The Girlfriend who didn’t exist

Nothing that happened to Manti Te'o affected his career. He was still drafted at arguably a higher position than his talent merited, and he played 8 years in the NFL which is both above average career expectancy, and longer that which a player of his limited athletic ability could reasonably expect. He is also still formally active, so his playing career isn't technically over even now.

There are a lot of reasons to have sympathy for Te'o, but having a 'destroyed career' is not one of them.

I need to watch it, but The Guardian article was awful, poor little sweet innocent Naya, my arse as Jim Royle would say.

The Guardian article glosses over the fact that Manti came from a dirt poor background and had to play football to have a chance of college and a decent career. By contract, the catfisher had a relatively privileged background and apparently (according to the Guardian) could have indulged their wish to "be a woman" amongst their "local LGBTQ population, which includes a large and well-established community of people who identify as fa’afafine, meaning third gender or non-binary."

There was absolutely no need to involve an unsuspecting third party. Yet, it's always about trampling others' boundaries and about what they want - as catfisher stated in the article, "I wanted to be able to live my life as trans. I still feel horrible [about the hoax], and sometimes I wish that everything had been undone. But then also another part of me was like, I learned so much about who I am today and who I want to become because of the lessons I learned through the life of Lennay.” Sure. Practically no fucks given for the man who is now in therapy and trying to pick up the pieces of his life.

If the catfisher had been anything other than a trans woman, there's no way they would have been portrayed so sympathetically in the Guardian. I am watching the documentary now, and I don't see the equal sympathy the Guardian is seeing in it. Because there is no equality between the 2 parties' culpability/blame/damage done. All the blame lies with one party, all the damage was inflicted on the other.

I’ve not watched it all but so far some very interesting parallels with Sweet Bobby (though we never got to hear the catfish’s side and it was so difficult to understand the motivation).

Here is the Guardian article. I am disgusted that the catfisher - aka an accomplished liar and the destroyer of a promising young man's life/career, completely knocking his confidence and turning him into a national joke - is given any sympathy whatsoever.

www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/aug/15/manti-teo-the-girlfriend-who-didnt-exist-netflix-documentary-hoax-nfl

could we perhaps have a link to the guardian article?

It's horrific. And another case of a trans identifying person using this identity as a smoke screen for sociopathic behaviour

@WhatFreshHellisCismas - aghh! I’ve just read the Guardian article and it’s awful! It made me so angry.

@WhatFreshHellisCismas Totally agree, I was thinking the exact same thing when I watched it.

A promising young American Football player who was catfished.

I think a little more context makes a better thread

It was awful.

I had no idea about any of this. Will definitely give it a watch.