Terrible Teo...

Notre Dame linebacker Manti Teo, above, claims to be the victim of a cat fish. (Photo: Neon Tommy)

Possibly the biggest, and weirdest, sports news story so far this year is what happened to Manti Teo. For those of you that haven't heard, and shame on you if you haven't, Teo was in love with a woman that never existed, never died, and he never even met.

Which sucks, because he was the inspirational sports story of 2012 after she "died" just six hours after his grandmother died and he went out three days later and played a sensational game for Notre Dame. As you could probably guess, my reaction is the basis for this blog post...

First off, hats off to the folks over at Deadspin for writing an incredibly detailed account of the story from start to finish. They did a really great job and you should take a look at the article that is linked to above (after you finish reading this one, of course).

I don't understand how Teo could have possibly been duped in this situation. There are so many fine details that he claims to have happened that never happened at all. For instance, he claims to have first met her following the Notre Dame versus Stanford game. If she never existed, how could they have had "love at first sight"?

There are too many discrepancies and things that would just have to be coincidences for Teo to not be somehow involved in this scandal in some way. If this girl was in car accident, that was never reported, and then put in the hospital and diagnosed with cancer, also never reported, then why didn't he go and visit her? How busy can he be? I'm Chip Kelly, who gave Teo a game ball in honor of "Lennay", would understand.

And how come Teo didn't look devastated in his interview with ESPN in the days following her death? If something you love THAT much were to be taken away from you like, you'd be a wreck! I know I would be a total mess!

But not Teo. He remained calm and played as if nothing had happened. If you were to let a loved one pass without ever visiting them in the hospital, you'd (hopefully) feel some sort of remorse. Not Teo. He has yet to show any sort of remorse...or emotion since he has been silent since this story broke (also interesting).

If Manti Teo has nothing to hide then why has he gone into hiding? If he the mentally strong individual that he claims to be, why doesn't he face the media storm that is lingering and waiting for him to come out? In my opinion, he's hiding something...something BIG.

In my honest opinion, Manti Teo is lying. He was definitely involved in this scandal it was all one big publicity stunt. He saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of the media, the public, and to rocket himself onto the national stage and into the spotlight.

Will this effect his draft ranking? I doubt it. One thing is clear, what Teo did on the field was no hoax. He is one of the best linebackers in this years draft and that is no joke. I think that he will still be taken in the first round of the NFL Draft this coming April.

What are your thoughts on the Manti Teo story? Star the discussion and leave a comment below!