Manti Te'o's "Dead Girlfriend" Story? A complete hoax

[tishaLA]

Deadspin has the whole mess, but here's the meat of it all: he did it for publicity:

There was no Lennay Kekua. Lennay Kekua did not meet Manti Te'o after the Stanford game in 2009. Lennay Kekua did not attend Stanford. Lennay Kekua never visited Manti Te'o in Hawaii. Lennay Kekua was not in a car accident. Lennay Kekua did not talk to Manti Te'o every night on the telephone. She was not diagnosed with cancer, did not spend time in the hospital, did not engage in a lengthy battle with leukemia. She never had a bone marrow transplant. She was not released from the hospital on Sept. 10, nor did Brian Te'o congratulate her for this over the telephone. She did not insist that Manti Te'o play in the Michigan State or Michigan games, and did not request he send white flowers to her funeral. Her favorite color was not white. Her brother, Koa, did not inform Manti Te'o that she was dead. Koa did not exist. Her funeral did not take place in Carson, Calif., and her casket was not closed at 9 a.m. exactly. She was not laid to rest.

Lennay Kekua's last words to Manti Te'o were not "I love you."

A friend of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo told us he was "80 percent sure" that Manti Te'o was "in on it," and that the two perpetrated Lennay Kekua's death with publicity in mind. According to the friend, there were numerous photos of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and Te'o together on Tuiasosopo's now-deleted Instagram account.

Unbelievable.

[rocktivity]

1. That guy should be given a complete psychological evaluation

before being allowed back on a field of play.


rocktivity

[ScreamingMeemie]

15. I really think (this is my own opinion) that this is going to go far deeper than this.

That there was possibly a reason (a very sad, shouldn't have to be a reason) that Te'o made this story up.

[sadbear]

18. I know exactly what you're talking about, I think.

It may have to do with certain masculine expectations in male sports, and football in particular?

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. That's what I think might be the case...

And, if so, how awful that one would fee they had to do that. I think that explains why ND let it continue, comments by his parents, etc.

On a side note, my father's girlfriend's entire family lives in Bryan and Gause, TX

[sadbear]

21. People actually live in Gause?

[ScreamingMeemie]

22. I know. I think it's just her children that live there.

[Carnage251]

2. Notre Dame chimes in

http://www.facebook.com/NDFootball/posts/553537038009180

Notre Dame Statement: Manti Te’o

On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.

Dennis Brown

[dbackjon]

3. Te'o knew nothing? Yeah, right

More Fraud from Notre Dame - or, NoSuch Dame

[fishwax]

6. I wonder what Notre Dame knew?

[Drum]

4. ........

[Chiyo-chichi]

5. Notre Dame to hold a press conference at 8:00 EST per ESPN.

Wonder if they will take questions or just read a statement.

[RockaFowler]

7. There are a lot of fishy stories here

This per Brian Hamilton at the Chicago Tribune:

Manti Te'o re-contacted by hoaxers "while he was in attendance at the ESPN awards show in Orlando." So, 12/6.

On 12/8 he said the following: "I don't like cancer at all. I lost both my grandparents and my girlfriend to cancer."

So after he was told that it was a hoax on 12/6 he continued to tell the story on 12/8. Very confused!!

https://twitter.com/ChiTribHamilton

[trumad]

8. He had a couple of chances to clear it up...

But said nothing.

[RockaFowler]

10. How about the fact that Notre Dame knew on 12/26

Then they let him go ahead with interviews where he talked about her death again. Who is Notre Dame trying to protect in all of this?? Themselves?? Or Teo??

This story is so bizzare on so many levels

[Capt. America]

9. This will cost him big $ in draft ranking now...moron.

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. Not necessarily...

It depends upon how desperate the team is.

[PRETZEL]

12. I've seen a few mock drafts that had him possibly being taken by Pittsburgh

and given the recent history of Steeler players and their shortcomings, I hope they end up passing on him.

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. My son, who values W's and athletic abilities above all else, is hoping the Lions draft him if

they get the chance. (although they should really pick up secondary players)

[Kingofalldems]

13. So was there a crime committed here?

[sadbear]

14. +1

A DJ from a Houston classic rock station posted a question on facebook this morning: which of this week's sports liars is worse, Armstrong or Te'o? The overwhelming majority say Te'o. But what has Te'o gained from it, provided he did indeed lie and is not just some naive 21 year old Mormon?

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. Again, I am going to say that I think this lie has nothing to do with publicity or Heismann votes

and everything to do with today's current sports culture and the possibility that Te'o had another reason for creating the story as a highly ranked NFL draft pick.

[Larkspur]

26. NO, unless thousands of dollars were involved

which I doubt

I think Te'o may have become addicted to social media and got punked.
Yeah, he could have been on the hoax, but not sure what it would get him. If he was over sensitive about being accused of being gay, I could buy that as motivation. But he didn't make money on it. It just ended up being another sports media "feel-good" storyline until it was exposed as a hoax. Whereas, Armstrong's scandal involved him with bike racing championships and records, which is worse than what Te'o did, but not as bad as what Joe Paterno and Penn State did.

