ROUND ONE:
"And we're officially off the rails."
I'll let them explain this one:
"The Honolulu Star-Advertiser posted a story Friday saying Te’o's fictitious girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, called Te’o on Dec. 6 and told he she faked her death to evade drug dealers."
Uhhh, what?
Are we even remotely serious, at this point?
Consider the following: If this is the case, then wouldn't someone, quickfastandinahurry, want some words with Manti Te'o... Now?
Eligibility concerns?
Perhaps concerns for his safety?
Perhaps concerns for the veracity of the BCS National Championship Game which was to be played by him and his team in a month's time?
Perhaps concerns that he may, in fact, be involved with same drug dealers? Criminal situations?
This is the kind of stuff that I have seen in the "darkest corners" theories, in which someone who "knew something on Te'o" could pressure him into throwing the BCSNCG.
ROUND TWO:
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo has been claimed to have confessed the scam to a friend.
We know Ronaiah appears desperate for fifteen seconds of fame. Everything from exploiting the car crash he had (which might've inspired the hoax's car crash) to attempt (and fail) to get on NBC's The Voice to the fact that Ronaiah is probably one of the few male members of his family not to enjoy professional sporting success, this Ronaiah is coming across as a freaking slimeball, as one might expect.
But here's the stupid part... If I'm Notre Dame or a lot of other people right now, I want to know where Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was in the days and (even more recent) weeks leading up to Alabama vs. Notre Dame.
The story that appears to be coalescing around Ronaiah as the "Ronaiah was behind it and successfully duped Te'o for quite some time, but it fell apart about a month before the BCSNCG." camp would lead me to believe that Ronaiah was in possession of information that a lot of people, with a lot of money, and a lot of money on the line, would like to know about, ifyouknowwhatImean.
Would I put it past Ronaiah, at that point, to not only use the information, but also to blackmail his friend into silence about it, with the implication that he needs to throw the BCS National Championship Game (knowing that everything behind Notre Dame's participation in it was a farce in the first place!)?
Hell No!
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, probably in bad need of money at that point, could definitely have used the cash and influence. (Especially if Te'o played along with the situation, rendering him vulnerable to manipulation, to aid his Heisman chances, the Notre Dame 2012 Story, and his pro draft status!)
ROUND THREE:
And could we be seeing the beginnings of a major unraveling in yet another traditional hotbed of abuse and coverup?
Just on the heels of the Te'o Time fiasco comes this ditty which I have to give a hat-tip to one of my closest friends for alerting me to.
The Huffington Post and Tyler Kingkade report a story about a suicide by Lizzy Seeberg after she was reportedly raped by a current Notre Dame player in late August of 2010 in his room.
The story appears to indicate a similar "Football Over Everything" motif as was exposed at Pedophile... erm... Penn State University.
The responses after she reported the incident to police (she was a student at a nearby college, not Notre Dame itself, and reported the incident in writing to the police) are awfully Penn State-esque...
"Messing with Notre Dame football is a bad idea."
That in mind, she killed herself instead, within two weeks. The rape reportedly took place August 30, 2010. She was dead by September 10.
Not only were no charges filed, but Seeberg's story was discredited by the local prosecutor (*what a shock*) as conflicting to accounts of two other students who were with them that night, as well as the reported perpetrator.
This runs awfully counter to the University which:
- would actually have grounds to discipline/expel the student, even if the sex was consensual, as I reported yesterday (on top of every school's situation to go after rapists, as long as it's convenient for the school to do so!)
- suspended one of their announcers for Notre Dame's 2012 game in Ireland against Navy for even implying that the thug culture which has permeated much of football would probably be welcome at Notre Dame if it brought a few more victories
- would probably be seen as "the next hallowed tradition" to fall once Penn State was defrocked (at least to what degree ESPN allowed that to happen!), and should damned well have been more careful
- actually went to the wall for Te'o as much as they have in the last week publicly, and far more privately.
Hasn't what happened at Penn State proved none of this is sacred?
I have to sit on a story right now about another football situation because there is very real possibility that the people covering it up are openly threatening everybody from the media to Anonymous to keep the football and thug culture in that locality alive -- with a lot of beef (and maybe some very scary implications) behind it.
I don't like to have to do that, but is nothing short of death itself required to defend some of these sacred cows?
Let's remember the very real possibility that Penn State and Paterno got the district attorney who "disappeared" whacked because he was investigating the Sandusky Scandal a little too closely and not within the parameters of The Most Powerful Man in the State of Pennsylvania.
How about this lady, if Notre Dame is already down the same road to that their football Gods can get away with whatever they want, and any problems be "fixed" along the way?
Maybe it's time we "Mess with Notre Dame Football".
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