The story about Notre Dame Fighting Irish star linebacker
Manti Te’o and his dead girlfriend being a hoax that was broken by Deadspin
yesterday is certainly one of the strangest and weirdest sports stories I’ve
ever heard and I know that it’s likely bound to only get stranger and weirder.
I say that because it’s still to be seen whether or not Te’o was, in fact,
duped by an incredibly cruel joke as he’s stated in his written response or if
he actually played a knowing role in the hoax.
Notre Dame officials believe based on their response late
Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 16) that Te’o was innocent and merely the butt of a
cruel joke. However, the Deadspin article leads readers to believe that Te’o
could’ve easily had a hand in perpetrating the hoax, along with Ronaiah
Tuiasosopo. I don’t really have a complete assumption at this time, but I
wouldn’t be surprised, though certainly disappointed, if Te’o was in on the
entire thing from what I’ve read. However, I can say unfortunately from
firsthand experience that if what happened to Te’o was indeed a cruel hoax that
it’s entirely possible that he had the wool pulled over his eyes.
Every day in this world people are at the horrible hands of
others perpetrating hoaxes against them online. I haven’t seen the movie “Catfish”
or the MTV series based off of it, but from what I’ve heard the term “catfishing”
apparently is the act of a person who creates fake profiles online and pretends
to be someone they are not by using someone else's pictures and information as
a means of deceiving others.
There are only a couple of people who know this about me
(until now), I’m not even 100 percent sure my girlfriend of seven years is one
of them, but about 10 years ago when I was in my mid-teens I was on the
receiving end of an online hoax.
Being the big NASCAR fan that I am I frequented a NASCAR
message board called Driver Insider, where I would spend a great deal of time
discussing and conversing about all sorts of NASCAR topics with other hardcore
fans around the country. Myself, and all of the other posters on the message
board, soon became enamored with one poster who, I can’t remember his username,
but had us all convinced that he was Loy Allen Jr.
Loy Allen Jr. was a mostly unsuccessful NASCAR driver from
the early to late ‘90s, who is most famous for two things: becoming the first
ever rookie driver to qualify on the pole at the 1994 Daytona 500 and a
devastating crash at Rockingham Speedway in 1996 which severely injured his
neck and pretty much put an end to any major career plans.
Today, and even 10 or so years ago, Loy Allen Jr. was a name
that novice NASCAR fans wouldn’t know and even avid NASCAR fans would have a
hard time telling you anything about other than the Daytona pole and the
Rockingham crash. Such an obscure name like Loy Allen Jr. made for the perfect
cover, whereas other drivers would’ve led to immediate questioning and doubts
over accuracy and credibility. If somebody claims they’re Loy Allen Jr. and
have the knowledge and facts to back it up you’re likely going to believe them.
If they claim they’re Jeff Gordon you’re simply not.
This poster claiming to be Loy Allen Jr. had us all going on
the message board for the longest time, but he got to me even more because we
added each other to Yahoo Messenger and would talk for hours about his “career,”
NASCAR and baseball (which he claimed he was a huge fan of). We developed a
friendship and he had me tricked to such an extent that I actually wrote an
article about him for the sports webzine I created, edited and wrote for online
called Sport Webzine. I thought this was my first “big time” interview, which
really excited me.
After a little while I guess this prankster said something
that one or two of the other members of the Driver Insider message board didn’t
believe and they checked him on his facts and found him out to be a fraud. It
bothered everybody on the message board because we had all been duped, but it
probably hurt me the most because I’d been taken in so badly and even put my
credibility as a writer/journalist on the line (despite only being in my
mid-teens).
It’s an embarrassing, uncomfortable and hurtful experience
when you trust somebody and you learn that the trust you’ve had in them wasn’t
real. It’s especially worse when you realize that the person him/herself never
actually existed or wasn’t who they claimed to be. It's definitely not something that bothers me much all these years later, in fact, I can't even remember the last time I'd thought of this until the Manti Te'o story reminded me of it today. But, depending on how deep you get taken in and how close of a relationship you've developed with this "person" I could easily see how it could mess someone up for a long time.
I consider myself to be a pretty smart person and was
certainly smart for my age at that time. I think many people would be calling
me gullible, like they are right now to Manti Te’o. But, here’s the thing …
these people do their research. They know their “character’s” ins and outs and
its easy for somebody to gain another person’s trust when their back-story is
as solid as these people can and do make it. I’m sure it’s even more
sophisticated these days than it was back then.
If Te’o was indeed pranked I can understand the embarrassment
he feels, because you really do feel like you were played for a fool, except in
his case it would be even worse because he developed an attraction and feelings
for the apparition. If he was in on the whole thing he should be ashamed of
what he’s done and his character will rightfully always be judged. However, if
he was the “victim” here as Notre Dame officials have stated then he can join
the club of the many who’ve been played for fools by online tricksters and
pranksters out there getting their laughs and jollies out of making real people
believe in and develop relationships with people that don’t exist or either do
exist, but just aren’t who they claim to be. If this is the case his character
shouldn’t be judged, because it can happen to almost anybody and you likely
know people who have been hoaxed in a similar way.
