Manti Te'o and Catfish

Wow!!! Deadspin broke a story that Manti Te'o's "girlfriend", who died from leukemia the same week his grandmother passed, never existed.

Many felt that the story was created to boost his Heisman prospects. But could it be that Te'o carried on an Internet relationship with a woman he never met? Maybe Te'o was a Catfish victim?



I listened to the Dan Lebatard show this afternoon when the story broke. My chin dropped...and hit the floor. I heard about Manti Te'o and his girlfriend not too long ago, as I didn't follow college football much this season. As a matter of fact, I looked it up during the Bronco Nagurski Award's ceremony.



I remember looking for pictures of them together online and could not find any. I thought it was a little weird, but just brushed it aside. Now I have to ask...was Manti lying or was he Catfished?

I will tell you why I believe he was Catfished... Manti's relationship allegedly began online... It would be somewhat embarrassing for him to tell people that it continued online and never went offline. Remember he is a devout Mormon and having a girlfriend on campus would bring about temptations he probably could not handle. So developing a relationship with some very devout girl online was more comfortable for him.

He probably told people he met her, knowing he never did, so that the relationship would seem less weird. If you've watched Catfish on MTv before you see this pattern play out repeatedly. Who would be cool with their friend having a strictly online relationship with someone? 

His parents probably spoke to the girl over the phone, who was playing the role of Lennay Kekua. I believe it is very possible that he had this online relationship and fell for this fake girl. He probably spent a lot of time online emailing, tweeting, and talking on the phone with the girl. 

People fall in love online for a myriad of reasons. Even though Te'o was a superstar football player...he also had to deal with his religious beliefs. Those beliefs would in many ways prohibit him from partaking in the usual college activities of dating, sexing, drinking, partying, etc. Maybe he's never had a girlfriend. 

Shoot, I went to college with football players who were virgins. Yes. VIRGINS... Very devout guys. Very religious. People always assume that this is impossible. But it happens. Everyone does not fit into society's view of what they should be. 

Now..it could be that he is a fraud. I don't know. But I can see how the Catfish theory could be plausible. 
Dan Lebatard took this to an asinine level by questioning the young man's sexuality. I think that is a reach. It could easily be that he's socially awkward or extremely introverted. You just don't know. 

From Deadspin:

And there was something else: Tuiasosopo had been in a car accident a month before Lennay's supposed accident.
Was this Lennay Kekua? 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.

But as this story unfolds...it is likely to become more confusing... There is a press conference going on right now. 

UPDATE:

According to this press conference with Notre Dame's AD: Manti received a phone call on December 26th from the number he recognized as Lennay's. A person on the other end with her voice said she was not dead. (She had allegedly died on September 11, 2012...or sometime around there...). 

He contacted the athletic department at Notre Dame and on December 27th the school initiated an investigation. They received a report on January 4th, identifying the perpetrators. 

It is looking more and more and more like Te'o was duped....

AD was asked why they did not come forward with the story before the media got a hold of it... He said one reason was that they didn't know a lot and were waiting on the info... then when the investigation came about they had to figure out what they were to do about it. 

He did not know whether or not this was an extortion attempt, an attempt to cause an NCAA violation, or what...

Te'o is supposed to speak tomorrow. But you will never get a solid answer on whether Te'o was hoaxed or the hoaxer...

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