New college football documentary: Notre Dame's Manti Te'o: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist

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Some guy said:
It was interesting.
I found it interesting that it really gave the cat fisher an almost neutral vibe. Whereas to me the catfisher is clearly the villain of the story
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I think they had to because of the transition time-frame and the fact that no one else knew when interviewed. As you said despite the nuetral portray she is clearly the villain, which almost sets in further post watching it. The final interview with Teo is terrific and his parents are incredibly impressive.
 

Very good documentary. I thought Teo was in on it all these years, and didn’t realize he was the victim. He sure paid a heck of a price for being a victim.

I give him a lot of credit for the last interview. He seems like a very good man, I hope he has a happy and successful life.

Go Gophers!!
 





goldengophers said:
I think they had to because of the transition time-frame and the fact that no one else knew when interviewed. As you said despite the nuetral portray she is clearly the villain, which almost sets in further post watching it. The final interview with Teo is terrific and his parents are incredibly impressive.
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Just finished watching it. Wow, yes, they most definitely gave the catfisher way too much positive light and benefit of the doubt. What a devastating series of lies and betrayals and fraud. Just a terrible situation and a lengthy series of terrible decisions by the catfisher. What a horrible person.

I know some other countries have instituted some more teeth to the "crime" of catfishing; I seem to remember watching a crime episode of a girl that committed suicide as a result of being catfished, heart broken, etc.

Completely altered the course of T'eo's life and clearly cost him millions. A man of very strong faith, and obviously somebody who would help anyone who needed it, shirt off his back kind of a guy.
 
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U2Gopher said:
Yeah, I feel horrible for him. It’s sad how society and the media in today’s world love to tear people down to absolutely nothing for pure enjoyment.
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We just finished it, same thoughts. What an emotional rollercoaster for someone that was already dealing with so much like most high profile athletes. He didn’t deserve what he got from the catfisher and the media.
 

Some guy said:
It was interesting.
I found it interesting that it really gave the cat fisher an almost neutral vibe. Whereas to me the catfisher is clearly the villain of the story
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This. I saw absolutely no remorse from Tuiasosopo....it felt like somehow he thought he was the victim in this. Te'o is a way bigger person than most in the way he seems to have forgiven. I am curious how this affected his NFL career.....he never seemed to have "it" once the story came out.
 

cheeseheadgophfan said:
This. I saw absolutely no remorse from Tuiasosopo....it felt like somehow he thought he was the victim in this. Te'o is a way bigger person than most in the way he seems to have forgiven. I am curious how this affected his NFL career.....he never seemed to have "it" once the story came out.
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I didn't mind how Tuiasosopo was portrayed. They let her tell her side of the story. It still makes her look bad but it all makes a little more sense.
 



TruthSeeker said:
Most of these guys are contracting STDs by phucking as many women as possible.

Teo couldn't even get some from his long-term girlfriend.

Unreal.
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I think the scale of recklessness vs ultra shy and awkward in college is ... REALLY wide ranging.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I didn't mind how Tuiasosopo was portrayed. They let her tell her side of the story. It still makes her look bad but it all makes a little more sense.
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Should it really matter? The catfisher was catfishing, in a major way; destructive, deceitful, misleading, and ultimately devastating to T'eo's career. What Ronaiah T did was awful and despicable and hurtful. Faking a major critical car accident? Faking having cancer? Faking your own death from cancer? And then doubling down on it and having that girl in the picture provide that verification picture to even FURTHER continue that fraud and deceit, after T'eo was already led to believe she was dead?

This reminded me of the only time I ever sat on a jury; it was a small case, basically contract law, wrongful termination, etc. A young General Manager at a local Ford dealership was suing for wrongful termination and loss of a major bonus. He was tasked with increasing sales and production over a year period of time, which would result in a big bonus. He was incredibly successful, turned things around for the dealership, and he was canned a week or two before the end of that year, therefore losing the bonus also.

The legal counsel for the dealership basically drug up a bunch of information about the GM sleeping with a dealership client, a young woman buying a car, that it was an extramarital affair, etc.

