Te'o's "long-time" girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, never died, never went to Stanford, and, in fact, never existed. This is by far the cruelest deception someone has played on an American public so willing to discover a feel-good story and a newer hero.
While there is more to come on this story, Te'o, and the university, are in scrambling mode trying to paint Te'o as a victim of online pranksters. Notre Dame and Te'o want us to believe that he is dumb enough to fall for a woman's fake profile picture, and that he was okay with never meeting this woman face-to-face or even meeting her on an online video conversation via Skype. Are Te'o and Notre Dame this naive to think the public will believe them now?
The facts that came out of the Deadspin article and, subsequently, even more investigation by other media outlets, are starting to stack up against the linebacker.
Facts: The South Bend Tribune reported that Te'o met Lennay Kekua in 2009 during a Stanford - Notre Dame football game, a story the Tribune learned about from Te'o's father. "They started out as just friends," Te'o's father, Brian, told the Tribune in October 2012. "Every once in a while, she would travel to Hawaii, and that happened to be the time Manti was home, so he would meet with her there" (Deadspin).
However the Deadspin article reveals that Te'o didn't meet her until 2011 via Twitter. Other stories have also poured out that Te'o would talk to Stanford players about his girlfriend, asking them if they knew her.
Te'o spent countless amounts of time telling just about every media outlet from NBC, which broadcast Notre Dame games, to ESPN to Sports Illustrated that Kekua was the love of his life and that he was tragically hurt by her death. He even told ESPN that he was in contact with her parents and described in detail how she had died of leukemia.
He told SI that he had phone conversations with her overnight while she was in the hospital recovering, and once she was released, Te'o's father sent his congratulations to her via cell phone.
What is even more bizarre is the fact that Te'o never attended her funeral, supposedly on September 22, instead he played in the Irish victory over Michigan that afternoon. "All she wanted was some white roses. So I sent her roses and sent her two picks along with that," Teo is quoted as saying in the Notre Dame locker room.
Amid these numerous fibs, word came from that Deadspin article that Te'o is buddy-buddy with another young Hawaiian prospect, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, and questions about whether these two concocted this whole story is running rampant. One woman questioned by Deadspin, who knows both men, said there is an 80 percent chance Te'o was "in on it."
"Manti and Ronaiah are family," she said, "or at least family friends." She told us that the Tuiasosopos had been on-field guests of Te'o, or someone else she didn't know, for the Nov. 24 Notre Dame-USC game in Los Angeles. USC was unable to confirm this, but a tweet from Tuiasosopo's since-deleted account suggests he and Te'o did see each other on that West Coast trip. "Great night with my bro @MTeo_5! #Heisman #574L," Ronaiah tweeted on Nov. 23, the night before the game.
And there was something else: Tuiasosopo had been in a car accident a month before Lennay's supposed accident." (Deadspin).
If Te'o and Tuiasospo did make up Lennay Kekua as a way to garner more publicity for Te'o and to move him into the spotlight as a member of the nation's most prestigious football team, it would not be a shock, not in a world dominated by cheaters and liars. Just look at Barry Bonds, Rogers Clemens and Lance Armstrong. They fooled America into believing that their records and awards were all real, but, in fact, they were tainted by rampant steroid use.
While there are no steroids in this case, the goal of Te'o and company (if he is indeed involved) was the same -- fame! The real story is the decay of the American perspective. The American people, time and again, have proven to be the most gullible people on earth. We look for the fuzzy-wuzzy/rags-to-riches stories as examples of everything that is good in America; the narrative line is that the United States is a nation built on overcoming adversity in trying times.
Why wouldn't people want to believe Te'o's story? And why wouldn't someone like Te'o not tap into that mythology to take advantage of America's naivete? Lights, camera, action! Lifestyles of the rich and the famous! They are all attractive to anybody looking for attention.
Regardless, with more facts coming out on this elaborate prevarication, I find it hard to believe that a super star athlete from Notre Dame, who was on pace to get drafted in the first round of the NFL draft is this insecure and naive to get duped by a bunch of online punks. If you believe this, then you believe that Te'o was fooled so badly, and trusted his deceivers so much that he was willing to stick his neck out and talk about her publicly without ever seeing her. It doesn't even make sense.
The real "victim" of this story is the American public. This story is another sad example of how this country is chock full of people who are more interested in believing any feel-good storyline on a grab for popularity and fame. It's just not the case. Once again, America has been sold a pig in a poke. When, at long last, will it be time to get real?
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