Photo (c) Gary A Vasquez, USA Today Sports
Like most red blooded Americans, I loathe Notre Dame football with a fire that burns with the heat of a thousand suns.
But, ya know, the whole Manti-Te’o’s-girlfriend-and-grandmother-dying-within-24-hours thing really tugged at my heartstrings.
I do have those. Heartstrings. Metal ones. Man heartstrings.
It was inspiring, his performance in the wake of such earth shattering tragedy.
So what if Jadeveon Clowney was technically better? Who died in his midst?
Inevitably, Te’o’s play and his sad, sad story (and the fact that he went to Notre Dame) lead to the start and subsequent heating up of his Heisman campaign.
In the immediate aftermath he put together epic games against Michigan State and Michigan.
He sent white flowers to his girlfriends funeral.
He had sat on the phone with her for hours at night as she struggled with leukemia treatment before her death.
It injected an almost surreal humanity to the game.
Who wasn’t moved? In a certain sense I was in his corner.
Not in the Heisman sense.
Or in the National Championship sense.
But in a certain sense, we shared a corner.
And then Deadspin drops this Irish car bomb: Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax
Holy hell.
This is the absolute must read sports article of the year (or at least of the day or month). Mind blowing.
As I read the exhaustive report everything began moving back towards the old loathsome status quo.
The warm glow of hate for the Fighting Irish slowly soldered my confused heartstrings.
And it was good.
Here’s a taste of the awesome:
‘There was no Lennay Kekua. Lennay Kekua did not meet Manti Te’o after the Stanford game in 2009. Lennay Kekua did not attend Stanford. Lennay Kekua never visited Manti Te’o in Hawaii. Lennay Kekua was not in a car accident. Lennay Kekua did not talk to Manti Te’o every night on the telephone. She was not diagnosed with cancer, did not spend time in the hospital, did not engage in a lengthy battle with leukemia. She never had a bone marrow transplant. She was not released from the hospital on Sept. 10, nor did Brian Te’o congratulate her for this over the telephone. She did not insist that Manti Te’o play in the Michigan State or Michigan games, and did not request he send white flowers to her funeral. Her favorite color was not white. Her brother, Koa, did not inform Manti Te’o that she was dead. Koa did not exist. Her funeral did not take place in Carson, Calif., and her casket was not closed at 9 a.m. exactly. She was not laid to rest.
Te’o’s statement on the matter;
“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.”
While Te’o plays the victim card in his response, Deadspin ultimately suggests that he was likely in on the hoax, ‘the sheer quantity of falsehoods about Manti’s relationship with Lennay makes that friend, and another relative of Ronaiah’s, believe Te’o had to know the truth.
‘Mostly, though, 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.’
At the very least, we can safely call Te’o a moron and at the end of the day, I’m cool with that.
[update]
Be sure to check out this brilliant Taiwanese animation about the Te’o hoax. It will have you LOLing.
Read the full article at Deadspin