To me, the two had little to nothing to do with each other but I could see other members of the jury being swayed by the story of infidelity. To me, the guy got wrongfully canned, independent of him being stupid and irresponsible in his personal life.

In this case, the gender identity of Ronaiah has little to nothing to do with the destructive, fraudulent, harmful, shameful things that they did to T'eo. Largely, it's window dressing to try to put some remote shine on this awful and hurtful disgusting act.

Sorry, they don't get a pass on this one...
 


gopher1more said:
Okay Ogee. Now for the rest of the story. What happened in the trial?
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It was honestly the damndest thing you've ever seen; prior to going on a break, the GM's counsel (not a very impressive man really, older, disheveled, made mistakes pronouncing people's names) had the GM on the stand, asking him questions. We come back from break and the GM's attorney out of the blue calls one of the dealerships attorneys to the stand! WTF. Judge calls sidebar, sends us out, we come back and they say thank you for your service, sent us on our way. No idea what the hell happened.
 

I think they gave the Catfisher a very soft portrayal, but I think it was really needed to try to understand how someone could decide day by day to take this to the extremes the catfisher did.

Still disgusting and wrong on so many levels, but it was the only way to present the story to try to provide the viewer some empathy for how this became as bad as it did.

When this hit, I had no idea how Manti couldn't have known, but the story does a good job of explaining this.
 


It was an interesting documentary, and I definitely think the whole experience messed with Teo's mental health.

Certainly was a memorable season for Notre Dame. I remember watching their games against Michigan State, Stanford, Oklahoma and USC that year, all of them were entertaining. Heading into the national title game, I was expecting a close, defensive fight to the finish.

I was excited for the game, had beer and snacks ready thinking it would be a good match. Then Alabama went on their first drive and steamrolled the vaunted Irish defense and I remember just thinking "Notre Dame is going to get crushed."

It is interesting now to think about how Teo's draft stock would have went if things were different. It was like a perfect storm with Notre Dame getting blown out and the catfishing situation. I think if either of those things don't happen Teo is drafted higher.

If the Irish win, but the catfishing still happens, Teo is probably seen as such a great player despite the controversy and is taken in the first round. If the catfishing doesn't happen but Notre Dame still loses, it's probably just seen as a small stumble for Teo against a great Alabama team and he's still highly sought after.

Another interesting thing to think about is how close the Irish came to having different opponents. Kansas State and Oregon were both undefeated for a while that year until they lost to Baylor and Stanford, respectively. Had either K-State or the Ducks gone undefeated, the title game could have been different. I think the Ducks would have defeated the Irish, but Notre Dame could have beat that K-State team.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Should it really matter? The catfisher was catfishing, in a major way; destructive, deceitful, misleading, and ultimately devastating to T'eo's career. What Ronaiah T did was awful and despicable and hurtful. Faking a major critical car accident? Faking having cancer? Faking your own death from cancer? And then doubling down on it and having that girl in the picture provide that verification picture to even FURTHER continue that fraud and deceit, after T'eo was already led to believe she was dead?

This reminded me of the only time I ever sat on a jury; it was a small case, basically contract law, wrongful termination, etc. A young General Manager at a local Ford dealership was suing for wrongful termination and loss of a major bonus. He was tasked with increasing sales and production over a year period of time, which would result in a big bonus. He was incredibly successful, turned things around for the dealership, and he was canned a week or two before the end of that year, therefore losing the bonus also.

The legal counsel for the dealership basically drug up a bunch of information about the GM sleeping with a dealership client, a young woman buying a car, that it was an extramarital affair, etc.

To me, the two had little to nothing to do with each other but I could see other members of the jury being swayed by the story of infidelity. To me, the guy got wrongfully canned, independent of him being stupid and irresponsible in his personal life.

In this case, the gender identity of Ronaiah has little to nothing to do with the destructive, fraudulent, harmful, shameful things that they did to T'eo. Largely, it's window dressing to try to put some remote shine on this awful and hurtful disgusting act.

