Lennay Kekua, A Hoax!

[BurningRiver]

This offseason:

 

[IrishLax]

I don't know if some people overlooked this part, but apparently a woman who appeared in a fake twitter account purporting to be Lennay's sister reached out on Twitter to the director of Catfish ... the implication being that she and Marques Tuiasosopo's cousin (!??!?) made Lennay up to play a hoax on Manti, just like in Catfish.

Then perhaps Manti just went with it? Made up some details when he was asked because he was embarrassed to have a purely online girlfriend, like talking on the phone to her all night? That's the part I can't get around. Didn't he say he talked to Lennay on the phone all night???

Interesting.

 

[Old North State Irish]

I'm like a couple of the earlier member's thoughts. 1. I want to see this ran on ESPN, Yahoo Sports, etc (and if true-it will be), 2. Why do wierd things keep happening to ND and 3. How could he be soooooooo stupid to think he would get away with this (if true).

This could cause him grave harm as far as his NFL draft status goes (will loose almost all of female fans and a lot of male fans). I could easily see a team(s) passing on him due to this negative publicity.

Coming into the NFL, he could almost be treated as a child paedophile that goes to prison. Most players stay clear of him and he can forget about endorsements. This to me is worse than a college player commiting a low level crime (I would have more respect for that). He could have possibly cost himself millions of dollars.

I said all of the following to say this...I sure as hell hope that this is NOT TRUE and at the very worse case can be explained away.


WTF?

 

[Ironman8]

Bruce Feldman ‏@BFeldmanCBS

I'm told Notre Dame will have an official comment on the Deadspin Manti Te'o story shortly.

 

[gkIrish]

Assuming this is mostly true....PLEASE tell me the University had nothing to do with this. God that will crush me

 

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

Killing off fictional characters, call him George R.R. Martin.

 

[rikkitikki08]

This is the strangest thing ever......i have no idea what to think at this point

 

[Ironman8]

The author of the article is on Doug Goetlib's show right now:

Listening to CBS Sports Radio on the CBS Local Media Player

 

[Irish Houstonian]

They also based their claim on the fact that there's no "Lennay Kekua" in any of the auto or public records, but someone points out in the comments that that wasn't her real name...

 

[Ironman8]

Killing off fictional characters, call him George R.R. Martin.

Feel guilty laughing at that, but that's funny.

 

[levicarvalho]

What a hell is going on...

 

[Domina Nostra]

I don't know if some people overlooked this part, but apparently a woman who appeared in a fake twitter account purporting to be Lennay's sister reached out on Twitter to the director of Catfish ... the implication being that she and Marques Tuiasosopo's cousin (!??!?) made Lennay up to play a hoax on Manti, just like in Catfish.

Then perhaps Manti just went with it? Made up some details when he was asked because he was embarrassed to have a purely online girlfriend, like talking on the phone to her all night? That's the part I can't get around. Didn't he say he talked to Lennay on the phone all night???

Making up a twitter account is one thing. Pretending to be another person on the phone, that is unthinkable!

 

[gkIrish]

Bruce Feldman ‏@BFeldmanCBS

Unless they knew of this ahead of time, the comment will go something like, "We are going to investigate this and take the appropriate action, if necessary.'

 

[greyhammer90]

Well I'm gonna go throw up.

 

[Emcee77]

They also based their claim on the fact that there's no "Lennay Kekua" in any of the auto or public records, but someone points out in the comments that that wasn't her real name...

That part is a Seinfeld joke

 

[Whiskeyjack]

I'm like a couple of the earlier member's thoughts. 1. I want to see this ran on ESPN, Yahoo Sports, etc (and if true-it will be), 2. Why do wierd things keep happening to ND and 3. How could he be soooooooo stupid to think he would get away with this (if true).

This could cause him grave harm as far as his NFL draft status goes (will loose almost all of female fans and a lot of male fans). I could easily see a team(s) passing on him due to this negative publicity.

Coming into the NFL, he could almost be treated as a child paedophile that goes to prison. Most players stay clear of him and he can forget about endorsements. This to me is worse than a college player commiting a low level crime (I would have more respect for that). He could have possibly cost himself millions of dollars.

