Lewis went 26th overall too. Let's say that is how Te'o is evaluated...as a decided step down talent wise from Lewis. Then, regardless of this story about the fake GF, he would be about a top 40 pick, not a top 10 like many early mock drafts seem to have him.
Ray Lewis wasn't Ray Lewis when he came out. Which is kind of why the whole "Manti Te'o isn't Ray Lewis" point is a little obtuse. Just because Manti Te'o appeared as a top 5 pick in some mock drafts, there's been this ridiculous contrarian reaction to it. You want to talk about losing the forest for the trees? Look at peoples' reactions to a guy going top 5 versus going, for example, #9 overall or some such. It's like "Apocalypse Now" if the player is in the top 5 but if he's just #9 or #10, we're down to "Milo & Otis". That's always been one of the more ridiculous aspects of draft coverage. Here's the reality. Luke Kuechly went #9 overall. Rolando McClain went #8 overall. Aaron Curry went #4 overall. Keith Rivers went #9 overall. Brian Cushing went #15 overall. Jerod Mayo went #10 overall. Patrick Willis went #11 overall and Lawrence Timmons went #15 overall. A.J. Hawk went #4 overall, Ernie Sims went #9 overall and Chad Greenway went #17 overall. Derrick Johnson went #15 overall. Jonathan Vilma went #12 overall and D.J. Williams went #17 overall. That's 10 years of drafts (actually 9 but none went high in 2003)...and 14 guys that went within 5 to 8 picks of our #12 overall pick. That's 14 guys that went top-half of the 1st round or close enough to it (technically #17 is bottom half by one pick, but I think we're splitting hairs if we eliminate two guys based on that). Gil Brandt's point that linebackers are "just a piece of the puzzle" sure doesn't seem to stop them from going in the top half of the first round at a clip of about 3 every 2 years.
I basically agree with you overall on the whole Te'o thing. All through this thread and the one in the Club, I've been impressed by your being a voice of reason and logic on the matter. Jee whiz, I hope I'm not guru nosing by saying that. My main point is this entire fake GF thing isn't going to affect his draft status as much as his actual ability as a football player and his workouts will. If he runs a blistering 40 time, by ILB standards, does 30 or so bench press reps, and verticals in the low mid 30" range or better, moves well in the cone and shuttle, etc, that is going to help him much more than the fake GF thing will ever hurt him. Bottom line IMO is the NFL wants talented players who can take the field and perform at a high level every week. Nothing about the fake GF thing in of itself leads me to believe it would hinder Te'o from being on the field and performing.
I realize this if off-topic, but it's not off-theme: did anyone watch the Oprah interview with Lance Armstrong? I missed it. Was he convincing?
Guru noser. But yes, it's the football field stuff that will primarily guide Manti Te'o's draft position. The character stuff will come into play, but I believe it will only be the stuff they discover through the normal vetting process. They'll be looking for corroborating behavior that establishes this strange fake girlfriend thing as a pattern of disturbing behavior that is likely to manifest in different ways. If they don't find that corroborating behavior then the whole episode will mean very little.
I watched a little bit of it.he had no emotion no remorse about what he did.all of his answers went like this...yeah,yes,yeah,yes..ect.
This story provides some more details, hopefully they're true and it was more that guy Tuiasosopo than Te'o: http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefoo...to-masterminding-woman-says-notre-dame-011813 The whole episode is still idiotic, but this scenario would be far better than Te'o actually having played a major part in the whole deceit.
Wow...this thing just keeps getting more and more delicious for the inner gossip queen in all of us. Still not very relevant in a football sense though.
Rob Rang: "The answers that Te'o provides during those interviews could play a critical role in his final draft grade, perhaps even offering some background behind the Butkus and Nagurski award winner's uncharacteristically poor performance against Alabama in the BCS title game. If Te'o is proven to have played a part in this fiasco, he has lost all credibility and his stock will truly suffer. Sure, teams have proven their willingness to gamble on players with criminal records multiple times in the past. Involved or not, Te'o will get drafted. However, a long-time surefire first-round pick, he could find himself slipping out of the first day of the draft should it be discovered that he was highly involved in the cruel ruse." http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/...0/nfl-draft-teo-hoax-could-impact-draft-stock
After the interview on ESPN, I truly believe him. I doubt he had anything to do with it. And I wouldn't mind drafting him. Too good to pass.
