Thoughts On The Manti Te’o Catfishing Situaiton
If you guys haven't seen the documentary on Netflix that dives back into the Manti Te'o documentary about him being catfished 10 years ago when he was playing for Notre Dame it is worth watching. Here is the trailer.
Not trying to spoil anything but this is my reflection on the documentary. There were certain aspects of the story that I had forgotten or that came out later. The fact that the guy who catfished him is trans and is transitioning to a woman was a new part of the story that I wasn't aware of. Also the fact that there was a situation where they met each other under the premise that the fake girlfriends little neice wanted to meet Manti was another thing that I didn't' realize. So these dudes hugged and met in real life which is another strange twist.
The following things are what I want to focus on though because I think a lot of people become very confused by how his could happen to someone. I feel like everyone always thinks........
He was a college athlete in the running for the Heisman Trophy and projected to go in the first round of the NFL Draft.... Why would he have any problems getting with women?
I think this is one of the biggest puzzling questions people have but I can tell you this. It is further proof and an example that a very low percentage of men are actually having any success with women. This happened 10 years ago to the rise of these gay guys pretending to be women online wasn't at the level it is today but it was happening so guys who were looking to connect with someone could pass on their better judgement and let their wishful thinking glaze over some red flags.
In my experience being around college enviornments a very low percentage of the guys on these various teams are in relationships or actively are having success with women. This is partially because it turns into a very high school like environment where the obvious girls that we would think a guy like Manti could have connected with, girls on the volleyball, soccer, track & field, softball, or basketball team suddenly are worried if they date some guy on the football team or other sports team that people will talk and they are very self conscious about what other will say. Then 4 years can easily pass and these guys and these girls who should have been in the upper tier of being a "good catch" have little to no experience dating or having any sexual encounters with women.
I know this sounds ridiculous but I can tell you first hand it is the truth. I have seen this first hand in the baseball scene beyond college as well. You will have these decent looking athletic guys who virtually have zero success with women.
I don't blame Manti for what happened to be honest. I can see how it happened and there were certain points where he did ask other people about this supposed girl he was talking to and other sort of verified that they knew her but those guys only knew her through Facebook as well. Can you imagine 60 years ago if you had a guy with the projectable success of Manti. Hotties all over campus would have been hook arming him wanting to be his girlfriend. It just simply isn't the case anymore despite people thinking there is a "hook up culture." Are there a small percentage of guys having success? Yes but the effort expended is INSANE..... Like No Joke INSANE
I've been catfished for sure.
Every guy who has connected to women through some type of dating app or Instagram or anything has been catfished to some extent. Usually it doesn't go on near as long as what the Manti situation went on. Like maybe you talk to some chick for a week or something and things don't add up or there are always excuses why she can't meet. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if I have been catfished a dozen times. Two times ended up being an insane situation where I physically ended up places and suddenly I felt like a guy was watching my one time and suddenly I realized that is probably who I was talking to. Very strange situation. Then another time the girl who I though I was talking to did not recognize me but she did work at the place that "she was saying" she worked at but it seemed like her old roommate essentially was pranking her to embarrassed her at work. Another very strange situation.
Conclusion
These various strange situations are going to continue to happen and with the rise of more and more of these guys "transitioning" to women there will even be cross faded guys who will potentially even hook up with these catfish in the real world when they are lit up out of their mind on multiple drugs.
I think one of the sad things I see from this and a lot of other situations is that I see tons of guys having to spend 80% of their waking hours to make 1,000s of chicks aware of their existence between dating apps and social media. We are stronger, more athletic, have more resources, have been way more places, than our grandfather's generation but in general only an extremely small percentage of men are having any success and an even smaller percentage of men are having any success that is presentable and sort of note worthy.
The point I'm trying to make is that a guy like Manti wasn't necessarily this no game, no pussy getting, little scrub for this to happen to him. He was focused on football and classes and was excited to have a connection with a chick who he thought was real out of scarcity. He wasn't in an abundance of women like we would have thought he would have been for his status on the Notre Dame campus. That is just the reality we live in. You can be a 22 year old stud puppy cracking skulls on the grid iron or a 32 year old blockchain developer who travels the world and surfs big waves and the modern women will look at you like you are some loser smuck always having to requalify yourself on a daily basis. Meanwhile you are in constant quicksand sorting through all the catfish online.
Some say this is an unrealistic representation of what is going on out there but the data reflects this reality as well. There is a reason why there are over 50% of the women at 30 years of age that are unmarried and have no kids. The situation gets more and more bleak from both sides.
Manti eventually went on to find a wife and it looks like he has a daughter now. I'm happy for him that this whole situation didn't derail his situation in the NFL.