Why I believe Manti Te'o

Those of you who I've talked to about this know that I've always thought that Manti Te'o was more guilty than innocent. But after I watched Jeremy Schaap report after having a 2.5 hour sit-down interview with Manti Te'o [story and video here], I now firmly believe that Manti Te'o was indeed the victim of a hoax (though obviously you're all welcome to disagree, as I could yet be proven wrong). Here's why.

Manti claimed to have only been in "intense" communication with her since April, when she claimed to be in a car crash.

This makes things much more believable to me. If April was actually the starting point for their emotional connection, it is much more reasonable to me that he didn't see her in the 5 months before she "died" in September. It's hard for me to see someone in relationship for 3 years without calling it quits because one side won't let the other see them, but I can definitely see something like this happening for around 8 months.

Manti claimed some crazy stuff that is hard to make up.

In the interview, Te'o said that when he got the call on December 6th from "Kekua", she claimed that she was in hiding from "drug people", and I guess she needed to fake her death or something. If Manti was really faking this relationship and really in on the hoax on December 6th, why in the world would he be telling the media this crazy story that he actually admitted to kind of believing? We know immediately after hearing it that this is total BS that a hoaxster would say to a victim, but I fail to see the motivation behind Manti saying something that unbelievable.

Manti Te'o's claimed response is exactly what we should expect from someone in his position.

In the interview, Te'o admitted that it wasn't until two days ago that he actually believed that Kekua didn't exist, and it's easy to say, "No way. How dumb are you?" and "Even after she called you after supposedly being dead?", but to be honest, in Manti's shoes, I don't think I would be any different. If you've been "inseparable on the phone", as Schaap put it, for half a year, and truly loved the person who you thought was on the other end of the line, wouldn't you be in a state of total confusion and denial too? Even though we from the outside think that Manti should have woken up and realized that he'd been duped immediately, we all know that feelings don't work that way. Relationships don't work that way. We believe what we want to believe, and can often be in denial about the state of a relationship and hold on to something that we know is either fading or gone completely. And that's exactly what Manti claims to have gone through. This, to me, is much more believable than him "all of a sudden" realizing that she was fake after she called him claiming that she was in hiding from drug lords.

Manti's response is completely consistent with his known personality.

Is it really surprising that the emotional leader of a team would become too emotionally attached to a person he never met? Is it really possible that he gave something his 100% at a relationship, even though he didn't know exactly what was going on? Is it that unthinkable that a player who's unquenchable passion is his game got played by his own passion? And is it possible that the ND AD was actually truthful when he called Te'o "the most trusting person I know"?

"Love" blinds people. Catfishes are possible.

This, I find, is the major stumbling block for people who have a hard time believing that Manti was actually the victim: They don't see how someone could fall for this trick. And to you all I say, you better believe it, because people fall for it all the time. Love and desire for love blinds people, and it's not just catfishes. It's keeping dead relationships alive. It's staying in abusive relationships. It's believing "he said he's going to change". As we've all learned in the last few days, people fall for catfishes. Why would it be any different for Manti Te'o?