Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend

[dkfan9]

i'll pass on a deadspin article

whys that?

usually too much vitriol and sensationalism for me

[Mecca]

i'll pass on a deadspin article

whys that?

usually too much vitriol and sensationalism for me

they don't always have the best writers, but they show their work in this one.

[Green Habit]

From the interview with AD Jack Swarbrick:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/co ... full.story

And as part of the hoax, several meetings were set up where Lennay never showed, including some in Hawaii.

For this to be true, Manti has to be an idiot of epic proportions.

[verb_to_trust]

Notre Dame and manti are trying to claim he was duped, but it was an elaborate hoax he was in on. I linked the deadspin article in the cheaters thread. its a good read if you have time to check it out.

Ill have to do that tomorrow,.

Is this something that is gonna mess up his draft stock? Or just some embarrassment for him to have to deal with?

Eddie Lacey already messed up his draft stock.

[verb_to_trust]

From the interview with AD Jack Swarbrick:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/co ... full.story

And as part of the hoax, several meetings were set up where Lennay never showed, including some in Hawaii.

For this to be true, Manti has to be an idiot of epic proportions.

There is no way he was not in on this. The AD is in total spin control mode, he doesn't believe a word of what he is saying.

[verb_to_trust]

This is the same university that made no big deal of a student's allegations of rape and the death of the video guy at practice a few years ago............but private investigators are hired to look into Manti being 'duped' on the interwebs

[Mecca]

[MattA75]

[Green Habit]

A pretty brutal takedown on the sports media here:

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sp ... notre.html

[verb_to_trust]

http://media.photobucket.com/image/rece ... TA/teo.gif

[Green Habit]

WTF?

http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... ently-hoax

Swarbrick said Te'o never met Kekua in person. "What I will tell you, this was exclusively an online relationship."

Reagan Mauia, an Arizona Cardinals fullback, said he believes Kekua existed because he met her in person when he and other Polynesian teammates and Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu went to do charity work in American Samoa in June 2011.

"This was before her and Manti," Mauia said Wednesday evening. "I don't think Manti was even in the picture, but she and I became good friends. We would talk off and on, just checking up on each other kind of thing. I am close to her family. When she was going through the loss of her father, I was -- I offered a comforting shoulder and just someone to bounce her emotions off. That was just from meeting her in Samoa."

A tweet posted Wednesday night by @LennayKay, Kekua's assumed Twitter account, read: "It isn't fair to drag Reagan and Troy into this.. a lot of truths and myths need to be addressed here, and they will be at noon PST tomorrow."

Mauia said Tuiasosopo -- whom Mauia believes is Kekua's cousin -- introduced the two. After the initial meeting, Mauia said he met her at an "after-party" for all of the athletes involved in the camp.

"She was tall," he said. "Volleyball-type of physique. She was athletic, tall, beautiful. Long hair. Polynesian. She looked like a model ... "

He said it is his understanding that Kekua's mother is operating her Twitter account. He said he'd never met her mother. When told by a reporter that she apparently might not have existed, Mauia said: "No, she is real."

Te'o is training in preparation for the NFL draft at the IMG Institute in Bradenton, Fla. He is No. 8 on Mel Kiper's latest draft board.

[verb_to_trust]

Was this guy in on it too? This girl is definitely fake and everyone knows it, what exactly is he going on about?

[Chris_H_2]

Ms. Kekua is one of the sweetest women I've ever met. Please, respect her legacy and memory, and let Manti mourn in peace.

[dkfan9]

yeah that's the only article i've read on the story. i dont get this thing.

[i got bugs]

this is seriously one of the most ridiculous fucked up things i ever saw

either manti was a. in on the whole thing or b. the dumbest fuck ever to walk the planet or c. all of the above

i cant wait to read this unfold.. none of it makes any sense at all.. if anything, these internet pics are making me lose my shit

on the bright side, maybe the fins ll get a steal with him in the 3rd or 4th round

[i got bugs]

hes probably gay and she was his cover.. but then again that doesnt make sense.. why go ahead with the dramatic death

[Green Habit]

hes probably gay and she was his cover.. but then again that doesnt make sense.. why go ahead with the dramatic death

I was just about to post that I keep reading numerous conspiracy theorists commenting throughout the internet about the gay scenario. A Mormon football player going to a Catholic university...that would be one hell of a way to break a barrier!

[Green Habit]

http://articles.southbendtribune.com/20 ... head-coach

They just took this article down. Not cool, yo. I've copied and pasted the Google cache of it in the spoiler below.

Spoiler: show

What dreams may come
Te'o's, ND's destiny come full circle
October 12, 2012|By ERIC HANSEN - Follow me @hansenNDInsider | South Bend Tribune

SOUTH BEND -- It never felt like a chance meeting, although it probably appeared that way from the outside looking in.

Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te'o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes.

They could have just as easily brushed past each other and into separate sunsets. Te'o had plenty to preoccupy himself that November weekend in Palo Alto, Calif., back in 2009.

His Notre Dame football team hadn't won since Halloween, and a three-game losing streak, that included seismic home setbacks to Navy and Connecticut, was pushing Irish head coach Charlie Weis out the door after five seasons, albeit with a seven-figure financial settlement set to kick in.

Weis was the man who, in the recruiting process, promised Te'o's parents that he would take care of their son 4,400 miles away, that he would make sure he graduated and really nothing else, nothing that had anything to do with football anyway.

And once Te'o's 11th-hour shift away from USC and to Notre Dame took hold, Te'o's still-confusing leap of faith hinged upon every subsequent word that came from Weis.

The part that stung the most for the Laie, Hawaii, product was that there was nothing he could do in ND's upcoming clash with Stanford that could reverse the process. His only anchor was about to be set adrift.

There had been delusions by some observers, going into the '09 season, that the freshman linebacker would be so advanced, so transformational, so immune to growing pains and flat spots in the growth curve that he could help launch the Irish back into a cycle of national prominence.

Instead, it was a school with an even smaller recruiting pool and a less-decorated football tradition that prevailed, 45-38, in what turned out to be Weis' last game. That same school, Stanford, then proceeded to smack around the old stereotype of needing to compromise academic standards in order to climb up on college football's biggest postseason stages.

Te'o would start the game on the bench and finish it with a new career high in tackles, with 10.

This Saturday afternoon at Notre Dame Stadium, three years later and half a continent away, Stanford and the Irish meet again, this time with Notre Dame ascending and Te'o right in the middle of the uprising.

The Cardinal (4-1), ranked 17th, have won three straight in the series and have pushed around the Irish in the process. ND (5-0), which started the season unranked, has pushed itself into the cusp of the national title conversation.

For the first time this season and seventh time in Te'o's career, his parents, Brian and Ottilia, will be in the stands for the game -- along with the youngest of his five siblings, 6-year-old brother Manasseh.

"They're watching you and they're watching someone who they've given everything they have to live his dream," Te'o said earlier this week. "My dream is to help them in their dream, too. So, it's always exciting. It's going to be a special occasion to see them in the stands."

And Manti Te'o is convinced the beautiful stranger will be watching too Saturday, somehow.

Lennay Kekua was a Stanford student and Cardinal football fan when the two exchanged glances, handshakes and phone numbers that fateful weekend three seasons ago.

She was gifted in music, multi-lingual, had dreams grounded in reality and the talent to catch up to them.

The plan was for Kekua to spend extensive time with the whole Te'o family when upwards of 40 of them came to South Bend in mid-November for ND's Senior Day date with Wake Forest.

"They started out as just friends," Brian Te'o said. "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. But within the last year, they became a couple.

"And we came to the realization that she could be our daughter-in-law. Sadly, it won't happen now."

About the time Kekua and Manti became a couple, she was injured in an auto accident. There were complications during her recovery. And it was also during her recovery that it was discovered Kekua had leukemia.

"That was just in June," Brian Te'o said. "I remember Manti telling me later she was going to have a bone marrow transplant and, sure enough, that's exactly what happened. From all I knew, she was doing really, really well."

Kekua, who eventually graduated from Stanford, was, in fact, doing so well that she was released from the hospital on Sept. 10. And Brian Te'o was among those congratulating her via telephone.

Less than 48 hours later, at 4 a.m. Hawaii time, Kekua sent a text to Brian and Ottilia, expressing her condolences over the passing of Ottilia's mom, Annette Santiago, just hours before.

Brian awakened three hours later, saw the text, and sent one back. There was no response. A couple of hours later, Manti called his parents, his heart in pieces.

Lennay Kekua had died.

n a Newport Beach, Calif., hotel room last December, Brian Te'o pulled out the papers with the numbers Manti had asked him to compile, figuring it was only a formality in what seemed like an obvious decision to go pro a year early.

Manti and his parents had all flown to California for a banquet honoring the Lott Impact Award finalists, but at the top of the agenda was putting the finer points on how to break the news to ND head coach Brian Kelly and the rest of the college football world that Te'o's junior year at the school would indeed be his last.

