Manti Te'o Hoax Could Happen to Anyone or: (How I Was Hoaxed by 'Loy Allen Jr.')

The story about Notre Dame Fighting Irish star linebacker Manti Te’o and his dead girlfriend being a hoax that was broken by Deadspin.com yesterday is certainly one of the strangest and weirdest sports stories I’ve ever heard and I know that it’s likely bound to only get stranger and weirder. I say that because it’s still to be seen whether or not Te’o was, in fact, duped by an incredibly cruel joke as he’s stated in his written response or if he actually played a knowing role in the hoax.

Notre Dame officials believe based on their response late Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 16) that Te’o was innocent and merely the butt of a cruel joke. However, the Deadspin article leads readers to believe that Te’o could’ve easily had a hand in perpetrating the hoax, along with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. I don’t really have a complete assumption at this time, but I wouldn’t be surprised, though certainly disappointed, if Te’o was in on the entire thing from what I’ve read. However, I can say unfortunately from firsthand experience that if what happened to Te’o was indeed a cruel hoax that it’s entirely possible that he had the wool pulled over his eyes.

Every day in this world people are at the horrible hands of others perpetrating hoaxes against them online. I haven’t seen the movie “Catfish” or the MTV series based off of it, but from what I’ve heard the term “catfishing” apparently is the act of a person who creates fake profiles online and pretends to be someone they are not by using someone else's pictures and information as a means of deceiving others.

There are only a couple of people who know this about me (until now), I’m not even 100 percent sure my girlfriend of seven years is one of them, but about 10 years ago when I was in my mid-teens I was on the receiving end of an online hoax.

Being the big NASCAR fan that I am I frequented a NASCAR message board called Driver Insider, where I would spend a great deal of time discussing and conversing about all sorts of NASCAR topics with other hardcore fans around the country. Myself, and all of the other posters on the message board, soon became enamored with one poster who, I can’t remember his username, but had us all convinced that he was Loy Allen Jr.

Loy Allen Jr. was a mostly unsuccessful NASCAR driver from the early to late ‘90s, who is most famous for two things: becoming the first ever rookie driver to qualify on the pole at the 1994 Daytona 500 and a devastating crash at Rockingham Speedway in 1996 which severely injured his neck and pretty much put an end to any major career plans.

Today, and even 10 or so years ago, Loy Allen Jr. was a name that novice NASCAR fans wouldn’t know and even avid NASCAR fans would have a hard time telling you anything about other than the Daytona pole and the Rockingham crash. Such an obscure name like Loy Allen Jr. made for the perfect cover, whereas other drivers would’ve led to immediate questioning and doubts over accuracy and credibility. If somebody claims they’re Loy Allen Jr. and have the knowledge and facts to back it up you’re likely going to believe them. If they claim they’re Jeff Gordon you’re simply not.

This poster claiming to be Loy Allen Jr. had us all going on the message board for the longest time, but he got to me even more because we added each other to Yahoo Messenger and would talk for hours about his “career,” NASCAR and baseball (which he claimed he was a huge fan of). We developed a friendship and he had me tricked to such an extent that I actually wrote an article about him for the sports webzine I created, edited and wrote for online called Sport Webzine. I thought this was my first “big time” interview, which really excited me.

After a little while I guess this prankster said something that one or two of the other members of the Driver Insider message board didn’t believe and they checked him on his facts and found him out to be a fraud. It bothered everybody on the message board because we had all been duped, but it probably hurt me the most because I’d been taken in so badly and even put my credibility as a writer/journalist on the line (despite only being in my mid-teens).

It’s an embarrassing, uncomfortable and hurtful experience when you trust somebody and you learn that the trust you’ve had in them wasn’t real. It’s especially worse when you realize that the person him/herself never actually existed or wasn’t who they claimed to be. It's definitely not something that bothers me much all these years later, in fact, I can't even remember the last time I'd thought of this until the Manti Te'o story reminded me of it today. But, depending on how deep you get taken in and how close of a relationship you've developed with this "person" I could easily see how it could mess someone up for a long time. 

I consider myself to be a pretty smart person and was certainly smart for my age at that time. I think many people would be calling me gullible, like they are right now to Manti Te’o. But, here’s the thing … these people do their research. They know their “character’s” ins and outs and its easy for somebody to gain another person’s trust when their back-story is as solid as these people can and do make it. I’m sure it’s even more sophisticated these days than it was back then.       

