The Manti Te’o situation has been storming the news of both sports and mainstream as of late.  For those who do not know the situation, I’ll explain it in brief:

Manti Te’o was the runner up for the Heisman Trophy, and was said to have overcome massive tragedy and turned it into success by  dominating football, despite the deaths of his grandmother and girlfriend. After he lost the National Championship, it was exposed that his girlfriend did not exist. There are arguments going  back and forth currently on whether he was duped by an internet troll for a long time, or whether he just made up the whole story, possibly due to being gay. Either way he potentially had an imaginary girlfriend for a significant period of time, gained support from many people in the nation, and is now the center of one of the weirdest scandals I have ever heard of. Whatever the truth ends up being, I’ve already learned the following things from the scandal….

1. Stay Away From The Internet

Whether or not Te’o was really a victim of catfishing, the point remains that the internet is a dangerous place filled with crazies and liars. If he really was catfished then he was clearly attempting internet game, which should never be done. He’s the prime example of internet dating going wrong.

2. Credible Sources Can Have Wrong Info

By this point in life, everyone should know that you can’t just go by what people say. Many people attempt to filter out misinformation by searching for “credible sources.” Thanks to the Te’o incident I have learned that no source is credible on its own. The only way you can really know the truth behind a subject is to research it in detail yourself. Unfortunately for Te’o, it was through research that the world was told about his girlfriend being a hoax.

3. Beta’s Always Get Exposed

No matter how you look at this incident, whether Te’o made it up on his own, or whether he was duped by some internet troll, it still shows he is a beta. In the end you can’t fake being an alpha, you simply have to become one. If you fake it, eventually you’ll be discovered. If he really was an alpha, he would have had his own girlfriend. Unless of course there’s something else going on, which is covered later in this list.

4. Keep Your Lies Basic

I think everyone can acknowledge that we all lie. It’s how we get laid, how we get jobs, and how we do basically everything. That said, if you’re going to lie, keep it simple. Te’o had multiple instances where he elaborated his relationship only to have this whole incident get blown extremely out of proportion. Had he kept it simple, no one would care. Because he duped the public into having sympathy for the death of an imaginary individual he’s suffering.

5. Don’t Ever Show Your Cards

Given the possibility that Te’o may have really been duped by an internet troll, he has greatly exposed the fact that he’s a beta who likes to display everything he has to offer with no reward. It was mentioned that he supposedly talked on the phone for 8 hours a night talking about his life and god knows what else. The fact remains, never show your cards. It keeps your value high and prevents humiliation in the event of tragedy.

Seriously he used to be intimidating. 

6. The Value of Man Code

This is one of the few “positive” effects displayed from this whole saga. Throughout the whole ordeal, none of his teammates ratted him out no matter how blatantly obvious it was to them that his girlfriend wasn’t real. That is true man code value right there. They could have tried to make a name for themselves by exposing it, but they didn’t, because they value the way men work. The difference between men and women is men will try to show dominance without making other men look pathetic. Women set out to destroy other women at any given opportunity. Had this been an issue with females, this would have been exposed a long time ago.

7. Your Slump Is Never That Bad

We all fall into slumps, but no matter what you think, it can never be that bad. Unless you reach a point where you have to have an internet girlfriend that you don’t even know is real, and you have ZERO physical contact, you can move on. Trust me, that handshake you had with the random girl from the coffee shop is still more action than Te’o had in his relationship.

8. Fairy Tales Do Not Exist

The whole back story to the Te’o situation is that he saw his girlfriend (who doesn’t exist) in the stands at a Stanford game.

“Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te’o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes.”

It was also mentioned about Manti’s girlfriend that:

“She was gifted in music, multi-lingual, had dreams grounded in reality and the talent to catch up to them.”

The only problem is she wasn’t real. Everyone seemed to be so captivated by the circumstances of their relationship, and now they are devastated because it was a lie. And that’s because fairy tales don’t exist; well unless you’re the Alabama quarterback, and then you’re dating the female below.

Sweet Home Alabama!

9. Being Famous Can Quickly Become A Curse

Had this happened at a high school or even a division-three college, chances are no one would have looked into the details of it. Hell, even if I fabricated the story no one would have cared. Because Manti Te’o is a future 1st round NFL pick, people care. And while sometimes I envy famous people for their insane bank accounts, I do not envy any of the magnification that befalls their personal lives.

10. People Still Have Issues With Homosexuality

The end theory behind Te’o making up the lie, in the event that he was behind the whole incident and not duped on the internet, is that it’s because he is gay. This theory is actually quite possible, and it would easily explain how he failed to be a top division-one football athlete without being able to land a semi-attractive girl. Seriously, I’ve seen complete morons get some of the best women because of sports.

While most people would say, “If he’s gay why didn’t he just admit it?” The answer to that is simply because despite society accepting normal homosexual people, they do not accept gay athletes. Athletes are supposed to be the manliest men. Can you imagine how much people would freak out if the Rock said he liked dick. So yes, in the athletic world, people still freak out.

And there it is, the ten things I learned from Manti Te’o. Considering the circumstances of his imaginary girlfriend, I personally think he’s owed more credit for everything that he exposed for the rest of men.

Read Next: Learn To Be An Alpha From Athletes