[Kingofalldems]

27. Luckily for me I was totally unaware of the

whole thing until yesterday. Never heard of the guy.

[KamaAina]

20. Another possibility besides a crass publicity stunt

the Mormon Te'o did it to convince the religious bigots around him that he isn't gay.

h/t to sadbear: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018280821#post3

[ScreamingMeemie]

23. The "Johnny Football" fans around here have been throwing

homophobic insults at Te'o for the last year. (Here meaning football-insane Texas) It also underscores why ND, and Te'o's family, would endorse the story even after they knew it to be untrue.

I definitely think it's a sick commentary on the state of the sports culture if it were to be so.

I am waiting and seeing as things are rarely what they seem.

[KamaAina]

24. Don't even get me started on Aggie fans and homophobia

they routinely refer to Austin as "the land of steers and queers".

Homophobic taunting of a Notre Dame star is nothing new there, either. They did the same thing to Tim Brown before the Irish played the Aggies in a bowl game in the '80s.

Know any good Aggie jokes? Here's one: An Aggie met this gorgeous woman who fell passionately in love with him. She begged and pleaded with him, "Do it to me where it's dirty and nasty!"

So he drove her to Beaumont.

[sadbear]

25. I went to A&M in the mid-late 90's and I remember a TE getting into a little trouble...

for saying something pretty derogatory at a "pep rally" (don't remember if it was a midnight yell or bonfire or what). He said something to the effect that he's proud to go to a school where the men like women, and the women like men (referring to University of Texas). Everyone cheered.

[Larkspur]

28. If Te'o was in on the hoax, I could see this being his motivation, but

homophobia isn't just in Texas and football.

I learned from feminists at UCONN that the UCONN women's head coach is a homophobe and homophobia was practiced by most if not all the UCONN women's players. Geno is a Catholic from Italy and most likely has all the prejudices Old World Catholics have.

[KamaAina]

29. Ewwwwwwwwwww. I certainly hope that's not true.

I knew that former Penn State women's hoops coach Rene Portland is a vicious homophobe who said, in public, "I don't want any lesbians on my team", but I never heard that about Geno, much less any of the Husky players, and I'm from CT.

Geno came to this country when he was 7. I doubt that he had acquired any of "the prejudices Old World Catholics have", whatever those are (France, definitely Old World and Catholic, is moving closer to marriage equality, unlike most of New World, Protestant America).

[Larkspur]

30. I live in CT too and root for both ND and UCONN teams

Geno came when he was 7 but his parents also immigrated. Parents do influence their children.

My feminist contacts also said that Geno was still a bit of a chauvanist. He tried to get Swin Cash to drop her minor degree in women's studies because he didn't believe in it. She refused. He had no leverage since it was an accredited course, but he refused to list it in the women's basketball media guide.

While I don't like those stories, Geno has done a lot to promote women's basketball and prove to the world that women can play exciting and exacting basketball. Women may not be able to dunk but we do have other ways to bring excitement to the game.

[KamaAina]

31. How is that possible?

ND and UConn are bitter rivals in women's hoops. Lately, ND has pretty much owned us. That's like rooting for both the Yankees and the Sox!

[Larkspur]

32. I was born in Chicago, IL

and grew up on ND football and men's basketball.

However, I was also a girl who wanted to play basketball for my schools and am thankful for Title IX. It passed when I was in 7th grade. After it passed, my elementary school provided us with volleyball instead of basketball. I joined the team and eventually played volleyball and basketball in high school. I was a good basketball player, but not as talented a basketball player as the ND and UCONN kids of today.

Back in the early 1990's, a friend of mine used to give me tickets to the UCONN women's games that he didn't want to attend. Eventually, I bought my own set of season tickets through him. I watched in person the UCONN women's games rise from obscurity to national champions. While I'm an ND alumna, I also am a feminist and was glad to witness herstory in the making with the UCONN women's basketball program. I no longer purchase season tickets. They got too expensive and it became a 2 hour hassle to get out of the UCONN parking lots. So now I watched them as well as ND on TV.

After ND joined the Big East, I was glad to watch them. When they played UCONN, I liked both teams so it was hard to root against either, so I rooted for a good game. However, as UCONN piled up the wins against ND, I sided more with my alma mater so that she could make the series more of a rivalry. UCONN needed it as much as ND. It's boring watching UCONN beat teams by 40-60 points. In the first few years, ND used to get psyched out against UCONN, but I'm glad they are over it. Now, the series IS a rivalry.

When I root for teams in national tournaments, I usually root for my alma mater first, then my state of residence followed by my state/region of birth.

[rocktivity]

33. I think that when the smoke clears, what we're going to end up with is

Last edited Sat Jan 19, 2013, 01:29 AM - Edit history (1)

either a pathologically self-serving publicity stunt or a sadly miscalculated attempt at squelching homophobia.

Based on what I've learned so far, I don't see how Te'o could not have been involved. But since there's no direct evidence of his involvement, Notre Dame can protect their "franchise player" -- and by extension, their image -- with a clear conscience.


rocktivity

[Son of Gob]

34. I knew something was fishy when I first saw "her" picture.