Only three days after the whole thing exploded and it already feels like it's wrapping up. It's too bad. I never got a chance to photoshop a "Lennay K Barbie"...which would just be an empty Barbie box with "Lennay K" on it.
Thanks. No joke, though. I feel sorry for the guy. Wasn't his fault and now everybody makes fun of him and dislikes him. Sad story. Nothing funny about it. But I guess that's how it works in today's society. Way to go, mankind!
way to go mankind? ah yes... it's society's problem that this guy lied. Don't feel too sorry for him, he'll make more on his eventual rookie contract than what the average person makes in a lifetime.
So, for those tracking, especially those that made pretty outrageous accusations at a time when only a fraction of the facts were out. Te'o showed Katie Couric phone records that involved about 1000 phone calls to a number during a 4 month time period. Ronaiah Tuiasasopu reached out to Te'o and told him that he and two other people (one a girl) were responsible for the whole thing. Ronaiah Tuiasasoup's lawyer on the other hand says that Ronaiah was solely responsible for the whole thing and in fact it was HIM on the other end of the phone pretending to be a girl. It's been pointed out that Ronaiah is an aspiring actor that has had voice lessons and whatnot, but a lot of people are pretty darn incredulous that Te'o could be talking to a dude and not know it's a dude. Until they hear THESE VOICEMAIL CLIPS, of course... http://deadspin.com/5978713/?utm_ca...source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow ...because while you could IMAGINE that the voice leaving those voicemails is a dude, it sure as sh-t sounds like a girl. Te'o has been confronted with the fact that he said multiple times even a few days after the scam was revealed to him, that he had a girlfriend that died of cancer. Te'o explained it as a mixture of still not quite believing that the whole thing was a scam (as in, he thinks he's being scammed about it being a scam, which is kind of understandable if you think about it), and him just continuing to go with the script because he didn't know what else to do (which also sounds believable, considering what other things were going on right at that time). The whole thing is delicious from a public consumption standpoint, considering what little drama queens we all are when it comes to this stuff, but it's becoming more and more obvious that it has absolutely no impact whatsoever on his draft grade or his chances of becoming a good football player.
I don't really think it will make much difference in the long run as to what kind of player he turns out to be but I don't believe anything he says about it. He lied in the build up to the Heisman and the title game for selfish reasons, to me it makes him a very dishonest person and a total hypocrite considering his supposed "faith", he's a fraud plain and simple. I don't buy his stories, they sound agent-created and I think he was part of the scam at some point, maybe from the beginning. I mean lying about your gf dying so that it makes you more sympathetic in a Heisman race and in the lead up to a title game? Man, he's a turd, plain and simple, I don't buy the victim angle here at all. I'd like to hear what someone in law enforcement, maybe a FBI investigator thinks of his answers and story because they sound like BS to me.
It is impressive. You could kind of imagine how it might be a man almost. But either way the phone bills and the voicemails kind of put the ball in the Tuiasasopu court as far as Ronaiah's story that it was all him and nobody else.
Didn't he once say he met her? I'm not sure theres anything malicious on Te'o's part, but this reeks of social ineptitude.
I believe his father claimed that Manti met her, and Manti 'fessed up to lying to his dad about having met her. Not sure Manti himself ever claimed directly to reporters that he met her, but he may have done that as well. That's definitely one lie he got caught in. Social ineptitude, or a different culture? Is it a coincidence that this "Lennay Kekua" seemed to successfully convince like 5 different polynesians that she existed?
So the man had what he thought was an online girlfriend, and he lied and said that he met her when he really hadn't. What a scumbag.
I wonder if Ronaiah had a co-conspirator. I mean in the first clip I heard I could sense maybe that was Ronaiah then I heard the 3rd and not sure.
Whether he did or not isn't really all that relevant for Manti Te'o so it's more just a fascination, but yeah I wonder the same thing. Ronaiah supposedly told Te'o he did, but now Ronaiah's lawyer claims it was all Ronaiah and only Ronaiah. He could be trying to take the fall so that he leaves other friends or members of his family out of it.
To me, it's pretty obvious Teo was scammed and wasn't apart of the hoax. I don't think you'll go as far as 400 phone calls just to scam people into thinking you have a girlfriend that died so you MIGHT win the Heisman.
what the ****......... http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-listen-to-lennay-kekuas-voicemails-to-manti-teo-20130124,0,3779506.story
You think this kid will tell another lie ever again. Talk about a lie growing and then imploding on itself.
