Manti Te’o Notre Dame hoax is like an episode from ‘The Twilight Zone’ -- Fake girlfriend, fake death, is a twisted tale about life online - VIDEO

Manti Te'o and his fake girlfriend (Credit: Deadspin.com)

Manti Te’o’s lackluster performance against Alabama in the national championship game is now explained.

In a twist worthy of a Twilight  Zone episode it turns out that Te’o, the Notre Dame stand-out,  was the victim of a hoax girlfriend, a faked death and a professional scam perpetrated for no other reason it seems than to embarrass and seriously wound an outstanding young man.

The media is having a field day, especially the anti-Notre Dame shills. ‘Lying Irish’ is just one headline from The New York Post today.

I have just watched the entire press conference that Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick gave in South Bend and my head is spinning with the tale of deceit, lies and cold blooded callousness he revealed.

Much and all as we think a fake girlfriend would be an impossible trick to pull off, the fact is that online personas, avatars, and disguises are the stock in trade of millions of hucksters on the Internet.

We open our online accounts every day and there are a flood of such bottom feeders trying to inveigle their way into our lives.

In the case of Te’o they succeeded and in the process have created a sensational outcome that will deeply embarrass Notre Dame and all who sail with her.

Read more: Johnny Football got the Heisman and Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o got the shaft

Te’o’s only crime appears to be that he was so trusting that he was duped from day one in September 2011 when a woman masquerading as a Stanford student who was a big fan of his contacted him via Twitter.

Over the next 14 months or so it appears they carried out an intense online and telephonic relationship.

According to Swarbrick, there was a cast of characters who kept the dupe Te’o narrative going, an unbelievably cruel and sophisticated hoax.

The girl even came with a family, different characters who were introduced to Te’o who was obviously seriously smitten, strange as that may sound.

Or maybe not. People are smitten every day on the Internet by perfect strangers. Much of it is real, much of it is imagined. In Teo’s world the distant girlfriend became a constant presence.

As Swarbrick pointed out the scam was based closely on a documentary called ‘Catfish’ about this phenomenon of reeling in an unsuspecting person by virtue of a fable carefully constructed.

What possible enjoyment there could be from such a scam is hard to see but any scroll through the Internet reveals trolls and other evil people ready to do their worst.

Read more: Notre Dame support is a search for family and common roots for millions 

Just yesterday there was a series of articles about one of the heroes of the Sandy Hook shooting , a man who took in several of the panic stricken children who fled the school, being abused anonymously online.

Such is the world we live in and we should not be surprised when a major figure like Te’o, clearly way too trusting for his own good, was roped in to a scam.

It is deeply embarrassing for Te’o and for Notre Dame. One can only imagine what Coach Brian Kelly was thinking when he was informed of the hoax days before the biggest game of his life.

But the real victim here is Te’o, a young man caught in the full glare of the media headlights and revealed as naive and far too trusting.

People will ask how come he never demanded to meet her and apparently several planned encounters were canceled at the last moment. Those should have been warning shots for Te’o but he won’t be the first or the last fool in love to construct his own reality around events despite glaring holes in the story.

What satisfaction these bottom feeders got from their hoax I do not know but it is a sad reflection on our modern world that such people exist and thrive. I hope for Te’o and Notre Dame’s sake he can put all this behind him and be the great NFL player he is destined to be.

Just when you think you have seen it all a story like this comes along. Sadly, it is a truly a reflection on the times we live in.

Notre Dame support is a search for family and common roots for millions -- Celtic FC, the other great Irish Diaspora side, are their only equivalent

Notre Dame fans tailgating for the BCS Championship.
(US Presswire)

Miami: Picture the scene in the distant parking lot at Sun Life stadium in Miami on Monday night.
I had gone back to my rented car to retrieve the car keys, realizing in my rush to get to the game I had left them in the ignition - duh!

A family of five was sitting around in near darkness, attention glued to a small computer screen in front of them showing the first half highlights.

They were the only live occupants of the parking lot, sitting in the eerie glow of the nearby stadium lights, a part of but apart from the BCS Championship game.

Notre Dame was so far behind at that moment against Alabama that if it were a boxing match the bout would have been halted, but the family of five seemed undaunted.

They wished me good cheer and asked if I wanted to join them. Curious as to their story, I did for a few moments.

They had driven from Virginia and had no hope of seeing the game and could not afford the tickets anyway. They had watched the Wake Forest game live in the stadium but otherwise they drove from game to game following the Fighting Irish from a series of parking lots.

They loved to tailgate and join their fellow subway alumni wherever the green was worn.
Before you dismiss them as nuts, you have to understand the nature of the true Domer to whom no Notre Dame game is ever out of reach.

