As Te’o notes in the documentary, he was somehow deemed one of the three most hated athletes in America along with Tiger Woods, who was still dealing with a massive marital infidelity scandal, and Lance Armstrong, a doped-up cycling cheat. Te’o was now a liar and a self-promoter who thought he was smarter than everyone. Yet that bit of inaccurate real-time reporting doomed Te’o because it framed the story not as some comic tale of online love gone bad, but as an extensive plot to deceive the country for selfish gains. Going with “80 percent sure” or “believe” on such a serious character charge even more so. The website went on to cite “another relative of Ronaiah's” who “believe Te'o had to know the truth.”Ĭiting unnamed sources in a story about fake identities and an unnamed con artist was reckless. “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,” Deadspin wrote. His motivation, per Deadspin, was self-promotion. It came when the heavily read story implied Te’o was a participant in the scam, not the target. The most damaging part of the Deadspin story wasn’t the revelation that Kekua was fake. The only victim in the entire saga was Manti Te’o.Įxcept America didn’t see him as a victim. The only “scandal” was that the media, Yahoo Sports included, didn’t check for a death certificate on a feel-good story about a college football player. It’s just the person wasn’t the person he was told she was. It’s clear he did truly care for this person. After all, it’s hard to explain, especially back in 2012, how you could fall so hard for someone you never actually met, especially when ESPN cameras are pointed at you. Yet those were innocent and understandable fabrications. Other than that, he embellished some details of the relationship in media interviews, namely suggesting that he met Kekua in person when that was, obviously, impossible. He walked through endless red flags with Tuiasosopo and believed outrageous excuses. He has always, as the documentary shows, approached the world with wide eyes and a trusting heart. Then again, Te’o was an extremely naive, trusting and sheltered young man who spent most of his time focused on football and his faith. His mistake was falling for Tuiasosopo’s tricks. He lost his confidence, his swagger, even his interest in meeting and talking with people in public. He went from this celebrated football star who, by all accounts, handled himself in an exemplary manner - “the perfect Notre Dame football player,” Irish athletic director Jack Swarbrick still calls him - to a walking embarrassment that people pointed to, mocked and, especially within football, doubted. For Te’o though, it was a trauma that impacted his very existence. The school has defended him vocally all along.įor most, the Manti Te’o story was a good and silly laugh that faded into history. Moreover, private investigators hired by Notre Dame prior to the Deadspin report concluded Te'o was a victim of the hoax. He’s 31 now, married with a child, and a couple years removed from his last snaps in the NFL.Įven back when the story first came out, there were plenty of fellow Notre Dame students willing to support his contention of being straight - which alone describes how absurd and awful this got. There is no, and never was, any indication that Te’o is or was gay. Then-Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o faced ridicule and scrutiny from the media after the story broke about his girlfriend who didn't exist.
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