This Manti Te'o fake girlfriend story is the most interesting sports story, if not news story, in a LONG time. For those outside the U.S. who may not know the story (it is front-page news here), here is a thumbnail:
The star player of Notre Dame's football team was linebacker Manti Te'o. He supposedly had a girlfriend named Lennay Kekua who died in September, on the same day his grandmother died. It was a touching and, ultimately, inspirational story that got him tremendous publicity and, were it not for a ridiculously spectacular game by a quarterback named Johnny Manziel against the best team in the country, Te'o would likely have won the prestigious Heisman Trophy as the best collegiate football player in the country.
The story broke yesterday that Ms. Kekua never existed, and that Te'o now claimed to have been the victim of a hoax. He'd supposedly been "catfished" -- a term of which I'd never heard before, but apparently these hoaxes are not uncommon -- as he had only known her online and had been misled for over two years regarding her identity. The pictures he'd seen were supposedly of another girl, and there is no record of a girl named Lennay Kekua ever existing, let alone dying. He never met her in person, he claims. Now, such online-only romantic relationships do exist, but they usually don't involve well-known stud athletes. And, even though some members of this forum have gotten together in person, this guy
never laid eyes on the woman he described as the "love of his life." Not once. Not even after she was supposedly in a serious car accident, not even after she was diagnosed with leukemia, not even when she was terminal and dying. He never saw her. Even after she died, he did not go to the funeral; he only sent flowers. They never even video chatted.
Sounds fishy, right? He's obviously part of the hoax and did it to give himself publicity, right? Except, the university administrator in charge of the athletics program said in a press conference that the university investigated it and confirmed that, in their view, he really was the victim of the hoax, and that his relationship with her was "exclusively online." The administrator actually broke down and cried in expressing sympathy for Te'o. Hm.
But here's the really, REALLY strange part: Shortly after the news of the hoax broke, another football player, Reagan Mauia, who plays fullback on the professional Arizona Cardinals football club, said that Lennay Kekua DOES exist. (?!) He met her a few years ago before she was involved with Te'o, when they both were doing charitable work in American Samoa. She's apparently tall, athletic, and beautiful, with very long hair. He's spoken with her family, and comforted her when her dad died. When told that Te'o is now claiming she never existed, he responded: "No, she is real." And, Te'o's father was quoted in a news article in October as saying that Te'o had met Ms. Kekua, who he said was a Stanford student (she was not), at the Notre Dame-Stanford football game in 2009 (which Stanford won, btw
). He also said that she had traveled to Hawaii to hang out with Te'o a few times, and that he had met her personally. Hmmmmmmmm.
And, as of now, that's all we know. Fiction is stranger than truth is stranger than fiction.
