Manti Te'o's girlfriend who died in Canada — Page 4

Nutty? Well, that's where the Mormonism comes in.

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I'm not saying that he was in on the hoax or not, however, there are scads of people that think they have relationships with people they only know from online. Look at all the women (and probably men) that have relationships with inmates.


I don't know what to think, but I also think its so odd that the media is all over it -- and was all over it before it was a scandal.

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It just never crossed his mind

How could I forget -- to whom what his phone call connecting? So either the whole thing was a scam, and he knew it all along, or they can find out what phone got those calls. (Of course, I'm not so sure it's worth the expense/manpower to find out.)

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Catholics believe they are eating chunks of Jesus Christ's actual human flesh and drinking his actual blood each week after it magically transforms from plain old bread and wine. Mormons have NO patent on falling for ridiculous religious hog wash.

So when he says she could only sleep if he was on the phone with her did he just have the phone to his ear all night and listen to her breathing? There must be phone records to prove these all night snore sessions.

I am still not buying his denial of everything...has he booked with Oprah yet?

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Seriously. Just imagine for a moment that she was real, and those things did happen to her--and he never once visited her? I'd think he was a monster.

But what we know about Mormon culture is that it is the outward appearance of happiness, family, success and spirituality that is most important. It would be *great* if reality lined up with that, but what matters most is that is how things look to outsiders. To pick one example, this is how there can be HUGE drug and alcohol issues among Mormons that are NEVER talked about, less the veneer crack. It's not culturally *polite* to ask questions or doubt somebody's story.

So let's say you're a football player who has never had a girlfriend, for *whatever* reason. It's *really* important in Mormon culture to marry and propagate like an Osmond. On the one hand, being a football star clearly demonstrates to the outside world that you've got your macho bona fides, but inside the Mormon world, questions about when you're getting married would be fairly relentless.

If the hoaxer has a history of manipulating people online, those talents could be used on anybody, even a football player "friend" who is getting famous. I don't believe anybody starts out to have a big huge story that will collapse, they probably think they're just engaging in online role playing and it won't do any harm. Like the cancer girl who fooled the RENT cast. Like the abused girl who fooled Rosie O'Donnell.

I bet the fact that they had never met in person didn't really matter to Te'o because the whole thing was perfect in his mind, so face to face encounter was probably ust incidental and that he glossed over by implying to family (like that father) that they had met and all that. With every intention of eventually meeting and making love and losing their virginity on their magical wedding night.

It's really not that hard for me to see how he could have been deceived, what he gained by ignoring the red flags that should have been obvious. Even though CATHOLICS BELIEVE CRAZY THINGS TOO, this is a very specific set of other circumstances that are about Mormon culture more than dogma.

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Updated On: 1/19/13 at 06:28 PM

Except that, I bet, when you're in the midst of romantic fantasies, you lose track of where reality ended and your embellishment began.

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From what I know, tattoos are fine. They just can't eat or drink anything that changes the body.

I'm not surprised to see this subject brought up on this site. A few thoughts:
This all reminds me of that Ave Q tune "My Girlfriend in Canada".
I can easily understand what a guy in this situation is going through, and he would be a hero to many if he comes out.
The NFL draft is coming up in April, and expect him to slip a few slots. Hopefully for me to the bottom of the 1st round where the Baltimore Ravens could snap him up.
Go Ravens!

Strummergirl -- as already mentioned, Jews forbid tattoos. TECHNICALLY you cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetary if you have them. (Those tattoed in camps are overlooked because they were forced upon them.)

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I didn't follow this story too much, but isn't Manti the "victim"? I mean, all he "did" was correspond with a fake person. It's those other evil, douchebags that set the hoax in motion. I think it's cruel and disgraceful, even if Manti was extremely naive, gay, whatever... He's a young kid brought up on the internet, and he got overly involved emotionally, and then, later on, just got humiliated and embarrassed, and didn't know how to lie his way out of a "coverup". Yes, the details are weird..I think when he realized it was a hoax, he found himself sooo humiliated, he couldn't come to grips with the realities. I mean, Bernie Madoff's victims also deluded themselves into thinking everything was on the up and up also. They were mostly educated, somewhat wealthy people who believed what they wanted to believe - that is, that their ridiculously high returns on their investments were "normal. Why? Because of greed." One makes up stories to justify what they're doing. Not unheard of. That's why scammmers are successful. Everybody has their "vulnerabilites". Kinda go w/Namo's "analysis". Manti wanted to believe he was in love, so he believed it. I feel sorry for the dude.

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