Read more: Nightmare for Notre Dame ends a dream season for Fighting Irish

I met so many in South Florida who consider Notre Dame games a holy pilgrimage, who build their year around them and win, lose, or draw will follow the Fighting Irish to hell and back again.

After the game I walked back to that same parking lot with a family of three, a mother and two young daughters, also from the South.

They were able to recite chapter and verse of every game they had attended and the cross-country trips they regularly took.

I would think the two daughters were early teens if that, but they were able to remember Notre Dame players like other kids could say the names of the One Direction boy band.

What is the attraction, I asked the mother? “We’re Catholic,” she said simply. “We see them as family.”

There is a lot to that, the sense of family that grows up around Notre Dame followers. It is one great shared ambition finding voice on playing fields from California to New York and even Dublin last year.

TV ratings were up 67 per cent for their games in 2012. Notre Dame remains a phenomenon of American sport. They could play a community college and 80,000 would show up.

It reminded me again of the similarity to Celtic soccer team, that other great Irish Diaspora side from Scotland who have come to embody something very deep in the souls of the children of Irish immigrants worldwide.

There is a shared pride and commitment to the heritage and memory of those who came before them. Notre Dame have been playing football for 125 years.

Celtic was founded in 1887 by Brother Walfrid of the Marist brothers, an Irish religious order. Irish priests were the foundation stone of Notre Dame too by the Holy Ghost fathers.

Both teams were blatantly discriminated against by top sides, which resented their religion through the early years and relegated them to underdog roles.

Because of that through the generations the commitment to the teams, as an intrinsic part of the DNA of the Irish emigrant experience, has lived on in millions.

What I saw in the parking lot and witnessed this week was much of that, mixed with pride and an embrace of all that is best in old fashioned America.

Celtic defeated Barcelona this year, the greatest club football team in the world led by Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player in world soccer. It was one of the biggest shocks of recent times.

The Irish of Notre Dame went undefeated until the Alabama crash and burn but had a season to remember. Generations later those who follow them still have so much to treasure and to find common cause with.

Little wonder that they continue to be kingpins in their respective sports and to attract millions of followers, some of whom will never see them live.

Read more: Fighting Irish crusade crushed by the Crimson Tide 42-14 in BCS National Championship

Nightmare for Notre Dame ends a dream season for Fighting Irish -- Heavy hearts but heads held high after remarkable year

Nightmare end to the season for Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame team

Miami: In the end the dream season ended in a nightmare for Notre Dame, but the fans in Sun Life stadium in North Miami were still resilient despite the beating.

“Think how bad we’ve been for so many years,” said the woman from Virginia beside me as the Alabama juggernaut rolled over and crushed the Irish. “We made the national  title  game, that is amazing.’

True, but we had somehow convinced ourselves the stars had aligned and an incredible victory was at hand.

But as Daniel Patrick Moynihan noted, to be Irish is to know the world will break your heart.

There were a lot of broken hearts but no real complaints in Miami on Monday.

A journey that began in Dublin in September with a win over Navy took Irish fans on a magic carpet ride that finally crashed to earth on a humid night in Miami.

The refereeing decisions in the critical early plays went against Notre Dame, but even if they had got every bounce of the ball it would not have been enough.

It seemed like men against boys at times and the Irish faithful so boisterous, so upbeat, so hopeful at the start were soon reduced to shocked silence as Alabama moved the ball at will. The crimson tide proved unstoppable.

Read more: Fighting Irish crusade crushed by the Crimson Tide 42-14 in BCS National Championship

It was clear from the beginning that the Irish fan base were more energized. This was not Alabama’s first rodeo and their fans were far less boisterous in the pre-game cheering sections.

They were like the Yankees in baseball, they expect to be playing for national championships every year.

The Irish certainly do not. The long drought since the mid 80s seemed interminable. The pent-up demand for Irish success was never more evident, the dream of a national championship no mirage as the season advanced with win after win.

Earlier, the Notre Dame tailgate party in Miami Beach was a celebration of a remarkable year. 10,000 fans paid $75 dollars a head to wine and dine, bask in the Florida sun, reminisce and brag and talk about the big game. The atmosphere was electric, the anticipation total. The shattering disappointment to come was still unseen.

So defeat was utterly devastating.

We trudged out of Sun Life Stadium late in the fourth quarter, heads down and spirits sagged but the disappointment will lift. As the lady from Virginia noted, the Irish have come a long way and the road back was always bound to have many turns. But the Fighting Irish made their fans proud from Dublin to South Bend and beyond.

Alas, it was not a championship season but it was a wonderful year.

