73Saint

It's an embarrassing story and one I'm sure he wishes would go away. Guido, for once I agree with you. Big difference between his situation and AFV. I hate that show and the stooge that hosts it

AsylumGuido

The story went away in San Diego. According to an article I read a couple of years back his teammates never brought the subject up and even the media totally abandoned the story before the first training camp was over.

The Dude

The media abandon the story because that's what the media does. They move on to the next best story that brings them ratings. Are you trying to insinuate it didn't happen?
You weren't there and don't know if the players brought it up or not.

AsylumGuido

No I wasn't and neither were you. I can only go on what I read and it said that the subject was never broached. Maybe they actually have class and care about their teammates.

And what are you talking about insinuating what didn't happen?

Do you have any clue what happened?

AsylumGuido

Girlfriend hoax

Te'o told many media outlets that both his grandmother and his girlfriend had died on September 11, 2012.[63] Te'o said that his girlfriend, Stanford University student Lennay Kekua, had died after a car accident and subsequently battling leukemia.[64] Te'o did not miss any football games for Notre Dame, saying that he had promised Kekua that he would play even if something had happened to her.[65] Many sports media outlets reported on these tragedies during Te'o's strong 2012 season and emergence as a Heisman Trophy candidate.[66]

After receiving an anonymous email tip in January 2013, reporters Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey of the sports blog Deadspin conducted an investigation into Kekua's identity. On January 16, they published an article alleging that Kekua did not exist and pointed to a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo as involved in the hoax of a relationship with Te'o.[66][67] Tuiasosopo has been described as a family friend or acquaintance of Te'o.[66][68] Pictures of Kekua that had been published in the media were actually of Diane O'Meara, a former high school classmate of Tuiasosopo.[69]

On the same day the Deadspin article was published, Notre Dame issued a statement that "Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia."[70][71][72] In a press conference, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick confirmed the university had hired private investigators to uncover the source of the hoax, and he clarified that Te'o's relationship with Kekua was "exclusively an online relationship".[73] This conflicted with previous accounts from Te'o and his family that the couple had first met after a football game and that she visited him in Hawaii.[74][75][76] Swarbrick said that Te'o informed Notre Dame of the hoax on December 26 after receiving a phone call on December 6 from the woman he knew as Kekua, claiming she was still alive. Te'o mentioned Kekua's death in at least four separate interviews in the days following the phone call.[76][77][78][79]

In response to the growing suspicions that he was involved in the hoax, Te'o agreed to a January 18 interview with sports journalist Jeremy Schaap in which he maintained his innocence. Te'o explained that he had lied to his father and others about meeting her in person because he thought he would be seen as "crazy" for having a serious relationship with a woman he had never met.[80] Te'o said he was angered and confused by the December 6 phone call and had continued to speak of Kekua because the situation was unclear to him.[80] He explained that Tuiasosopo represented himself as the cousin of Lennay Kekua and that the two men had communicated online over the last several years and met once in person at the 2012 Notre Dame/USC game. Te'o said that Tuiasosopo confessed to him on January 16 that he was behind the hoax.[80]

In a January 24 interview on Katie with Katie Couric, Te'o played three voicemails left by Kekua and said the voice "sounds like a girl", an assessment with which many agreed.[81][82][83] In an appearance on Dr. Phil on January 31 and February 1, Tuiasosopo confessed to the hoax; he admitted to falling in love with Te'o and using the Kekua identity as an escape. He also recreated the female voice behind a privacy screen.[84] Relatives of Tuiasosopo, however, told the New York Post that Kekua's voice belonged to Tuiasosopo's female cousin.[85] Despite the revelation that Kekua did not exist, former NFL player Reagan Maui'a said that he twice met someone claiming to be Kekua, and that they had been introduced by Tuiasosopo, whom he believed to be Kekua's cousin.[86]

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill