Manti Te'o's inspirational girlfriend story a hoax

From:<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/">http://www.usatoday.com</a><br /><br /><div class="asset-metabar-wrap" style="clear: both; margin: 20px 0px 23px 70px;"><div class="asset-metabar" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); display: table-cell; margin: 20px 0px 0px; width: 888px;"><span class="asset-metabar-author asset-metabar-item" itemprop="name" style="float: left; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 10px; position: relative;">Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports</span><span class="asset-metabar-time asset-metabar-item " style="border-left-color: rgb(225, 225, 225); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; color: #999999; float: left; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 10px; position: relative;">6:44p.m. EST January 16, 2013</span></div></div><div class="double-wide" itemprop="articleBody" role="main" style="float: left; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative; width: 600px;"><div class="article-metadata-wrap" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; float: left; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 30px 0px 60px; position: relative;"><aside class="single-photo expandable-collapsed" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 20px; position: relative; width: 180px; z-index: 100;"><div class="image-wrap" style="box-shadow: rgb(200, 200, 200) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; padding: 3px; position: relative;"><img alt="2013-01-16-notre-dame-manti-teo" class="expand-img-horiz" itemprop="url" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/01/16/2013-01-16-notre-dame-manti-teo-4_3_r536_c534.jpg?1b79b3da202957124496e3768cfb7b67cdb10c81" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 131px; vertical-align: middle;" /><span class="toggle" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/sprites/asset-sprite.png); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; bottom: 0px; height: 21px; position: absolute; right: 0px; width: 21px; z-index: 200;"></span></div><div class="image-credit-wrap" style="color: #666666; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 6px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px;"><span class="credit" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: 400;">(Photo: Matt Cashore, USA TODAY Sports)</span></div></aside><div class="article-metadata" style="position: relative;"><aside class="comp story-highlights " style="clear: left; float: left; margin: 0px 0px 20px; min-height: 60px; width: 180px;"><h3 style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #999999; font-family: 'Futura Today Bold', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px auto; text-transform: uppercase;">STORY HIGHLIGHTS</h3><ul style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; left: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><li style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #999999; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Deadspin.com reports that Manti Te'o's inspirational girlfriend story was a hoax</li><li style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #999999; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Teo's girlfriend Lennay Kekua was reportedly a student at Stanford</li><li style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #999999; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Deadspin writes that Stanford has no record of anyone by that name attending the university</li></ul></aside></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">To tell the story of Manti Te'o, Notre Dame's star linebacker, one must discuss his inspirational play in this September's win over Michigan State. Just days after the death of his grandmother and his girlfriend, Te'o racked up 12 tackles and recovered a fumble in a 20-3 victory over the Spartans. The following Saturday, after Lennay Kekua's funeral, Te'o made two interceptions in a 13-6 victory over Michigan.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><b>BCS TITLE: </b><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/01/07/bcs-championship-notre-dame-teo-falters/1814439/" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/01/07/bcs-championship-notre-dame-teo-falters/1814439/">Te'o unimpressive on national stage</a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><b>EARLIER: </b><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2012/12/09/notre-dame-manti-teo-lott-trophy/1757833/" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2012/12/09/notre-dame-manti-teo-lott-trophy/1757833/">Te'o wins Lott Trophy</a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">In articles in <i>Sports Illustrated</i> and the <i>South Bend Tribune</i> and in interviews on ESPN, Te'o would recount how his girlfriend, Kekua, requested that he send white flowers to her funeral. Te'o said that the last words he shared with Kekua were "I love you."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"They were with me," Te'o said after Notre Dame's win over Michigan State in an on-field interview with ABC's Heather Cox. "I couldn't do without the support of my family and my girlfriend's family. I'm so grateful for all the love and support that all the fans, both Michigan State and Notre Dame, and fans around the world for supporting me and my family and my girlfriend's family. I miss them. I miss them. But I know that I'll see them again one day."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">It was a beautiful story, one that publicized Te'o's off-field back story in time to heat up his Heisman Trophy campaign. The story grew over the next three months, including a three-minute piece on <i>CBS This Morning</i> on the day of the BCS championship game on Jan. 7.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">The story was also entirely false, according to <a href="http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-the-most-heartbreaking-and-inspirational-story-of-the-college-football-season-is-a-hoax" style="color: #1990e5; text-decoration: none;" title="http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-the-most-heartbreaking-and-inspirational-story-of-the-college-football-season-is-a-hoax">an article by <i>Deadspin.com</i></a>. According to <i>Deadspin</i>, not only did Te'o's girlfriend not die in the days leading up the Michigan State game, she didn't exist at all.