Almost immediately after Deadspin released a report that everything about Manti Te’o’s girlfriend was a complete hoax, the embattled linebacker released a statement saying he was actually the victim of the lies and deceit.
Here’s what he had to say:
This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her.
To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating.
It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother’s death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life.
I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been.
In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was.
Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I’m looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft.
Unfortunately though in an interview with SI.com’s Pete Thamel, Te’o gives the impression that he actually met Lennay Kekua which further adds to the confusion surrounding this progressively bizarre story.
(via The Big Lead)
SI: How did you meet her?
TE’O: We met just, ummmm, just she knew my cousin. And kind of saw me there so. Just kind of regular.
SI: How long were you dating? I know that can be a complicated question.
TE’O:Oct. 15 was the official date. Of last year. I’ve known her for four years. So we’ve been friends.
SI: So you dated for about a year.
TE’O:Yeah.
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SI: She has a Hawaiian sounding name. Is she from there?
TE’O:Her real name is actually Melelengei, but her friends couldn’t say that so they just called her Lennay.
SI: What did she do?
TE’O: She actually just graduated from Stanford. She worked at Clark’s Construction Company, I think. She replaced her dad after her dad passed.
SI: When did her dad pass?
TE’O:In October. She took that mantle for him.
SI: Does the family own a construction business?
TE’O: No. But they’re part of the whole administration, the higher-ups. Their family worked really hard and worked their way up. She’s very smart, very smart and very intellectual. She worked there but her main dream was to work with kids. She traveled all around. She taught at elementary schools. She flew to New Zealand to just work with kids. That’s what she loved to do, work with children.
—–
SI: What did she study?
TE’O: She graduated in 2011 or 2010. 2011.
SI: What was her major?
TE’O: Her major was in English and something. I’ll double check.
SI: I can call Stanford and check. They have to have some record or note that she passed.
SI: So long distance relationship?
TE’O: She was supposed to come [to visit me at Notre Dame]. She was just cleared to come to the Wake Forest game, my senior game. It was mainly just on the phone, every day.
—–
SI: Where did you meet her in California?
TE’O:She actually came to one of the games. She saw me at one of the games.
SI: October 15, I assume is USC?
TE’O:That was in November. But she saw me at the USC game of my sophomore year. We were still just friends, we were acquaintances.
Te’o also reportedly received letters from Kekua with the last of those letters coming before the Stanford game on October 13th, a month after her supposed death on September 12th.
However, in another Pete Thamel piece, Te’o later stated that the last letter from Kekua from beyond the grave was received before the Wake Forest game on November 17th, more than two months now after he supposed death.
Te’o says that Lennay’s final letter came before senior day, when the Irish throttled Wake Forest. Now, as Te’o muscles through this season of extreme emotions, he’s excited to write its final chapter and grateful for the letters that inspired him to get there.
“It’s something,” he says, “that was special.”
The Notre Dame football team even had it’s doubts according to a student of the University, Tyler Moorehead who provided some context on the whole ordeal:
The debate among teammates wasn’t whether or not Manti actually knew this girl — it was clear that they had been in contact; no, players just didn’t think that it was fair to call Lennay Kekua Manti’s girlfriend, period (it is well-known on campus that he has had relations with other girls during his time at Notre Dame). They recognized what was going on for what it was — a terrible publicity stunt used to fuel Manti Te’o’s Heisman campaign. In fact, many of the players privately commented that they didn’t want the students to wear leis in support of Manti and wouldn’t participate themselves — they cited that the team never responded so publicly to tragic events for other players. But there was also the feeling that Manti didn’t deserve to benefit from publicity from the death of somebody he barely knew.
Geez… you can’t make this stuff up. Or can you?
h/t: Deadspin, The Big Lead, College Spun, SI.com