Bank it: The Te’o girlfriend hoax story will get even weirder before it’s over

Blarney.

Yesterday produced what is being described as the most bizarre sports news stories ever. We’ve heard about the mind-blowing story from the website Deadspin, which lays out a damning case against Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o, his family and possibly some of their associates in conducting an elaborate hoax involving a dead girlfriend that never existed. There’s no way that story ends here.

Unfortunately for Te’o, his family and the perpetrators of the hoax, there’s also no way that this story has a happy ending.

There’s also no way that the days ahead won’t leave you shaking your head, jaw agape and wondering if this is all real or a hoax about a hoax within a hoax. This strange story is probably about to get weirder.

There are just too many holes to fill and too many loose ends to tie off, and there are too many journalists caught flat-footed in failing to do basic research. Some of the country’s most prominent sports media organizations have been Played Like a Champion Today, and they’re not going to let that good deed go unpunished. There are many high value targets and angles of attack now, and with the 2012 college football season now in the books, lots of journalists were sitting around and looking for something to do.

That was yesterday.

Beginning today, some of those holes are going to be poked, just to see what scurries out. Some of those loose ends will get tugged, just to see what might unravel. Given how bizarre this story already is, you can lay long and strong odds that something even more mind-boggling will be sanitized by sunshine. More contradictions will be found and more people will be exposed.

The more elaborate the lie, the more difficult it is to remember your story and keep it straight with all the other stories being told by all of the other people involved. It’s easy to remember the truth. It’s difficult to remember a lie and that difficulty grows exponentially with the number of lies told.

The ease with which so many prominent journalists were fooled by the Lennay Kekua hoax won’t be quickly forgotten and if these organizations want their pound of flesh for having been deceived, then have it they will.

This is going to get very interesting. Bank it.

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

Going to the Sun Bowl in El Paso? Customs & Border Protection has ‘travel tips’

On New Year’s Eve, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Miami Hurricanes will renew a heated rivalry for the first time in 20 years. In the Ft. Wayne, Indiana Journal Gazette, Fighting Irish beat writer Tony Krausz has a few travel tips for fans visiting El Paso, the site of the game, courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection.

---

EL PASO, Texas – The city of El Paso is expecting to host a large number of college football fans from around the country who will be in town to attend the annual Sun Bowl football game December 31. Historically some college football fans visit neighboring Juarez, Mexico during their time in El Paso. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is reminding the visiting Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Miami Hurricanes fan base that there are a number of border crossing requirements they need to be aware before venturing across the international boundary.

U.S. citizens returning at an international land border crossing like El Paso must present a U.S. passport, U.S. passport card, or other Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) compliant document to enter the United States. For more information on the U.S. passport card or other WHTI compliant documents, travelers should visit: http://www.getyouhome.gov

h/t Jay Christiansen

---

CBP doesn’t offer this advice, but I sure will:  Stay the hell out of Cuidad Juarez, or make sure you travel in a heavily armored SUV convoy with trained paramilitary bodyguards. Juarez has become one of the central battlegrounds in the bloody war between two rival drug cartels. The body count since the bloodshed began in 2007 is staggering:  1,600 dead in 2008; 2,600 in 2009 and this year the 3,000 mark was passed. That brings the death toll in Juarez to a total of 7,200 people.

By way of reference, that number is more than twice the worst estimates of total US troops killed in combat for the entire Iraq War since the March 19, 2003 invasion.

From the El Paso Times:

---

U.S. anti-narcotics officials said the cartel war began after the collapse of an alliance between the drug-trafficking organizations of Sinaloa kingpin Joaquin "Chapo" Guzmán Loera and the Juárez cartel led by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes. Both kingpins remain at large.

Guzmán had made inroads into Chihuahua state, and several Juárez cartel lieutenants switched to his organization. The dispute set off a war that spawned a violent crime wave in Juárez and other parts of the state.

Along with the cartel war, there was a rise in carjackings, auto thefts and extortionists collecting protection quotas from bars, schools, medical offices and other businesses.

On Monday, about 4,000 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals in Juárez went on a 24-hour strike to protest the lack of security. The strike was spurred by the slaying of José Alberto Betancourt, an orthopedic surgeon kidnapped on Dec. 2 and found dead two days later.

"Drug violence also appears to be affecting people more broadly and more publicly than in the past," stated a midyear report on drug violence in Mexico by the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.

"While the government estimates that 90 percent of drug violence impacts individuals involved in organized crime, in 2010 there has been a worrying tendency to target high-profile victims (including politicians and public officials), drug rehabilitation centers, and private parties. In this sense, Mexico's drug-related violence is becoming a much wider societal phenomenon that engages wider sectors of the society."

---

Here’s another story about football, and how three brave men are trying to help bring order to a city more dangerous than Baghdad.

Texas, Notre Dame agree to four-year matchup

Texas and Notre Dame have agreed to a series of four home-and-away games against each other, starting in 2015.  These kind of matchups are great for college football.  The University of Texas and Notre Dame are two of the most storied programs in the history of the game.  Like the Alabama vs. Penn State game this year, these inter-conference clashes of Titans make for great entertainment and great football.

---

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas and Notre Dame have agreed to a four-game series starting in 2015 that brings together two of the most successful and storied programs in college football.

The Longhorns are scheduled to play in South Bend on Sept. 5, 2015. The Fighting Irish are slated to play in Austin on Sept. 3, 2016, and again on Aug. 31, 2019.

The Longhorns return to South Bend on Sept. 12, 2020.

"We are so excited we were able to schedule a four-game series with Notre Dame," Texas coach Mack Brown said in a statement. "I love college football history and nobody has more historical programs than Texas and Notre Dame. The renewal of this rivalry should be a lot of fun to be a part of and something that college football fans across the country can really enjoy."

New Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was equally happy.

"Starting a series with the Texas Longhorns is great not just for Notre Dame, but college football, and we couldn't be happier about it," he said in a statement. "When I look at the job Coach Brown has done at Texas in reviving a once proud tradition, I see many parallels to what our staff plans to do at Notre Dame. "The addition of Texas to our future schedules is just another example of the type of high-profile programs we plan on playing as an independent. We look forward to embracing our unique status within college football and continuing to schedule games against similar programs down the road."

---

The ability to schedule games like this is the primary reason why Notre Dame rejected the Big 10 when that conference was shopping for a 12th team. Notre Dame already plays a Big 10-heavy schedule, but it does so by scheduling the teams it wants to play, in regions it wants to recruit and in regions it wants to expand its TV audience. Why would Notre Dame agree to play Indianas and Iowas every year, forever and ever amen, when it can schedule matchups against programs like Texas? Why give up a trip to Los Angeles to play rival USC for a trip to Memorial Stadium to play Illinois?

It bears noting that USC is likely going to be hurting for years to come, thanks to the crippling NCAA sanctions handed down earlier this year.  Add a complete nutball for a coach in Lane Kiffin, and it's hard to see how USC is going to be maintain their recent dominance in the series.  That's my opinion.  YMMV.

As for Texas, with the Big XII raided for Colorado and Nebraska, its season really does come down to the Red River Shootout, the annual matchup against Oklahoma each year in Dallas.  The Big XII has two great programs and now, about eight so-so ones.  Texas' strength of schedule against that kind of conference opposition may not have been enough to get it into last year's BCS Championship against Alabama.  So adding a program like Notre Dame--expected to be much better under Brian Kelly going forward--makes good sense.

The first of the 'Horns and Irish matchups won't be played for another five years, but this is the kind of  thing the regular college football season needs.

Gimme some feedback in the comments.