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NFL hopes dashed? Where the Manti Te'o hoax stops, starts is still a mystery

BY Alyssa Kleven  on January 17, 2013 @ 1:12 pm (Updated: 10:48 am - 1/25/13 )

AP: 1735cd57-5dbc-46ea-82b9-f9c746a4eb95
In this Sept. 15, 2012 photo, Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o points to the sky as he leaves the field after a 20-3 win against Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich. In a shocking announcement, Notre Dame said Te'o was duped into an online relationship with a woman whose "death" from leukemia was faked by perpetrators of an elaborate hoax. (AP Photo/South Bend Tribune, James Brosher)
It's all some kind of hoax, and we're not sure where it ends and where it begins. We don't fully know Manti Te'o's involvement, but now we do know that his girlfriend that died of Leukemia never existed. The list of theories about what happened and what will become of his potential NFL career are growing.

Deadspin broke the story Wednesday afternoon. The Notre Dame linebacker, who came in second in the voting for the Heisman, had a tale of grief and triumph told to a variety to ESPN, Sports Illustrated and the South Bend Tribute, that was eventually picked up by other new outlets, and was generally agreed to be a touching story of love now-lost.

But it wouldn't end there.

"We hold the mainstream sports media accountable, that's what we do here at Deadspin," Jack Dickey one of the reporters behind the college sports expose, told the Andrew Walsh Show.

Te'o was on the cover of ESPN, telling the story of how his grandmother and girlfriend tragically died just hours apart. While Te'o's grandmother did pass away, there has never been a record of his girlfriend Lennay Kekua. No birth record, no record that she went to Stanford (where the two allegedly met after a football game,) no record of the car accident she had months before she died, and no record of her death.

Dickey said Deadspin got a tip on Friday, and from there they tracked down the Twitter avatar in Kekua's photo, which led them to her high school classmate - the actor believed to be Kekua, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.

Tuiasosopo is a part of a large football family, including a couple local connections. Manu Tuiasosopo, "a cousin from an older generation," went to Seattle in the first day of the 1979 draft. Manu's son, Marques, played for Washington before getting drafted by Oakland in 2001.

Tuiasosopo and Te'o knew each other, so amidst the tales of love, and love lost told by Te'o, his father, and then replayed on shows like "CBS This Morning," these two men knew each other.

Now that the dust is settling, we don't know for sure that Manti Te'o knew he was being "catfished." There is evidence Kekua was an online persona that tried to romance other men, including another football player.

Some speculation has included that the heart wrenching tale was a part of his Heisman campaign.

"This is really new territory," NPR and Slate sports correspondent Mike Pesca told The Luke Burbank Show. He said that since the story was published, both Notre Dame and ESPN came forward to say they had already discovered it was a hoax.

Notre Dame had a private investigator look into the situation, and feel that up until just recently, Manti Te'o had been tricked - the whole way through. They say that they will not release the details of their investigation.

Meanwhile, ESPN had received tips similar to Deadspin, but weren't ready to publish the story yet.

There is a gullibility factor, said Pesca. "There are just too many different points at which someone would have figured that out."

Pesca said he's surprised no one looked into the background Kekua before publishing an article on Te'o. He said that sometimes in journalism, reporters will take someone off the wire without fact checking it, which he says makes sense if you're casually repeating the story, or trying to convey the gist of an entire conversation.

"It's that ESPN did a full sit down interview with him," he said. "They still employ fact checkers."

In the article that sparked much of the wide-spread untruths about Kekua, it wasn't Te'o speaking to a reporter, it was his father.

"His father talks about them physically meeting, their eyes meeting, them holding hands, and things like that, and this article was written in October," said Pesca. "So I'm just kind of wondering why Brian Te'o (Manti's father) would be saying this stuff. Maybe Manti told him, maybe he was fleshing out or embellishing the truth to tell the journalist a good story."

Regardless of how much of the truth Manti Te'o knew, or if someone had kept the wool over his eyes the whole time - Pesca doesn't think it would hurt his chances of playing in the NFL.

"Fifteen percent of NFL players lose all their money," said Pesca. "So being gullible does not disqualify his career in the NFL."

Alyssa Kleven, MyNorthwest.com Editor
Alyssa Kleven is an editor and content producer at MyNorthwest.com. She enjoys doting over her adorable dachshund Winnie - named for Arcade Fire front-man Win Butler.
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Comments (15)


  • Add A Comment

  • kato1967 wrote...
    Seriously...
    January 17, 2013 1:08 pm
    ...who cares?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • dori monson fan wrote...
    nfl hopes dashed? I doubt it.
    January 17, 2013 1:34 pm
    if jerramy (sp? ) stevens can drug and assrape sorority girls in the shrubs while stealing their panties and still get an nfl gig I think te'o making up a pretend girlfriend to cover up his homosexuality won't throw the draft into a tailspin.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    kato1967 -
    January 17, 2013 3:00 pm
    you opened a can of worms!!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Snout wrote...
    Not the only dude from Hawaii
    January 17, 2013 5:20 pm
    to massage the facts about his life's story.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • dori monson fan wrote...
    worms, catfish and flounder?
    January 17, 2013 5:56 pm
    what does all this fishing stuff have to do with football?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Forrest wrote...
    What's the difference between his imaginary girlfriend and
    January 17, 2013 7:28 pm
    God or Jesus?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • William Lawn wrote...
    Forrest
    January 17, 2013 8:10 pm
    Flounder
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Snout wrote...
    Answer
    January 17, 2013 8:37 pm
    You won't have to answer to his imaginary girlfriend when your card gets punched.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Forrest wrote...
    "I'm not afraid of any god in the universe that would send me or another man or woman to hell".
    January 17, 2013 8:51 pm
    "If there were such a being, he would not be God, he would be the devil". What of the indigenous people of the Amazon who have never heard of Jesus? What of the Chinese or North Korean child who has never heard of Jesus? How could a God condemn a small child to eternal damnation because they have never heard of Him or Jesus? I wouldn't call someone who could condemn a child to eternal damnation a God, I would call him a cranky conservative republican.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Forrest wrote...
    Make that a Kranky Konservative Khristian republican.
    January 17, 2013 8:57 pm
    KKKr
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • uralnutjobs wrote...
    gov. wallace's democratic south right?
    January 21, 2013 9:20 am
    forest get your timelines in order...republicans at the time were a little more liberal than you think
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Snout wrote...
    Someone gave you a bum steer.
    January 17, 2013 11:08 pm
    Those people who have never heard or known are not going to hell because of ignorance. Just those that reject Him. I'm not a preacher, but it would seem that if Heaven was a place that was easy to get into then we'd all make it. Since you are aware then you should consider your choices and spend some time on the issue. I'm convinced I'm right about this. Are you?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Forrest wrote...
    Snout
    January 18, 2013 4:53 am
    What about all the Hindu, Muslim and Jewish children (and men and women). They know about Jesus and choose a different belief. Are they all damned?

    You think about this. If all science and all religions were to vanish from the earth, thousands of years from now, all religions would be different and all science (and scientific facts) would be the same.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    Below is a picture of my gorgeous girl friend.
    January 18, 2013 2:16 am
    :}
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • AM Jacker wrote...
    lol @ "god"
    January 18, 2013 10:34 am
    it would be funny if it was not so sad. That's not what this story is about though right? Is the guy a shifty liar or an very very dumb person?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }