Deadspin: Manti Te

[-p.tiddy-]

You are discounting the possibility, though, that he is in love with a guy some distance away and telephone/Internet are their only form of communication for long periods of time.

IF this were to come out to be a gay issue, it would go from being shocking to bizarre to shameful to downright sad.

No they could twist this into him being a figure head for gay people in sports...

If he came out of the closet it would be HUGE in terms of media attention



there has never been an openly gay player in all of professional sports...or Div 1 football either.

It would be interesting to see what NFL teams would want to take that type of attention on.

[RedBlackAttack]

No they could twist this into him being a figure head for gay people in sports...

If he came out of the closet it would be HUGE in terms of media attention



there has never been an openly gay player in all of professional sports...or Div 1 football either.

It would be interesting to see what NFL teams would want to take that type of attention on.

I think the time might be right... And it could do wonders for the LBGT movement. I almost hope it's true.

[InspiredLebowski]

You are discounting the possibility, though, that he is in love with a guy some distance away and telephone/Internet are their only form of communication for long periods of time.

IF this were to come out to be a gay issue, it would go from being shocking to bizarre to shameful to downright sad.

Then why "kill her?" Why not just break up, or have it still going strong currently? Why bring all that attention when you've got a FAR bigger secret to keep?

you mean someone he has to actually talk to and interact with and have straight sex with?...and then not be able to talk on the phone every night with his gay lover?

If he and this Tuiasosopo had a gay relationship going, I am thinking that they would have rather created a fictional female to hide their relationship rather than find a real girl.

Gay guys don't have sex with beards. Beards are complicit, they know they're just playing a girlfriend. He could've kept talking to whomever he wanted in whatever way he wanted.

[InspiredLebowski]

I want to see an openly gay athlete too. But not like this, it needs to be on their own terms, they need to plan and prepare for it and be ready to attack it head on. Not be dragged into it kicking and screaming because of some weird hoax.

[SCREWstonRockets]

Then why "kill her?" Why not just break up, or have it still going strong currently? Why bring all that attention when you've got a FAR bigger secret to keep?

It's possible that it started as a gay coverup and then when it started getting attention, he started using it to his advantage (dying after gmas death).

On another note, you guys seem to know an awful lot of details about "beards" that I never knew. Hmmmmm

[InspiredLebowski]

It's possible that it started as a gay coverup and then when it started getting attention, he started using it to his advantage (dying after gmas death).

On another note, you guys seem to know an awful lot of details about "beards" that I never knew. Hmmmmm

Sure, anything's possible I suppose, I just really don't believe it. And like I said earlier, if his first thought when he found out his grandma died was "oh damn, I can say my girlfriend died and get all kinds of hype!" he's an evil person. But I don't think that's the case either.

[Burgz V2]

i think this a case of no one involved is directly responsible, more like a story that took a mind of its own via Twitter and other social media

[-p.tiddy-]

Sure, anything's possible I suppose, I just really don't believe it. And like I said earlier, if his first thought when he found out his grandma died was "oh damn, I can say my girlfriend died and get all kinds of hype!" he's an evil person. But I don't think that's the case either.

so you think that he thought there was an actual Lenney that died that day? and that he was actually in love with her and torn up about it?

So who was he talking to on the phone every night for 3 years? Why did his father lie about her visiting the home in Hawaii? Why didn't he go to visit her in the hospital while she had leukemia? better yet, why didn't he ever Skype with her, or FB, or email, or anything but Twitter?



My first thought was that he saw his Grandmother's death as a perfect time to "kill" Lenney because that would take some of the focus away from Lenney's death and lack of a funeral. But yeah I suppose he could have just made claim that they "broke up"...it is a head scratcher.


I think just about anyway you look at this it is crazy and bizarre...but the gay cover-up still makes the most sense to me and is the most logical of all the theories...

[konex]

LMAO

[heyhey]

so you think that he thought there was an actual Lenney that died that day? and that he was actually in love with her and torn up about it?

So who was he talking to on the phone every night for 3 years? Why did his father lie about her visiting the home in Hawaii? Why didn't he go to visit her in the hospital while she had leukemia? better yet, why didn't he ever Skype with her, or FB, or email, or anything but Twitter?

You ever been to a funeral? you always see a lot of people there who claim that they were best friends or really close with the deceased even though in reality their relationship was fairly pedestrian. It's part of the grief process, we want to honor the dead by magnifying their improtance to us. To me it's believable that Teo thought the girl died and started embellishing the relationship both inwardly and outwardly perhaps almost unintentionally.

[-p.tiddy-]

You ever been to a funeral? you always see a lot of people there who claim that they were best friends or really close with the deceased even though in reality their relationship was fairly pedestrian. It's part of the grief process, we want to honor the dead by magnifying their improtance to us. To me it's believable that Teo thought the girl died and started embellishing the relationship both inwardly and outwardly perhaps almost unintentionally.

So he never called her "the love of his life" until she supposedly died?...yeah I guess I can see that.

so who had he been talking to on the phone then?

I just have a really hard time believing that he was duped by someone for 3 years on Twitter and on the phone, all the while not dating others at Notre Dame because of this online relationship he had going...why didn't he want to visit her at the hospital with leukemia?

[Timmy D for MVP]

This is so bizarre.

Idk how this kind of thing spirals out of control. I guess it's like the epitome of getting caught in a lie because it's magnified by national attention.

And then the Cardinals guy says she's real... are we in the Twilight Zone?

[heyhey]

So he never called her "the love of his life" until she supposedly died?...yeah I guess I can see that.

so who had he been talking to on the phone then?

I just have a really hard time believing that he was duped by someone for 3 years on Twitter and on the phone, all the while not dating others at Notre Dame because of this online relationship he had going...why didn't he want to visit her at the hospital with leukemia?

Even more puzzling who did Reagan Muaia meet when he was at AMerican Samoa?

I don't know man. I haven't read a theory of events that satisfactorily answers all the questions yet. hoping more facts come out. but I went back and read through some of the comments again, at first the girl was just referred to as a "close friend" then eventually evolved to girlfriend and "love of his life".

[KevinNYC]

I think he was the victim of the hoax, not the perpetrator.

EDIT: Just filled myself in on the story... don't know what to think.

[-p.tiddy-]

It has been shown that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is friends with Manti though and no one knows how they met...My theory was that Ronaiah and Manti were gay lovers and they both created Lennay together to hide their relationship from everyone else.

If Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was really hoaxing Manti for 3 years, then who was Manti talking with on the phone supposedly every night? Was it Ronaiah using a fake female voice?...Did he hire a female friend to play the voice over the phone for him?