Star Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o finally surfaced late Friday night for the first time since a report was published revealing that his dead girlfriend never died – or even existed. (Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my own personal hopes.)
Not surprisingly, Te'o denied any involvement in the hoax during the interview with ESPN.com's Jeremy Schaap (which wasn't filmed). The most staggering detail to come out: Te'o claimed he wasn't convinced that he had been duped until two days ago when he was supposedly contacted by alleged perpetrator Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.
As for all the other inconsistencies in his stories, Te'o said he "tailored" the whole narrative.
All in all, to me, the feeling about Te'o coming away from Schaap's account of the interview remains pretty much the same as before he spoke out. Assuming he's exceedingly gullible, Te'o's version of events might have some degree of plausibility.
On the other hand, the mere fact that he waited two days to talk about what happened and did so off-camera with the assistance of a P.R. consultant in possibly the most opaque news window available?
Yeah.