I said all of the following to say this...I sure as hell hope that this is NOT TRUE and at the very worse case can be explained away.

WTF?

Temped to delete this for absurdity. Why don't we wait until we have something approaching the full story before we declare that Te'o will be a pariah in the NFL?

 

[Irishnuke]

They also based their claim on the fact that there's no "Lennay Kekua" in any of the auto or public records, but someone points out in the comments that that wasn't her real name...

They were joking. I think Whiskey pointed that out earlier.

 

[rikkitikki08]

Here is my theory, he met the girl online and lets be honest its not exactly something you want to brag about. So he had an over the phone and online relationship and they just connected that way. My theory is Manti got hoaxed

 

[Irish Houstonian]

lol must have missed that one

 

[dudesthisisthebest]

Didn't he say he talked to Lennay on the phone all night???

This is what makes me think this ends real badly for Manti

 

[Irishnuke]

Please God tell me this didn't really happen.

 

[Ironman8]

Brian Hamilton ‏@ChiTribHamilton

#NotreDame statement says on Dec. 26, coaches informed by Manti Te'o and parents that he was "victim of what appears to be a hoax."

 

[Whiskeyjack]

~2.5k people camping in this thread right now. IE is breaking.

 

[GreenSox04]

“@BGI_DanMurphy: #NotreDame says Manti Te'o informed coaches on Dec. 26 that he was the victim of a hoax.”

 

[woolybug25]

I'm not here to carry deadspin's water, but honestly it doesn't sound like you read deadspin frequently. They're famous for crude funny things, but only because there aren't enough scandals to break to update the site constantly. But this kind of story is the lifeblood of the site. They expose something crazy like this fairly regularly (if I have time later I'll find some past ones and post links). This is not the first time they've "broken" a story like this, and I've never seen them proven wrong afterwards before. This story does have the most crossover potential, though. Prior examples include exposing a "columnist" at ESPN as having been a fake person; ESPN took corrective action but obviously didn't run with the story. We'll see what happens with this one.

I read Deadspin enough to know that they aren't a major player in sports journalism. I fully understand that they make their bones with more edgy peices, but I cannot think of one single major contraversy that they broke. If you can find one, then by all means.

Seriously... how many people knew the writers Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey before this article?

We aren't talking about an article by Adam Schefter or a peice being done Outside the Lines.... we are talking about an article written by two no name writers for Deadspin. This isn't being reported anywhere else yet, so I am not going to get too worked up about it until it does.

EDIT - Of course while I am writing the above, the BGI comment gets posted. I guess this is starting to get real.

 

[koonja]

Brian Hardin ‏@NDHardin

Statement from @NotreDame: On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te'o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of...
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2h Brian Hamilton Brian Hamilton ‏@ChiTribHamilton

#NotreDame says it immediately began investigation "to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax."
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2h Brian Hamilton Brian Hamilton ‏@ChiTribHamilton

#NotreDame statement says on Dec. 26, coaches informed by Manti Te'o and parents that he was "victim of what appears to be a hoax."
Expand

 

[Emcee77]

This is what makes me think this ends real badly for Manti

Here is my theory, he met the girl online and lets be honest its not exactly something you want to brag about. So he had an over the phone and online relationship and they just connected that way. My theory is Manti got hoaxed

Rikkitikki has the counter argument right ... but that's where I start to wonder ... an online hoax is one thing, but it would be harder to convince someone that you aren't who you say you are in regular phone conversations. the Hoaxer would have to be able to give voluminous details about cancer treatment and the hospital environment and all that stuff, right? Otherwise Manti would catch on.

 

[Jebediah Springfield]

So who did he talk on the phone 2??... those pranksters are some sick puppies

 

[greyhammer90]

The more that I think about it, the more I think that it can't be a hoax that Te'o is the victim of. I mean, Te'o and this girl know each other, she dies. Who tells him? It's got to be a family member, it's got to be over the phone. Te'o had to talk to somebody that was her family at some point in time.

 

[koonja]

Eric Hansen ‏@hansenNDInsider

#NotreDame statement re Manti Te'o: On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents 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. The University immediately initiated ...

... an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities ...