Anyone else watched the Manti doc yet?
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Manti & Tui's Cousin Doc
- Thread starter WoolleyDoog
- Start date
Didn't know there was one
Just came out on Netflix this week. It's pretty good though there's not too much in there you didn't know if you followed the story in real time. I will say it's hard for me not to puke when looking at Ronaiah especially with him being portrayed as anything but a creep as they get more into the story.
All time weird/fascinating story to me outside of even just sports.
All time weird/fascinating story to me outside of even just sports.
creepycoug
Well-known poster
From the highlights, it seems they only cover the part when Manti is insisting he's been cat fished. Is that still the company line? I thought he fessed up to being in on it.
Super weird and a black eye for Notre Dame IMO. Almost as bad as 3rd and 43 and the Cleveland Gary fumble bribe.
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rodmansrage
New Fish
it seemed like him going to notre dame really fucked him up, lds poly from hawaii goin to a catholic school in indiana.
the whole thing just blows me a way, never met (allegedly) the girl (allegedly) in 2-3 years and that was all good? i remember his dad saying she'd been to the house and 'he might marry her,' but never met her?
tbh, doc left me with the same questions i had before.
I thought Manti confirms to me that he's odd and was naive and it's a situation where the simplest answer is probably the true one, even if the overall story is bonkers. I think if he was in on it at all Ronaiah or whatever he calls himself now would have sold him down the river a long, long time ago.
One thing that was suspicious to me they mention but never clarify is who sent the tip to Deadspin and who were the people on Twitter chattering about Lennay being fake before Deadspin broke the story. I think there's a good chance there were more people in on it on Ronaiah's side he never outed and that's how it got leaked.
Overall, I think it's also a sneaky huge testament to the reality of fake news and how all of these major outlets published the fake story when it would have crumbled within like 10 minutes of Google searching. I think part of it shows that as online news took over these outlets just rushed to publish stories and didn't do their work the way they would have back in the day.
I think this is more concerning outside of sports reporting and how we end up with bullshit becoming truth.
One thing that was suspicious to me they mention but never clarify is who sent the tip to Deadspin and who were the people on Twitter chattering about Lennay being fake before Deadspin broke the story. I think there's a good chance there were more people in on it on Ronaiah's side he never outed and that's how it got leaked.
Overall, I think it's also a sneaky huge testament to the reality of fake news and how all of these major outlets published the fake story when it would have crumbled within like 10 minutes of Google searching. I think part of it shows that as online news took over these outlets just rushed to publish stories and didn't do their work the way they would have back in the day.
I think this is more concerning outside of sports reporting and how we end up with bullshit becoming truth.
creepycoug
Well-known poster
See that’s what I mean. I vaguely remember the Dad comment and he clearly used it to stir up some drama … like “I’m dedicating this game to the love of my life” shit and all that posturing for the cheese ball ND fandom, who of course ate it up.
It just doesn’t add up that’s he’s on this chick for 2 or 3 yrs or whatever and never sees her. Didn’t he also say he was going to marry her too? Smells like BS to me.
Manti weird bro. Embarrassing for ND IMO
@Gladstone
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Yeah, there was some odd stuff that didn't get mentioned in the documentary that I remember from the time like you said about the dad. There was also some story of him saying he supposedly met her in the stands at their game at Stanford at one time or something.
No matter how you slice it he's super weird. Seems like there's a good chance she was just one girl he was talking to and once word got out to the media that his "girlfriend" died he played it up because it was a great story and then started to have to tell all these weird sidestories on it and it spiraled out of control.
I'm guessing as it went on stuff like that dad comment was them trying to deflect the weirdness of it being his girlfriend but they never met and making it seem like they had more of a connection. Then once it came out she never existed all hell broke loose.
