SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Not once but twice after he
supposedly discovered his online girlfriend of three years never even
existed, Notre Dame All-American linebacker Manti Te'o perpetuated the
heartbreaking story about her death.
An Associated Press review of news coverage found that the Heisman
Trophy runner-up talked about his doomed love in a Web interview on Dec.
8 and again in a newspaper interview published Dec. 10. He and the
university said Wednesday that he learned on Dec. 6 that it was all a
hoax, that not only wasn't she dead, she wasn't real.
On Thursday, a day after Te'o's inspiring, playing-through-heartache
story was exposed as a bizarre lie, Te'o and Notre Dame faced questions
from sports writers and fans about whether he really was duped, as he
claimed, or whether he and the university were complicit in the hoax and
misled the public, perhaps to improve his chances of winning the
Heisman.
Yahoo sports columnist Dan Wetzel said the case has ''left everyone
wondering whether this was really the case of a naive football player
done wrong by friends or a fabrication that has yet to play to its
conclusion.''
Gregg Doyel, national columnist for CBSSports.com, was more direct.
''Nothing about this story has been comprehensible, or logical, and
that extends to what happens next,'' he wrote. ''I cannot comprehend
Manti Te'o saying anything that could make me believe he was a victim.''
On Wednesday, Te'o and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick
said the player was drawn into a virtual romance with a woman who used
the phony name Lennay Kekua, and was fooled into believing she died of
leukemia in September. They said his only contact with the woman was via
the Internet and telephone.
Te'o also lost his grandmother - for real - the same day his
girlfriend supposedly died, and his role in leading Notre Dame to its
best season in decades endeared him to fans and put him at the center of
college football's biggest feel-good story of the year.
Relying on information provided by Te'o's family members, the South
Bend Tribune reported in October that Te'o and Kekua first met, in
person, in 2009, and that the two had also gotten together in Hawaii,
where Te'o grew up.
Sports Illustrated posted a previously unpublished transcript of a
one-on-one interview with Te'o from Sept. 23. In it, he goes into great
detail about his relationship with Kekua and her physical ailments. He
also mentioned meeting her for the first time after a game in
California.
''We met just, ummmm, just she knew my cousin. And kind of saw me there so. Just kind of regular,'' he told SI.
Among the outstanding questions Thursday: Why didn't Te'o ever
clarify the nature of his relationship as the story took on a life of
its own?
Te'o's agent, Tom Condon, said the athlete had no plans to make any
public statements Thursday in Bradenton, Fla., where he has been
training with other NFL hopefuls at the IMG Academy.
Notre Dame said Te'o found out that Kekua was not a real person
through a phone call he received at an awards ceremony in Orlando, Fla.,
on Dec. 6. He told Notre Dame coaches about the situation on Dec. 26.
The AP's media review turned up two instances during that gap when the football star mentioned Kekua in public.
Te'o was in New York for the Heisman presentation on Dec. 8 and,
during an interview before the ceremony that ran on the WSBT.com, the
website for a South Bend TV station, Te'o said: ''I mean, I don't like
cancer at all. I lost both my grandparents and my girlfriend to cancer.
So I've really tried to go to children's hospitals and see, you know,
children.''
In a column that first ran in The Los Angeles Times, on Dec. 10, Te'o
recounted why he played a few days after he found out Kekua died in
September, and the day she was supposedly buried.
''She made me promise, when it happened, that I would stay and
play,'' he said on Dec. 9 while attending a ceremony in Newport Beach,
Calif., for the Lott Impact Awards.
On Wednesday, when Deadspin.com broke the story, Swarbrick said Notre
Dame did not go public with its findings sooner because it expected the
Te'o family to come forward first.
Asked if the NCAA was monitoring the Te'o story for possible rules violations, NCAA President Mark Emmert said:
''We don't know anything more than you do,'' he told reporters at the
organization's convention in Dallas. ''We're learning about this
through the stories just the same as you are. But we have to wait and
see what really transpired there. It's obviously (a) very disturbing
story and it's hard to tell where the facts lie at this point.
''But Notre Dame is obviously looking into it and there will be a lot
more to come forward. Right now, it just looks ... well, we don't know
what the facts are, so I shouldn't comment beyond that.''
Reporters were turned away at the main gate of IMG's sprawling,
secure complex. Te'o remained on the grounds, said a person familiar
with situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because neither Te'o
nor IMG authorized the release of the information.
''This whole thing is so nutsy that I believe it only could have
happened at Notre Dame, where mythology trumps common sense on a daily
basis. ... Given the choice between reality and fiction, Notre Dame
always will choose fiction,'' sports writer Rick Telander said in the
Chicago Sun-Times.
''Which brings me to what I believe is the real reason Te'o and
apparently his father, at least went along with this scheme: the Heisman
Trophy.
Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass blasted both Te'o and Notre Dame.
''When your girlfriend dying of leukemia after suffering a car crash
tells you she loves you, even if it might help you win the Heisman
Trophy, you check it out,'' he said.
He said the university's failure to call a news conference and go public sooner means ''Notre Dame is complicit in the lie.''
''The school fell in love with the Te'o girlfriend myth,'' he wrote.
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