Oh, as if my Notre Dame Fighting Irish haven’t suffered enough indignities due to their National Championship romp by the Crimson Tide, now a scandal has surfaced involving one of it’s most popular football players.
Manti Te’o, in case you don’t know, was the Irish star linebacker. A senior, he was nominated for the Heisman Trophy (he lost to Johnny Football) and no doubt coming off an undefeated season, was looking forward to all the NFL had to offer.
Then, the bruising at the championship. As if that weren’t enough, Te’o is now the center of a hoax scandal. Through this last season, Te’o apparently suffered many losses, which reportedly inspired his play. His beloved grandmother died on September 11th. That has been confirmed via Social Security Administration death records.
Less than 24 hours later, he reportedly lost his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, on September 12th. After a nearly fatal car crash, Kekua passed away from leukemia. The death, so some say, inspired Te’o to helping the Irish upset Michigan State and go on to an undefeated season. It was written about in many articles both online and in print.
Then, it all came crashing down. Deadspin reported that the whole thing was a hoax – that Kekua never existed.
Despite the fact that Te’o’s father said in interviews that Kekua visited Hawaii when Te’o was home, that he actually spoke to her on the phone, and realized that “she could be our daughter-in-law, no one can find any record of Kekua at all. No records at Stanford, where she reportedly went to school, no police report of her near fatal car accident, no hospital records of the woman who Te’o reportedly called each night just to listen to her breathe as she was losing her battle with cancer, and no SSA death record.
What made people believe she existed? A Twitter account for one. She posted online under the names of @LovaLovaloveyou, @LennayKay, and @LoveMSMK. However, the photo on her Twitter account belonged not to a Lennay Kay, but a woman in Torrance, Calif. who isn’t dead and has never met Te’o. Te’o himself posted about Kekau and her sister U’lani, who also doesn’t exist, although “she” too had a Twitter account that lamented the death of her sister.
How did all this go so wrong? It’s too much for one blog, so stay tuned tomorrow and as Paul Harvey used to say, I’ll tell you “the rest of the story.”