The Manti Te'o Debacle

If you have no idea who Manti Te'o is or the situation surrounding him right now, you clearly live under a rock and haven't turned on the television in the last 24 hours nor checked any form of social media. 

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Yesterday afternoon, Deadspin, a "news" site (I use the term news lightly here) based out of New York, blasted America with news of Manti Te'o's not-so-dead-she-never-existed girlfriend. In a lengthy article, two writers detail inconsistencies in his stories, information found on various Twitter accounts, etc. In short, they put forth to the people that Te'o's "girlfriend" never existed, therefore never died, and it was all a hoax.

In return, Notre Dame, released an official statement stating Te'o was the victim of a hoax and they would get to the bottom of it basically. Last night, Yahoo! Sports talked to Notre Dame's athletic director. Naturally the AD says the same thing as Notre Dame, but with a little more detail.

I've read the Deadspin article three times. I've read a couple of other articles that have been put out defending Te'o saying he's the victim in all of this.

Where does that leave me? -- Extremely confused.

The journalistic side of me looks at the Deadspin article as genius and ballsy. Any and every journalist knows  those types of stories aren't published without substantial proof. They very well could look at a big lawsuit in their future in the name of defamation, so I hope these writers saved every unanswered text and documented every phone call and email. The public relations side of me looks at all of this as a very well planned out PR stunt that in retrospect may harm more than help him and his career.

However, the football lover side of me feels deceived. Despite this supposed hoax, no one can deny his accomplishments on the football field. He is still a great athlete. But what am I supposed to believe? Am I supposed to believe he is the victim of a Catfish scenario? Or am I supposed to believe he was a part of all this? He was compliant in the hoax and was an active part in the betrayal. I don't know. I do know that I don't want to believe he is/was a part of it all. I want to believe he is the victim, even though Deadspin puts forth evidence of the contrary.

If he is a part of all this, then shame on him. If he isn't a part of this, then I feel bad for him.

We will probably never know the honest to the sweet God above truth. If he is a part of the hoax and is still continuing to lie by saying he's the victim, then he has to answer to someone bigger than a nation of his peers. He doesn't care what some 23-year-old, sixth year undergrad at Georgia Southern University has to say about him or what I think of him (he should though.. just kidding). He isn't a criminal, there will be no trial. He has to live the rest of the life knowing the truth and whether he is telling the 100 percent truth now or he's 100 percent lying, that's on him.

I refuse to speak badly of him or make jokes at his expense. We don't know all the information nor the real truth and I respect him as an athlete. While I want to think he's the victim in all this, I find the Deadspin article to be compelling. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if you want to think he's a lousy SOB then that's your prerogative. If you want to think he's the victim and hope that it doesn't affect his possible NFL career, then so be it. And if you want to have no opinion at all (which in all reality never happens), then hey whatever floats your boat. Respect others' opinions and leave it be.

Needless to say, the Te'o story is the most bizarre story of all time and will be in the news for probably the next week. If he's drafted, it will reappear for a week or so and then disappear again.