Notre Dame’s new ‘Rudy’ is Arturo Martinez, a cancer survivor -- Walk on will bring back Rudy memories to Fighting Irish fans

Notre Dame's Arturo Martinez

Miami: Notre Dame will have an inspirational player to match the famous Rudy story when they play Alabama tonight in the BCS Bowl.

Arturo Martinez will be suited up tonight for the Fighting Irish, a walk on who has survived Stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma.

He will take part in the pre-game warm ups with his team. “It will be 20 minutes of being just like the other guys," Martinez told the Miami Herald. "I’ll look up and see an ocean of people for the national championship game in my own backyard.”

Rudy Ruettiger is a legend for walking on at Notre Dame and getting to make the team in his final game as a senior, even for one play.

But Rudy never battled cancer and still made the team.

Arturo Martinez will not get into the game on Monday night. Hopefully as a senior he will get a walk on role, but his inspirational story will drive the Notre Dame legend once again, as a place where magical things can and do happen.

Read more: Joining the Notre Dame faithful in Miami on a mission

Martinez was a sports crazy ninth grader in Miami when cancer was first diagnosed,a golf ball sized tumor on his jaw.

He conquered the cancer and made his high school football team as a defensive end in his final year and went to Notre Dame, a college that had always inspired him.

After attending his first football game he decided to try out as a walk on.

The odds were huge, but like cancer, Arturo wanted to beat the odds.

“There are kids sitting in that chemotherapy room right now wishing they had the energy to play a sport...I had to do this not only for me, for them.”

After seven months getting in condition with the help of a Notre Dame conditioning coach, he sent his tapes to the team. A few days before the end of his freshman year he was accepted.

So like Rudy, Arturo is an inspirational figure.

“I call him Rudolfo," said Arturo Martinez Jr, Art’s father, “He’s our miracle."

On Monday night he will be a hero for everyone.

Read more: Joining the Notre Dame faithful in Miami on a mission

Joining the Notre Dame faithful in Miami on a mission -- Alabama and Notre Dame roll into town for BCS stand-off

Notre Dame gears up to face Alabama

Miami: The Notre Dame faithful are gathering in their droves here, the weekend of the big game.

But so are the Alabama battalions and the good-natured rivalry has already begun.

At a nice beachside restaurant here the numbers of Notre Dame and Alabama fans were about equal and the good-natured ribbing lasted through three courses.

On the plane from New York the numbers were overwhelmingly Notre Dame, the subway alumni traveling from all points North, South, East and West  to support their team on the big day.

Many are still pinching  themselves that they are here at all. You would have got odds of 100/1 on it before the season started.

I feel the same myself, suddenly strolling  around in shorts and a T shirt, when I should be shivering in a New York winter. I associate Notre Dame games with cold crisp Autumn days in South Bend , not T shirts and  88 degrees in South Florida.

Interesting  to me is how many Irish-born I know who are going to the game. The contest in Dublin between Notre Dame and Navy opened up a huge new fan base for the Fighting Irish, the fact that this is a dream season and that it kicked off in Ireland makes it even more remarkable.

The ‘Bama folks have seen it all before. Bill Petersen, a fanatic Alabama fan was in the restaurant eating with his wife and two daughters.”I wanted to bring them to learn and witness the old time football religion,” he said gesturing at his two young  girls. “It is  the closest thing next to religion in bringing Alabama folk together.”

And Notre Dame folk too. This game is already a blockbuster and South Florida will bleed crimson and blue and gold these next few days.

The talk is all about tickets which are apparently, dropping in price as the game nears. The question for many is when to buy their tickets, ten minutes before kick-off or now when the market seems to be saturated.

All I know is that through the graces of a dear friend, my in-law Pat Egan and I have two of the most precious ducats in all of sport-- and no, they are not for sale.

Go Irish!

Irish pride and power spill over as Notre Dame triumph over Navy - What Irish and American dreams are made of in the Emerald Isle

Notre Dame

Dublin: In years to come hardcore Notre Dame fans will ask “Were you there?” when this Dublin game against Navy is discussed.

I predict it will be right up there with many of the great moments of this storied college.

What a day to be both Irish and American.  If you were not proud of your heritage in Dublin on Saturday then you lack an emotional bone in your body.

It started early at the Aviva Stadium.

I‘m a sucker for two national anthems, the Irish and U.S. ones.

Hearing them both played at the commencement of the Notre Dame/Navy football game at the astonishing Aviva Stadium in Dublin was a deeply emotional moment.

The Aviva is built acoustically to keep the sound waves in, to magnify the impact of the home crowd and as the thunderous anthems rolled across the stadium I saw many in tears.

