Has Manti Te’o been “catfish’d” or did he “catfish” us!?
‘Catfish’ is a new hit show on MTV where host Yaniv “Nev” Schulman brings together cyber lovers. Some cases are matches made in heaven, while other cases are built upon lies and fake profiles. It looks like Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o has a real episode on his hands.
Innocent until proven guilty, and this is an interesting case. Today, it was revealed that the “dead girlfriend” of Notre Dame linebacker, Manti Te’o, is not a dead girlfriend at all. Not only is she not dead, but the girl didn’t even exist! Here’s the background.
The Fighting Irish won every single game this year, making it to the Discover BCS National Championship, but losing towards Alabama (Roll Tide!). Manti Te’o played a major role in the teams winnings as their linebacker. Te’o was so good that he was on the ballot for the Heisman. Okay, so to the drama!
During the regular season of Notre Dame, Te’o lost his grandmother. Six hours after losing his grandmother, he then lost his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, to the fight of leukemia. After the loss of what were important women in his life, Manti Te’o played phenomenally in the following games. He even stated that Kekua told him not to miss a game if she did pass away. Now because Notre Dame had an undefeated season, this story of loss became inspiration. So much inspiration it was highlighted on all major networks.
So now you’re probably wondering what the big deal is. His grandmother, and girlfriend died…He had a good season after his losses. Well, the big deal is that girlfriend Lennay Kekua, did not exist! There was no record that indicated, that a person of that name died of leukemia, or anything else for that matter. Te’o’s parents informed his football coaches, that he was involved in an hoax. Someone made up Lennay Kekua, and led Manti Te’o that they were real and died from leukemia. (This story is completely wild).
Manti Te’o’s story was found out to be fake by DeadSpin.com. They report that Lennay Kekua was made up by Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, a friend of Te’o’s and a pastor at a church in Palmdale, Calif. One of the authors from the site is eager to prove whether Te’o knew about the hoax or not. Authorities are also on this case of deception.
Here is the statement Manti Te’o gave Courtesy of ESPN :
“This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her.
“To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating.
“It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother’s death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life.
“I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been.
“In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was.
“Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I’m looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft.”
WOW!!
With the story just breaking today, it is still developing. But with the information so far, it can only get more interesting! Peep the photo below. Courtesy of Google getty:
-Juju
#NOstoplights
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