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">In what <i>Deadspin</i> is describing as an elaborate hoax, Kekua was an online persona created by Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, a friend of Te'o's and a pastor at a church in Palmdale, Calif. Says the <i>Deadspin</i> article:</div><blockquote style="background-color: white; border-left-color: rgb(201, 201, 201); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; color: #797979; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; overflow: auto; padding-left: 20px;">"We spoke with friends and relatives of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo who asserted that Ronaiah was the man behind Lennay. He created Lennay in 2008, one source said, and Te'o wasn't the first person to have an online 'relationship' with her. One mark – who had been 'introduced' to Lennay by Tuiasosopo – lasted about a month before family members grew suspicious that Lennay could never be found on the telephone, and that wherever one expected Lennay to be, Ronaiah was there instead. Two sources discounted Ronaiah's stunt as a prank that only metastasized because of Te'o's rise to national celebrity this past season."</blockquote><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"We know it's a hoax... The only question out there is exactly what Manti knew about it," Timothy Burke, one of the authors of the piece on <i>Deadspin</i>, said during an appearance Wednesday on CBS Radio.</div><aside class="wide single-photo" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #222222; float: none; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 60px; margin-top: 25px; width: auto;"><img alt="None" itemprop="url" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/gameon/2013/01/08/usp-ncaa-football_-bcs-national-championship-alaba_003-4_3_r541_c540.jpg?729ef1a5e3c69f5da0197e57e2bd3dd3fdfcd35f" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="540" /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 6px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px;">If Notre Dame wants to make another BCS run in 2013 it will need to so without All-American linebacker Manti Te'o.<span class="credit" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: 400;">(Photo: Matt Cashore, USA TODAY Sports)</span></div></aside><div class="clearfix" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">In a statement published on ESPN.com, Te'o called himself a "victim" of "someone's sick joke." CAA, which represents Te'o, said the statement did not come from them.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"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," Te'o said. "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.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating.<br />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.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"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.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"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."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">In a university statement, Notre Dame said that the coaching staff was first informed on Dec. 26 of what the university calls a "sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te'o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia," read the statement.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><i>Deadspin</i> traces back the first national mention of Kekua to an article in the Nov. 28, 2009 edition of the <i>South Bend Tribune</i>, which said that the two met after Stanford's 45-38 victory over the Irish. Kekua was reportedly a student at Stanford; <i>Deadspin</i>writes that Stanford has no record of anyone by that name attending the university.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">The article quotes a friend of Tuiasosopo's as saying he was "80 percent sure" that Te'o was "in on it," and that "the two perpetrated Lennay Kekua's death with publicity in mind."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"Mostly, though," the articles continues, "the friend simply couldn't believe that Te'o would be stupid enough – or Ronaiah Tuiasosopo clever enough – to sustain the relationship for nearly a year."</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><b>PHOTOS: MANTI TE'O'S CAREER HIGHLIGHTS</b></div><div class="mod galleries clearfix hasendslate hover" data-cst="sports/football/college" data-gal-pageurl="http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/sports/ncaaf/2012/12/06/manti-teo/1751183/" data-gallery-id="1751183" data-seo-title="manti-teo" data-ssts="sports/ncaaf" data-title="Manti Te'o:Manti Te'o" data-topic="sports,sports_ncaaf" style="background-color: #fafafa; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(242, 242, 242); clear: both; color: #222222; float: left; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; height: auto; line-height: 22px; margin: 10px 0px 20px 60px; position: relative; width: 538px;"><img alt="None" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/01/16/2013-01-16-notre-dame-teo-3-4_3_rx512_c680x510.jpg?0f5c31de35bf4ef88a50c2e35ee3bc4da4bf3083" /><img alt="None" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/01/16/2013-01-16-notre-dame-teo-4-4_3_rx512_c680x510.jpg?0f5c31de35bf4ef88a50c2e35ee3bc4da4bf3083" /><img alt="None" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2012/10/07/usp-ncaa-football_-miami-at-notre-dame-4_3_rx512_c680x510.jpg?0f5c31de35bf4ef88a50c2e35ee3bc4da4bf3083" /><div class="viewport hover" style="display: table; height: 390px; margin-bottom: 90px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 538px; z-index: 0;"></div></div></div>

Manti Te'o's inspirational girlfriend story a hoax

From: http://www.usatoday.com Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports 6:44p.m. EST January 16, 2013 (Photo: Matt Cashore, USA TODAY Sports) STORY HI...

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