This was the homecoming to beat the band, the day that Ireland saw what the legend of Notre Dame meant to so many millions of Irish Americans as 35,000 fans made the pilgrimage across the Atlantic.

The Fighting Irish ran out 50 –10 winners, giving a high-octane performance no doubt fueled by the emotion of the homecoming and the historic nature of the clash.

Somewhere coach Brian Kelly’s Irish antecedents were waking up the echoes, pointing to the great-grandson of Irish emigrants doing them so proud back in the old sod.

The Irish are sponsoring a year long “Homecoming” inviting the Diaspora back in 2013 but the Notre Dame 2012 event will trump anything ever again.

It will simply never be matched. For the best part of the week every location on this island has felt the power and emotional strength of that Diaspora that so many pay lip service to but never fully acknowledge.

The spangled banner stretched from Kerry in the south to Belfast in the North and points east and west. For a country so troubled economically it was manna from heaven. But there was emotional sustenance too, the sense of a tribe reuniting, if only for a brief time.

The Irish National Anthem contains the words “Buion Dar Slua, Thar Toinn De Ranaig Chughainn.” Roughly translated it is an explicit recognition of “Those who have come, of our ancestral race, from a land beyond the wave."
It was a recognition of the Irish who left and the generations they bred who still cared deeply about the land.

It was a clear reference to the Irish in America, and at the Aviva stadium on Saturday they did indeed come in their tens of thousands from the land beyond the waves.

You could not imagine a more picture perfect scenario. The leaden Irish skies of summer gave way to a brisk autumnal day, reminiscent of South Bend in the fall.

The CBS network carried the images back across the broad Atlantic, and one can only speculate how many watching will be stirred to make that homecoming journey too.

The game was the vision of two men, Irish businessman Martin Naughton and his American counterpart Don Keough, former President of the Coca Cola Company. The two should be renamed the “Sunshine Boys” for the ray of light they shone on Ireland yesterday at a time of tough economic tides.

Sunshine it was, and sunshine it hopefully will be and a weekend to remember --one of the best ever in fact.

Ireland has never seen anything like this Notre Dame invasion -- Dublin goes green as Fighting Irish fans feel right at home

Preparation of the Notre Dame pep rally in St. Stephen's Green

Live coverage of the game here on IrishCentral

Dublin: In the 125-year history of the Fighting Irish football team there has never been a weekend like this.

Four thousand miles from South Bend, 35,000 Irish have transplanted themselves in the heart of Dublin and indeed, all over Ireland, charming the locals wherever they go.

Walk along Dublin’s main shopping thoroughfare, Grafton Street, today and it seemed like a green invasion had begun.

In every store Notre Dame supporters and some Navy backers too, were thronging the aisles, looking for Irish bargains.

Outside the street performers were surrounded by Irish followers, and doing a roaring trade.

For many of the women shoppers, hurrying from one high-end store to another, this was their game day.

“I’m surprised I thought things would be cheaper,” Jane Byrne from Minnesota told me

”It’s easily as expensive – but it is far more fun,” she said.

All around her less discriminating fellow shoppers were buying up items like Guinness sweaters and Aran cardigans in all the usual haunts.

“It is busier than St Patrick’s week,” said the shop assistant in one.

It was the same story all over the country as the hordes of invading Americans, 35,000 in total, gave Ireland the kind of end of summer boost they could ever have hoped for.

Paddy Powers bookmakers opposite the Merrion hotel has been getting brisk business but not from the usual clients this week.

Americans are dropping in every few minutes the clerk said betting on their team to win in the Navy v Notre Dame game.

While I was there a Navy couple came in, seeking odds on Navy plus 15 points -- they got even money.
It is not news that bookmakers are winning but the Irish economy is getting a powerful boost too.

Earlier today I attended a reception at the American Ambassador’s residence in the Phoenix Park. Out in his garden Dan Rooney, the former owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, had his own football pitch where on July 4th every year there is a flag football game.

Prime Minister Enda Kenny dropped in to the pep rally at the O2 arena. 10,000 Notre Dame fans had crammed the arena and gave him a massive reception.

He called it the biggest overseas mobilization by any sporting team in American history.

Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrigg mentioned that Notre Dame has sold out every home game since 1964.

Over 300 performers were onstage between Irish and American musicians and band numbers for a finale that will not be forgotten.

A weekend to remember!

Wow!

Live coverage of the game here on IrishCentral 

Coming home with Notre Dame to Dublin; a trip of a lifetime -- A trip to remember as Ireland opens its heart to the 'Fighting Irish'

A group of fans of the University of Notre Dame American football team in
Galway's Eyre Square on Tuesday.Photograph credit: Joe O'Shaughnessy

Dublin: It is hard to miss that there is a Notre Dame/Navy football game going on here in Dublin.

