It was indeed a gripping interest story of determination. Opinion: Te’o tale a mirror to our gullibility? “I miss ‘em, but I know that I’ll see them again one day,” he told ESPN. He led his team to a 20-3 routing of Michigan State after he heard the news. The twin losses inspired him to honor them with sterling play on the field, Te’o said. Last September and October, Te’o told interviewers the losses of the women, who reportedly died within hours of each other, inspired him to honor them with sterling play on the field. He led the Fighting Irish, amassing double-digit tackle games and becoming the face of one of the best defenses in the nation. The story of the girlfriend came to light in September as Notre Dame continued its improbable undefeated season, and Te’o, a relentless tackler, was beginning to emerge as a front-runner for the prestigous Heisman Trophy. But at the end of the day, we need to hear from Manti Te’o.”ĭoubters wonder if Heisman Trophy a factor in hoax “The depth and the detail of this scam is mindboggling, but I do think Te’o … he caught the wave of this story, maybe exaggerated the depths of their relationship a little. “If he was acting he deserves an Oscar nomination,” Thamel said. Pete Thamel, the Sports Illustrated writer who published a transcript of his interview with Te’o, said he thinks the star linebacker was duped. “Te’o’s story that he is completely innocent in this does not really ring true to us,” Timothy Burke, co-author of the Deadspin article, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday night. The bizarre developments left many wondering if they, instead of Te’o, were led on. Then Wednesday, the university held a news conference saying Te’o was the victim of a “elaborate hoax.” And Te’o, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, released a statement saying he was embarrassed that he was the victim of a “sick joke.”

The airing of the bizarre story began Wednesday, when sports website Deadspin published a piece dismissing as a hoax the existence of Te’o’s girlfriend – the one who he said died around the same time as his grandmother while his team marched toward the BCS National Championship Game. It was unclear Thursday whether the person Te’o tweeted to in September used it again after reports broke of a hoax or whether someone created a new account with the same user name. On September 12, Te’o tweeted you will always be with me wherever I go!” Two other tweets on the page were retweets from the verified account of I miss you!” a November 6 tweet from Te’o said.

Who is now behind the one of the Twitter accounts associated with Lennay Kekua, a woman who apparently never lived, let alone died, in September before Te’o, who called her his girlfriend, played one of the biggest games of the young season?Ī tweet Thursday purportedly from the fictional girlfriend promised she would have a big announcement that would help sort out details of the story, but the tweet was merely a joke about Te’o. Why did he tell a Sports Illustrated reporter in October that Kekua came to one of his games then issue a statement this week that he never met her? For instance, why did Te’o tell reporters before the Heisman Trophy presentation on December 8 that he “lost both my grandparents and my girlfriend to cancer,” when two days earlier the woman he thought was dead called him on his cellphone?

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