Sorry, they don't get a pass on this one...
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In no way was I trying to downplay what that person did. Catfishing should be a crime and should get jail time in extreme instances like this. I just found it interesting to get the catfisher's perspective. I always thought it was someone or a group just playing a sick joke on someone. It was more complex than that. In the end the complete story made me sympathize even more for Te'o. He was trying to be a good person and was shit on by this person and the media. I think it helps use understand how he could have "fallen for it".

The gender identity part was important to the story as the whole thing doesn't happen without that piece of the puzzle.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
It was honestly the damndest thing you've ever seen; prior to going on a break, the GM's counsel (not a very impressive man really, older, disheveled, made mistakes pronouncing people's names) had the GM on the stand, asking him questions. We come back from break and the GM's attorney out of the blue calls one of the dealerships attorneys to the stand! WTF. Judge calls sidebar, sends us out, we come back and they say thank you for your service, sent us on our way. No idea what the hell happened.
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Wow, that sounds very unusual. Any chance that @Bob_Loblaw or another Gopherhole lawyer could speculate on what happened here or discuss how unusual this actually is?
 


LakevilleBro said:
Was the catfisher a guy?
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Yes, but is now a trans female

her motives where selfish to live a fantasy of being an attractive female

Manti isn't only she catfished, when others would figure it out she'd move on

Doesn't excuse her, but thought it was good to her story
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
It was honestly the damndest thing you've ever seen; prior to going on a break, the GM's counsel (not a very impressive man really, older, disheveled, made mistakes pronouncing people's names) had the GM on the stand, asking him questions. We come back from break and the GM's attorney out of the blue calls one of the dealerships attorneys to the stand! WTF. Judge calls sidebar, sends us out, we come back and they say thank you for your service, sent us on our way. No idea what the hell happened.
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I'm not a legal expert but from my vast experience watching TV does that mean they reached a settlement?
 

The documentary like all documentaries was probably skewed BUT if you can watch that and not cringe at the treatment/jokes made about Manti Te'o back in the day
 

I don't want to sound insensitive but... how does an extra ordinary man fall in love with someone he's never met face to face? Was there no one on campus that was attractive enough? I remember when it started getting out, that I assumed he was in on it because seriously, how does this even happen? The fact that he wasn't involved just makes it worse that he would allow it to happen to him.
 

cheeseheadgophfan said:
This. I saw absolutely no remorse from Tuiasosopo....it felt like somehow he thought he was the victim in this. Te'o is a way bigger person than most in the way he seems to have forgiven. I am curious how this affected his NFL career.....he never seemed to have "it" once the story came out.
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He had a solid NFL career. Like 7-8 years where he started more than half the games.

It is possible he was just a good but not great player who was overhyped in college because he played for unbeaten notre dame


They beat
8-5 Navy
6-7 Purdue
7-6 Michigan state (who was top 10 when they played early in the season and built the hype)
8-5 Michigan
7-5 Miami
12-2 Stanford (clearly their best win) In OT
8-5 BYU
10-3 Oklahoma but it was a pretty average big 12 that year
6-7 Pitt
2-10 Boston college
5-7 wake forest
7-6 USC


A lot of solid teams on the schedule but only two really good wins.
If Stanford had beaten notre dame in overtime and lost to Oregon in overtime. Notre dame is a 1 loss team rated 8th instead of number 1 in the country.


They clearly deserved to go, but Manti teo was probably a good but not great college player who was hyped because he was the best player on an unbeaten notre dame team
 

salzie said:
The documentary like all documentaries was probably skewed BUT if you can watch that and not cringe at the treatment/jokes made about Manti Te'o back in the day
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What do you mean "back in the day???" There is a meme making fun of him in this thread......SMH
 

RolGnav said:
I don't want to sound insensitive but... how does an extra ordinary man fall in love with someone he's never met face to face? Was there no one on campus that was attractive enough? I remember when it started getting out, that I assumed he was in on it because seriously, how does this even happen? The fact that he wasn't involved just makes it worse that he would allow it to happen to him.
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Possibly not at Notre Dame. Also football came first so a girlfriend on campus probably wouldn’t have worked. Talked to friends that apparently knew her. Far fetched but can see it happening.
 

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