There was not an empty seat on the Aer Lingus 109 from New York to Dublin last night as we joined the 35,000 mostly Irish fans who have flown from America in an unprecedented pilgrimage.

If you saw more green and “Go Irish” t-shirts per square foot than you’d see on St. Patrick’s Day, then you knew you were on the plane to the game.

You could hardly have missed it either as the Aer Lingus employees at the airport were decked out in Notre Dame caps in a nice touch.

Not that Navy was utterly outmatched. When the pilot announced as we closed in on Dublin that a Navy battleship was steaming into Dublin port right underneath us, the cheers for “Go Navy” were loud and raucous.

At the airport itself, Uncle Sam on stilts, perfectly kitted out in his red white and blue was there to greet the tired but eager fans as they poured off the plane.

A host of photographers and TV cameras closed in on the Irish Americans as they left the terminal. This game is big news here in Ireland and a massive boost worth an estimated $100 million to the ailing economy.

A large Notre Dame display in the main arrival hall at the airport added that extra touch to the festivities. This game has been organized expertly down to the last green balloon knot.

I had shared the flight with a couple from upstate New York who compared their trip to Ireland with the Hajj to see Mecca.

Lifelong Notre Dame fans, Bob and Ruth Murphy were living the dream as the plane decelerated and the Irish coastline came into view.

Neither had been to the Emerald Isle before but had been there often in their dreams. A sunny day sweeping away the wet weather that has plagued Ireland this summer awaited them.

“Perfect,” said Bob as he gazed out the window, as his wife slept. “A dream come true.”

The pilot announced that we were coming in over Mayo where Bob’s ancestral people come from so he felt right at home

At the Merrion Hotel, staff marveled at the enthusiasm and child-like happy faces they were seeing these last few days.

Notre Dame fans were in their second home and all of Dublin knew it.

The game has taken over the city and tickets on the black market are changing hands for $2,000.

The locals have embraced it. I had four messages from friends here asking about tickets.

It will be a wonderful occasion, like no other I have seen as the Fighting Irish take the field on Saturday at the Aviva Stadium a mile or so from here.

We can hardly wait.

Read more: For all the up-to-date news on the Notre Dame/ Navy Emerald Isle Classic click here

20,000 Notre Dame fans set for Dublin in September 2012 ---Incredible reaction from Fighting Irish fans to Navy game in Ireland

South Bend: Notre Dame are expecting an incredible 20,000 Fighting Irish fans to come to Dublin in September next year Notre Dame officials say.

It will be the largest ever 'invasion' by US sports fans of Ireland.

The last time Notre Dame played in Ireland in 1995 only 4,000 or so fans traveled.

The Fighting Irish will play Navy on September 1st at the Aviva stadium in Dublin, in their first game of the 2012 season.

It is billed as the "Emerald Isle Classic."

The buzz around South Bend about the game has already begun.

Dolly Duffy, Executive Director of the Notre Dame alumni confirmed to me that the numbers are expected to break all expectations.

"There has been an incredible reaction to the Dublin game," she told me."We have been overwhelmed by the interest in traveling to Ireland."

Micheal Seamon, Associate Vice President also confirmed the number and stated that the weekend in Dublin is shaping up to be a spectacular occasion.

Some Notre Dame officials believe the final total could be 25,000, an amazing number.

On Saturday $400,000 was pledged from Irish supporters to bring the Fighting Irish marching band to Dublin as part of the celebration.

A massive concert and pep rally will take place at the O2 arena in the Dublin docklands the night before the game.

Top Irish acts have already been signed up.

There will also be a special Notre Dame mass which is expected to pack Dublin's main cathedral to the rafters

The day of the game will be spectacular with the trendy Temple bar area turned into a massive Notre Dame tailgate party.

The marching band will march through Dublin's Grafton Street, the main shopping thoroughfare, and will surely be a sight to behold.

The game is being played the same weekend as the All Ireland hurling final, Ireland's second biggest sporting weekend meaning that Dublin will be chock a block with both Irish and hurling fans.

Notre Dame's Irish campus at O'Connell House in Merrion Square will also feature prominently with a major conference on America and the 1916 Rising set for the week of the game.

All in all it is easy to get excited by the game which Notre Dame is billing as 'The Fighting Irish are coming home."

It will be an incredible bonanza for Ireland in terms of tourism in particular.

I predict there will not be a hotel room to be had from Cork to Dublin.

Roll on September 2012!