Notre Dame Says Manti Te’o Is a Victim. That’s Rich...

[MadrasT]

Notre Dame Says Manti Te’o Is a Victim. That’s Rich, Considering Their History of Ignoring Actual Victims

Notre Dame is notorious for covering up sexual assault allegations involving its football players, but the school declared star linebacker Manti Te'o a "victim" within mere hours after the news broke that his saintlike dead girlfriend never actually existed. Why is Notre Dame in such a rush to assert Te'o's victimhood while the investigation is still proceeding? Easy: because it strengthens the hero narrative the school relies on for profit and glory. Acknowledging the real victims of jock culture only hurts that narrative.

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Compare Notre Dame's reaction — the immediate and immense support, the resources (they hired private investigators!), the positive PR — with that of Notre Dame's head football coach, Brian Kelley, when a 19-year-old student named Elizabeth "Lizzy" Seeberg killed herself nine days after accusing a football player of sexually assaulting her in a dorm room.

(snip)

It doesn't surprise me that more people know and care about Te'o than Seeberg. She's just another victim of sexual assault — one who, according to Henneberger, some officials still allege was "asking for it," because we don't like to admit that college athletes can be rapists — but Notre Dame's repeated and ready use of the term "victim" when referring to Te'o but not to Seeberg is awful.

More at link: http://jezebel.com/5976718/notre-dame-says-manti-teo-is-a-victim-thats-rich-considering-their-history-of-ignoring-actual-victims

[thelordofhell]

1. I'm thinking of another motive for this story.........

Manti Te'o needs to come out of the closet........

[Larkspur]

2. I'm a virgin and proud of it

When I was 10 years old, I knew that I wanted to remain single and child-free.

That doesn't make me gay. For the record, I'm not gay. Same can be true of men who don't have girlfriends.

Some of us find sex overrated.

[seabeyond]

8. good for you. perfect as you are. nt

[Larkspur]

11. Not perfect, just committed

[seabeyond]

13. i raised my kids with... we are perfectly imperfect.

i do not see perfection as the goal. perfection in itself is an imperfection.

[BlueStreak]

3. I've heard that suggested, but my gay friends don't seem to be buying it

They think that at a Catholic place like ND, he could easily find a girl to pose as his girlfriend, and they could easily pass off a lack of intimacy as "saving themselves for Jesus".

[thelordofhell]

6. Yeah, but think this out a little

You're gay and you're going to ND.......they want to give you a "girlfriend", but you don't want one, so you find a fake girl on the internet and tell them she's your "girlfriend".....problem solved....until it all blows up in your face.............

[BlueStreak]

7. It makes more sense than the official ND explanation

I'll grant you that.

And I can easily imagine how such a web of lies could become tangled over time.

And that culminated with the very public death of the poor girl, right at the time that it would have helped Manti's Heisman and NFL stock the most.

In other words, the theories aren't mutually exclusive. It could have started as a way to cover up being gay at a Catholic school, and then gotten progressively out of control, turning into a much grander hoax.

In any case, it is abundantly clear that Te'o was right in the middle of this thing all along.

But I was one of those outcasts who always said that Armstrong was doping too.

[Larkspur]

4. Seeberg suffered depression prior to attending St. Mary's

She was a St. Mary's student, not an ND one. St. Mary's is an all female college. I went there my freshman year. It's a beautiful college and has a strong pro-woman attitude. They had resources Seeberg should have used, but she failed to do so.

Seeberg's case appeared to be a "he said/she said" type of case. Both drank beer that night. She had 3 bottles. Not sure of the others. The two were alone for a few moments before their friends rejoined them. Their statements made by their friends also didn't back up Seeberg's statements. Anyway, Seeberg NEVER wanted to file criminal charges against the football player whom she accused of sexually assaulting her. She wanted a public apology. Her 2 statements contained contradictions and the DA wanted to question her about them just prior to her committing suicide.

Falsely accusing anyone of a misdeed, especially one with criminal implications, is a crime itself. No one knows why she committed suicide, but she could have been suffering from bipolar disease, which if untreated, can lead one to commit suicide. A friend of mine's daughter has bipolar disorder and tried twice to kill herself. The first time is what prompted him to seek medical help and the second time is when he found out she wasn't taking her meds.

Also, our law says a person is innocent until proven guilty. ND had no right to make public the football player's name when the evidence wasn't there to convict him. The Duke Lacrosse rape case is a good example of persecuting men who did not commit rape even though the women accused them off it.

[seabeyond]

9. i could go either way on this, but i dont buy the argument either. i am open.

most rape is he/she said. why many girls/boys/women say nothing. both fbi and englands counterpart put fale claims between 2-3%.

the majority of rapes are not reported. the majority of reported rapes are not prosecuted. the majority of prosecuted are not convicted. and the majority of convicted are not sentenced to time.

[Larkspur]

12. And some rape accusatons are outright false -- Duke Lacrosse incident

It's the duty of the DA to determine if the accusations are true and that means questioning the accuser, the accused and any witnesses, which there were in the Seeberg case.

The DA has to determine if the football player was actually sexually assaulting her or just helping her if she passed out because of drinking more beer than she could tolerate. The fact that she didn't want to press criminal charges makes me think that Seeberg was unsure of what happened herself.

[seabeyond]

14. again, false rape accusation are very very low. the majority of rapes are not reported. these are

facts. there are valid and strong reasons rape is not reported. it is a he/she said. we live in a rape culture blaming women. it is hard to prove.

so, all that being said, i do not think it is proof that a rape did not happen. nor that a rape happened.

[ismnotwasm]

5. I don't get this story

I get the hypocrisy of Notre Dame ignoring a sexual assault victim--that and victim blaming is De rigueur in college handling of that particular topic. (as it is in most other places)I rarely see anything else coming out of those stories.

Is college football so pathetic, so lacking in "hero" narratives it relies on a weird bullshit story?

I sure there are decent college players who do good things, say, charity work or something, right? Right?


If this is all they can come up with that's a pathetically sad statement in itself.

[seabeyond]

10. there are a lot of good men in football. and the bad gets the press.

i was talking to youngest son about high school football that he participates in and he says his coaches and the rest fo the 20 something coaches stress and discuss character.

they are also a losing team.