A devout LDS member goes to the most prominent Catholic University in the world and then this happens. Surprise, surpise. My armchair psychologist take: he's dumb as a friigin post. he's got a Jesus complex and got turned on by a fake on-line girlfriend because she was dying; he's got an ego the size of Texas and played this up for all its worth. The good guy Te'o learns that his dead girlfriend may be alive on the 6th but---according to him---it doesn't really impact him on Heisman weekend? Did he look sad during the Heisman ceremony? This guy's a clown.
Schapp's interview was really weak but these excerpts made me laugh:
MANTI TE'O: Things happen. And good things happen and bad things happen. And I'm a person -- I'm a believer that everything happens for a reason.
JEREMY SCHAAP: What's the reason here?
MANTI TE'O: I don't know yet.
JEREMY SCHAAP: What had she told you about herself? Who do you think this person is, other than somebody that's been in a car accident? I mean, you know, what's her background and all of those things?
MANTI TE'O: She told me she was a Stanford alum. She went to Stanford. After her dad passed away, she took over her dad's business, Clark's Construction. Supposedly. I don't know if that's real. [Editor's note. Hey knucklehead. NONE OF THIS IS REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
JEREMY SCHAAP: Let me go back for just one second, because I think it's a remarkable scene: Here you are at the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York. There is a possibility, pretty good one, that you're going to become the first purely defensive player ever to win the Heisman Trophy, the first Notre Dame player to win it since Tim Brown more than a quarter of a century ago. Two days after getting that phone call, where's your head at this point?
MANTI TE'O: To be honest with you, it was on the Heisman ceremony. I was enjoying it with my family.
JEREMY SCHAAP: This wasn't weighing on you like a ton of bricks?
MANTI TE'O: Not really.
JEREMY SCHAAP: It never occurred to you that it could explode into something like this?
MANTI TE'O: Not really. For me, I would think about it, but I was so engaged in what was happening at the time that I didn't, it didn't really -- it wasn't on the top of my mind. It wasn't something that distracted me from all that was going on.