Deadspin: (Notre Dame football player) Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend is a hoax

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C

Cloudy

Banned
http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-t...tory-of-the-college-football-season-is-a-hoax

Did you enjoy the uplifiting story, the tale of a man who responded to adversity by becoming one of the top players of the game? If so, stop reading.

Manti Te'o did lose his grandmother this past fall. Annette Santiago died on Sept. 11, 2012, at the age of 72, according to Social Security Administration records in Nexis. But there is no SSA record there of the death of Lennay Marie Kekua, that day or any other. Her passing, recounted so many times in the national media, produces no obituary or funeral announcement in Nexis, and no mention in the Stanford student newspaper.

Nor is there any report of a severe auto accident involving a Lennay Kekua. Background checks turn up nothing. The Stanford registrar's office has no record that a Lennay Kekua ever enrolled. There is no record of her birth in the news. Outside of a few Twitter and Instagram accounts, there's no online evidence that Lennay Kekua ever existed.

The photographs identified as Kekua—in online tributes and on TV news reports—are pictures from the social-media accounts of a 22-year-old California woman who is not named Lennay Kekua. She is not a Stanford graduate; she has not been in a severe car accident; and she does not have leukemia. And she has never met Manti Te'o.
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Okay....

edit:

ND releases statement saying Te'o was a victim of a hoax: "a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators."
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School is claiming a Catfish situation
 
G

gutshot

Member
Was just about to post this.... crazy story. Especially this part:

One picture in particular brought Reba to a start. It had been used briefly as @LoveMSMK's Twitter avatar and later in the background of the page (we've blurred out the face, at Reba's request):

That photo hadn't appeared on the internet—at least, not to Reba's knowledge. She had taken it in December 2012 and sent it directly to an old high school acquaintance. The two hadn't talked since graduation, but the classmate, whom Reba remembered fondly, contacted her on Facebook with a somewhat convoluted request: His cousin had been in a serious car accident, and he had seen her photos before and thought she was pretty. Would she be so kind as to take a picture of herself holding up a sign reading "MSMK," to put in a slideshow to support the cousin's recovery? (He didn't explain what MSMK meant, and Reba still doesn't know.) Baffled but trusting, Reba made the sign and sent along the photo.
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C

Cagey

Banned
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Fucking bizarre story, given they write multiple people were "marks" for this.
 
M

mr2xxx

Banned
Pretty fucking crazy and Deadspins evidence is pretty damning. Alabama game and now character issues will drop him much farther than anticipated in the draft.
 
C

Cloudy

Banned
BigJonsson said:
Ya really, makes me even angrier that the cable news agencies eliminated their investigative journalism departments saying they were unnecessary
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Why would anyone bother to check this out though? Who would lie about such a thing and why?

I thought he hurt his draft stock in the title game but this might hurt him more. You have to have mental problems to do something like this
 
C

Credo

Member
Cloudy said:
Why would anyone lie about something like this?
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I guess for publicity's sake to try to get his name put out there even more so that there might be a chance he goes higher in the NFL draft based only on hype. I think the game he had in the national championship pretty much derailed that, but if it didn't, then this story, if true like it seems to be, certainly will.
 
W

WascallyWabbit

Member
Credo said:
I guess for publicity's sake to try to get his name put out there even more so that there might be a chance he goes higher in the NFL draft based only on hype. I think the game he had in the national championship pretty much derailed that, but if it didn't, then this story, if true like it seems to be, certainly will.
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He picked the perfect year to do it, too. Weak draft class, weak heisman group, his story really propelled him into the spotlight
 
C

Cloudy

Banned
KingGondo said:
There's way more money to be made as an athlete if you're an "inspiration" that people other than sports fans can identify with.

See: Tebow, Tim.
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Yeah but a lie like this can't be easily discarded after you do become an "inspiration". I'm hoping there's some sort of explanation for this. If not, he has serious issues and I wouldn't want him on my team even if he could tackle elite players
 
M

mre

Golden Domers are chickenshit!!
I think I speak for all Irish fans everywhere when I say that we don't care if it was a hoax. Manti got hosed when he didn't get the Heisman and is about to redefine the LB position in the NFL.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Credo said:
I guess for publicity's sake to try to get his name put out there even more so that there might be a chance he goes higher in the NFL draft based only on hype. I think the game he had in the national championship pretty much derailed that, but if it didn't, then this story, if true like it seems to be, certainly will.
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From Twitter:
Dan Wetzel said:
I have to say, inventing a dead girlfriend is the boldest Heisman stunt ever. Makes a Times Square billboard seem quaint
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B

bluemax

Banned
Yo I called this shit months ago! I said Te'o was a liar and people said I was a scorned USC fan with bitter tears! Bluemax vindication!
 
G

george_us

Member
mre said:
I think I speak for all Irish fans everywhere when I say that we don't care if it was a hoax. Manti got hosed when he didn't get the Heisman and is about to redefine the LB position in the NFL.
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Redefine it how? By getting blocked out of position and missing tackles every play?
 
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