When it came to looking into the Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax, it looks as though Notre Dame did as much investigating as a an 8th grader would do in an end of the year book report.
According to the South Bend Tribune the investigation conducted by Notre Dame consisted of interviewing no one and examined zero emails, cell phone records or any other forms of digital correspondence.
The investigation ordered by Notre Dame was limited to the electronic search, Brown said. Investigators did not interview Te’o or his family, nor did anyone attempt to contact Ronaiah Tuiasosopo or any of his relatives.
In response to questions, university officials said the investigators did not examine cell phone records, e-mails or other electronic communication to determine the length or extent of Te’o’s communication over the past few years with the person claiming to be Lennay Kekua, nor did the university ask Te’o to take a lie detector test.
This pretty much falls in line with what Te’o told ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap about the school’s investigation.
JEREMY SCHAAP: When do you meet the team?
MANTI TE’O: I meet Coach Kelly, Mr. Swarbrick and Coach Diaco right when I get into South Bend, which was the 27th or 28th.
JEREMY SCHAAP: What do they say?
MANTI TE’O: They’re confused, too. But they said if we’re going to launch an investigation, we’re going to try to find answers to all of our questions. So that’s what they did.
JEREMY SCHAAP: And they questioned you?
MANTI TE’O: Yeah, they questioned me.
JEREMY SCHAAP: Who questioned you?
MANTI TE’O: They all did. They just asked simple questions. What did she say? What did she tell you? When did you find out?
JEREMY SCHAAP: When you say “all of them,” you mean Swarbrick?
MANTI TE’O: Swarbrick, Kelly and Coach Diaco. The investigator, all she asked was just for a picture and any evidence that I had.
JEREMY SCHAAP: She never interviewed you?
MANTI TE’O: No, she never interviewed me again.
The good news though is Notre Dame used sophisticated databases to come to the conclusion that Lennay Kekua didn’t exist. I’m wondering if that database consisted it their saved bookmarks on Firefox linking them to Deadspin or any other sports blog on the net which seems to be more in tune with what’s going on with Te’0 than they are.
h/t: Deadspin, The Big Lead, ESPN