Instead, it was Manti who had to break the news. In the days leading up to this moment, BrieAnne Te'o was among the voices whose words pervaded in Manti's thoughts.

The oldest of Manti's four sisters asked him point blank over the phone, "Wasn't it your dream to go to the NFL? Then go."

But as the words fermented and mixed with Manti's prayers, he came to what sounded like a chance decision, at least from the outside looking in.

"The NFL is my goal, not my dream," he told his parents. "My dream is to have an impact on people. I think I'm doing that, and I'm not finished yet."

Brian's and Ottilia's pride overran their tear ducts as the surprising decision sunk in.

"I never said it to Manti, but I did wonder, 'Man, what more can you do?' " Brian said. "And then on Sept. 22, I knew. We all knew."

That was the night of ND's clash with Michigan, the first home game after Santiago and Kekua had passed. In fact, Kekua's funeral was held in California earlier that morning.

Brian and Ottilia were back in Laie, watching the game on TV, and overwhelmed with emotion before the opening kickoff.

"They kind of panned out and took a wide view of the stadium," Brian said, "and all you could see from corner to corner on my television were these leis. They were twirling on people's fingers and I turned to my wife and I said, 'That's for your son.' "

Seemingly, the entire student section was adorned in them, band members, cheerleaders -- even the people who typically implore the ushers to ask people to sit down and shut up. On the couple's Facebook page, people took pictures of their kids in Manti's No. 5 jersey, wearing leis.

"From Texas, from California, from Utah, from London," Ottilia said.

"One guy had his children making a No. 5 with their bodies, laying down on the lawn with their leis on," Brian said. "I even got a picture from a Michigan fan. He was wearing his Michigan jersey, but he had a lei on. He said, 'I love Michigan, but I support your son.'

"And I go back to that night at the Lott Awards. I should have known. It shouldn't have been a surprise to me, that his intention was to just unite as many people under a single idea of family. I didn't think it would get to this level."

But Brian never doubted that Manti would choose to play through the tragedy in both the Michigan game and the road game at Michigan State game that preceded it.

"He said something that night in Newport Beach that kind of scared me, actually," Brian said. "He said 'Dad, whether I'm on crutches or in pads, I'm going to run out of the tunnel my last game, and it's then I'm going to be able to say to Notre Dame, I gave you everything. Wherever we land, that's where we'll be.' "

***

In the moments after the Michigan game, Ottilia sent Manti a text with a familiar message, "Thanks for choosing me as your mom."

"Our belief, as members of the church, is that before we came here to this Earth, that we got to choose our circumstance in life," Ottilia said. "And I'm just so grateful, as a parent, that when Manti was up there he chose Brian and I -- he chose us to be his parents. Definitely we had a lot of work to do. He was literally with us every step of the way."

Brian and Ottilia were 19 when they got married, and Manti came along shortly thereafter.

"We were young parents," Brian said, "and there was something about that kid that brought a sense of peace and order to what ordinarily would be a very chaotic young relationship.

"We went from teenagers to parents almost overnight. I told my wife that this kid is special. 'There's something about him that makes the world better.'

"When he was 2 or 3 we tried to explain to him, 'There's something special that you're supposed to do. We don't know what it is, but we're going to do everything we can do to help you find it.'"

Even if that sometimes meant letting him make his most profound decisions on his own -- to attend Notre Dame, not to take a two-year Mormon Mission weeks after Kelly succeeded Weis, to return for his senior year and to play through the grief and the pain.

All seemed rather disconnected at the time, but almost seem steeped in destiny now.

"We listen to his interviews on the Internet pretty regularly, and we kept hearing him talk recently about him making our dreams come true," Ottilia said. "I think, in his mind, he's thinking huge house, I can tell. But that's not what our dreams look like."

What they look like is the conversation between Kelly and Manti that Brian Te'o overheard on Skype just after the double tragedies hit him. "I was so worried about him," Brian said, "but what coach Kelly said made me know he was with family."

What they look like is Manti Te'o doing what he promised in that Newport Beach hotel room, making a difference every day.

"As my wife suggested, our dream is to watch our children live theirs," Brian said. "And right now I'd say we're right in the middle of that."

[Green Habit]

I don't know who this is, but if you look at his tweets dating back to December 4 you'll see some interesting info:

https://twitter.com/jayRahz

Pointed out by this guy on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/justinrmegahan ), with a couple other retweets suggesting that maybe Manti truly was duped. Alright, enough of this, I'll see what comes up on this in the morning.

[dkfan9]

I guess I never followed it closely enough in the first place to realize just how implausible all this is now.