much Notre Dame officials actually knew prior to the Heisman Trophy voting and whether they may not have been averse to the possible positive effects it could have on the Heisman voting.
Was this an extensive fraud perpetrated to raise Te'o's chances to win the Heisman? Perhaps, difficult to say about a fraudulent story that has been running for at least one year. Others speculate that this is Münchausen by Internet, the modern version of Münchausen by Proxy. It is defined as follows in Wikipedia:
Münchausen by Internet is a pattern of behavior in which Internet users seek attention by feigning illnesses in online venues such as chat rooms, message boards, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC). It has been described in medical literature as a manifestation of factitious disorder or factitious disorder by proxy.
Whatever the truth is, I'm sorry for this young man who was a certain first round pick in the NFL draft even after a poor showing in the NCAA College Football Championship Game against Alabama.
