A Lot Of Malarkey: A Manti Te'o News Roundup

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Jan 17, 2013 10:00PM

Everybody has questions for Manti Te'o in the fallout from the Deadspin investigation that proved the story of his online girlfriend who died from Leukemia was nothing but a hoax. So, Te'o, what did you know? When did you know it? How many fake girlfriend jokes can we make citing "She goes to school in Canada" before we have to resort to George Glass jokes? Have you ever seen the documentary Catfish? Here are just a few of the updates coming down the wire today.

• Deadspin has a more succinct summary of the many things the media skipped over when failing to do research on Te'o's girlfriend.


• A Sports Illustrated reporter explains how he went about reporting the story of Lennay Kekua's death in September, saying he went back through six hours of interviews conducted at the time. He transcribed his full interview with Te'o, in which the player described their relationship in specific detail, including how they had met in person. The reporter says, "in retrospect there were some red flags."


• We thought the one thing we all knew for sure was that Te'o's girlfriend didn't exist, but then Arizona Cardinals player Reagan Mauia said he and Pittsburgh Steelers player Troy Polamalu met Kekua in person in June 2011, and he says she's a real person.


• Whether he was a victim or a willful accomplice of the hoax, this ordeal is probably going to cost him millions of dollars. Forbes reports Te'o's stock in the 2013 NFL draft is rapidly dropping. If Te'o falls out of the top 10 in the draft, it could mean an average loss of $4 million.


• If Te'o wants people to believe that he wasn't promoting a story he knew to be a hoax, here are nine holes in his storyline that he needs to address.


• The Te'o family and Notre Dame officials say they knew in December that Kekua was fake, and they say they planned to make a statement next week, but Deadspin beat them to it. Between the time Te'o told Notre Dame officials about the Kekua hoax and the team being trounced by Alabama, Te'o was asked about the deaths of his girlfriend and grandmother. He didn't deny the girlfriend's existence as he said, “I think whenever you’re in football, it takes your mind off a lot of things,” he said, not mentioning the girlfriend.


• Either Te'o is confused on the dates, or he was lying when he spoke about his "girlfriend" on Dec. 8 and Dec. 9, via Buzzfeed. Te'o apparently knew about the hoax before this time.


• Remember the story of Lizzy Seeberg? In 2010, Seeberg committed suicide after she experienced harassment from Notre Dame football players after she reported her sexual assault by a Notre Dame football player. As New York Magazine puts it, "Notre Dame Finds Fake Dead Woman Easier to Talk About Than Real Dead Woman."


• The father of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the alleged "mastermind" behind the hoax, is a pastor in southern California, and he posted a reaction to the news on Facebook.

My statement: This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but I have been told by Alabama's offense that Manti Te'o is not real.

— L K (@LennayKay) January 17, 2013