If Te’o was indeed pranked I can understand the embarrassment he feels, because you really do feel like you were played for a fool, except in his case it would be even worse because he developed an attraction and feelings for the apparition. If he was in on the whole thing he should be ashamed of what he’s done and his character will rightfully always be judged. However, if he was the “victim” here as Notre Dame officials have stated then he can join the club of the many who’ve been played for fools by online tricksters and pranksters out there getting their laughs and jollies out of making real people believe in and develop relationships with people that don’t exist or either do exist, but just aren’t who they claim to be. If this is the case his character shouldn’t be judged, because it can happen to almost anybody and you likely know people who have been hoaxed in a similar way.           

Workin' 40 Hours a Week ... for a Living?

Today was my one-year anniversary as a cashier at the cafeteria of Conway’s hospital. This last year has flown by and work has definitely been a lot more fun than anything else. I have a lot of fun there messing around with co-workers and customers alike, probably getting away with a lot more than I should. I never thought that working as a cashier in a hospital cafeteria could be this fun, but there are a lot of cool people there who make it easy to have fun – some by joining in on the hi-jinx and others by simply putting up with it. I’m happy to call quite a few of the people that I work with friends. People you work with are often just acquaintances, but I consider many of these people friends because they really do improve or brighten my day. I look forward to seeing them each day. Maybe (hopefully?) they feel the same way about me.  

Should I enjoy it this much, though?

Five or 10 years ago I didn’t really expect to be where I’m at now. I had dreams of being a writer, for a publication or something else. And, I am a writer. I run my own entertainment website, I have a weekly sports podcast and occasionally I get around to a little fiction or nonsense like this. It’s just not something I’m making my living doing or really something I’m doing a whole lot of lately. I’m not even all that sure I’m good at it. I do, however, consider myself to be a very good cashier. I do my job to the best of my abilities and make a lot of people laugh while doing so (that’s the part I love the most and I really work hard trying to do so). However, I remember something that my buddy Luke said recently. When he started his job as a pot washer his trainer, Rico, said to him [paraphrasing of course]: “I’m very good at washing pots. You don’t ever want to be very good at washing pots.” I’m a very good cashier, but is it really something to be proud of?

Every few weeks I’ll have a customer come up to me at work and ask me questions about my schooling and what I want to do with my life. It always comes off like the bar patrons telling the Piano Man in the Billy Joel song, “Man, what are you doing here?” I can tell they think I should be doing something else with me life; something bigger? Better maybe? These people don’t really know me, but maybe they have more confidence in me than I have of myself. This is likely the most uncomfortable question I get from people. I always tell them, “I was a creative writing major, so that’s why I’m a cashier.”

I got comfortable at doing what I’m doing now. In the year since I started working at the hospital I honestly haven’t even looked for another job. When I get comfortable somewhere or doing something I kind of bunker down for the long haul. Maybe the problem is that I have too much fun at work? If I didn’t like my job then I’d be searching for an out, but that’s not the case. I think my cashier job has turned into some form of escapism. It’s letting me pay my bills and continue living my life and it’s giving me an excuse not to do as much writing as I should be doing or as I’d like to be doing.  I have the confidence in myself as a cashier that I lack as a writer. It’s nice to be confident in oneself, but anybody can do what I’m doing now, hence those asking me questions about what I want to do with my life. They know I could be doing better. I don’t really know it, though. Or maybe I do and I just don’t want to do it.

Am I a failure?

Yes and no. There are days where I definitely feel like a failure. After all, I’m not doing what I thought I’d be doing at this point of my life. Most of the time I just don’t think about it, though. “I should be writing more” is a thought I have every day of my life, but “I’m not doing what I should with my life” is only a thought that crosses my mind every now and then, usually on my worst days.

I think my biggest problem is my failure to realize that I’m 25 years old. I pretty much live my life like I’m an 18-year old. Like I have the entire world and my entire life ahead of me. I’ve kind of been doing this for the last seven years. Doesn’t there have to be a point though where I have to drop all that and finally decide what it is I want to do; what I want to be? Probably. But, I’ll push it off until another day, another week, another month or another year.

I really like my job and I’m good at it. When I started I was a writer who cashiered on the side for money. Have I become a cashier who writes on the side for fun?