On Sept. 15, 2012, Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o entered the national spotlight, leading the Fighting Irish to a dominating 20-3 victory over then-No. 10
Te’o had an outstanding game, recording 12 tackles and two pass breakups. But what captured the nation’s attention was the emerging narrative behind the young linebacker. It was report??ed that four days earlier, Te’o’s grandmother and girlfriend had passed away, turning his on field performance that Saturday from outstanding to unbelievable.
Then, two weeks ago, Dead??spin published an article by Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey revealing that Te’o’s alleged girlfriend of two years, “Lennay Kekua,” was a hoax.
Nobody knew what to think. The man who brought home seven post-season awards lied to us all about his girlfriend passing away. Did he lie to the public for four months?
Actually, it was only one.
On Dec. 6, two days be??fore the Heisman Trophy ceremony, Te’o received a call from “Kekua’s sister,” saying Lennay was in fact not dead and wanted to rekindle their relationship.
Te’o was thrown into a world of confusion worse than any play-action fake he’s encountered.
Let’s put on Te’o’s helmet.
Was Lennay Kekua really dead? Te’o hadn’t yet figured it out for himself when ESPN’s Chris Fowler brought up the topic during an interview at the cer??emony.
What was he supposed to say?
Should he have said, “Actu??ally Chris, I received a call from my girlfriend’s sister saying she is alive now. I’m kind of confused about this whole situation. I don’t know what’s going on, I’m just happy to be here in
So he perpetuated the myth until he had time to grasp reality.
He would later discover for himself that Kekua was a fictional person. His entire two-year relationship over the phone and the Inter??net was a sham.
Deadspin’s report was completely accu??rate. Lennay Kekua did not exist. The voice he heard on the phone was not, as first believed, of friend Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who invented Kekua. Rather, it was his cousin, Tino. The picture he saw online was that of Tuiasosopo’s high school acquaintance Diane O’Meara.
He came to realize the truth in late De??cember and shared the information with his his parents and coaches. Te’o was devastated. Imagine the shock, grief and disbelief Te’o felt upon this revelation.
How does a Heisman runner-up tell his millions of fans, weeks before the BCS Na??tional Title Game against
He hopes this embarrassing secret can be kept to himself. However, with the media fol??lowing the linebacker’s every move, would it be better to announce the truth and try to save face?
Once he figured out how to handle this embarrassing situation, it was too late. The Te’o family was preparing their strategy for going public with the news when Deadspin beat him to the punch.
The Deadspin report framed Te’o out to look like a fraud, when actually he was a victim. His devout faith and apparent naivety made him the perfect target for a scheme of this nature.
Can we fault Te’o for being naive? Well, it was revealed that throughout the two years of their relationship, the couple actually never met face-to-face, even though Te’o claimed they had physically been together numerous times.
He deceived those around him for the sake of his reputation. He’d appear to be de??ranged if, when his family asked him about his girlfriend of two years, he’d never mention a physical interaction with her.
Te’o lied to himself and invented these alleged meanings. His friends and family then extended the lie by claiming they’d met Kekua as well.
Then, when this inspiring narrative of a linebacker losing his grandmother and girl??friend, and then leading Notre Dame to their best season in 25 years was developed by the media, there was no turning back for Te’o.
The whole story was bound to surface sooner or later. Though kudos goes to Dead??spin for uncovering this hoax, things could have been explained a lot clearer if Te’o had been able to handle this situation instead of the media leaking the tale and causing a nation-sweeping stir.
