Lennay Kekua, A Hoax!

[Ironman8]

Manti is currently dating a girl from St. Mary's that I know. Unless he's "covering" again, I doubt it's B.

What's the feel around campus, Jimmy?

 

[BurningRiver]

Wait wait wait. Did the report insinuate that he's gay?

 

[IrishLax]

Aside: THANK GOD he didn't win the Heisman.

 

[Grahambo]

Would you be happier if....

A) Manti was a schmuck who (in large part because Mormons don't have a physical relationship until they get married) got conned into thinking he had a connection with a person who is actually fake.

B) It turns out Manti is gay and was using a long distance GF as a cover because being a homosexual is not accepted by the Church of Latter Day Saints (and really, also Catholicism though that's debatable) and he was trying to keep it on the DL.... and then this thing hit the fan and he didn't know how to deal with it and went along with it.

The single worst possible scenario is that they conjured this up for publicity. If that is true, I will be enraged.

The only thing that matters to me is if this was conjured up by him/his family. I don't care if it was a friend, girlfriend, close friend, etc because that's just debating semantics. I don't care if he is gay. I'm a Christian and just because I may disagree with a lifestyle, I'm not the Judge.

If this was all make believe then I'll be heartbroken.

 

[dudesthisisthebest]

When I watch the show Catfish I think who would actually do this? Well...


For his sake I hope he was being conned and not doing the conning

Real sad either way.

 

[IrishSteelhead]

The single worst possible scenario is that they conjured this up for publicity. If that is true, I will be enraged.

Enraged is an understatement.

 

[DSully1995]

Comment from someone:

This is all just a huge misunderstanding. She was Canadian.

 

[jimmymac]

What's the feel around campus, Jimmy?

We want answers. You can suck on the field, but you can't suck as a person at ND. Our moral high ground separates us from other schools.

 

[koonja]

Guys I'm at work and haven't finished it yet and have skipped a couple paragraphs, but is this saying that the girl is a made up account that Te'o 'thought' he was dating (i.e., they never actually met), and the girl's account was actually a fake made by some dude?

 

[woolybug25]

Corey Clark/TDO.com ‏@Corey_Clark
If that deadspin story is accurate, it's inconceivable ALL of these national reporters didn't try to find an obit. Somewhere.

This is my point too. How is it even possible that sports journalists across the world were reporting on this story for weeks and not one person didn't stumble across it? No one looked for her obit? No one tried to reach out to her family? No one tried to get a comment from her friends?

Maybe it's just me not being able to take it, but the fact that ESPN, SI, CNN, and every other group that covered the story didn't see any signs. But a couple no name weirdos from Deadspin peiced it all together. Just doesn't make logical sense.

 

[greyhammer90]

Enraged is an understatement.

I will punch everything I know in the face.

 

[Domina Nostra]

We want answers. You can suck on the field, but you can't suck as a person at ND. Our moral high groud separates us from other schools.

Wow? Really.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

A) Manti was a schmuck who (in large part because Mormons don't have a physical relationship until they get married) got conned into thinking he had a connection with a person who is actually fake.

Makes Manti look like a fool, but otherwise wouldn't be too damaging.

B) It turns out Manti is gay and was using a long distance GF as a cover because being a homosexual is not accepted by the Church of Latter Day Saints (and really, also Catholicism though that's debatable) and he was trying to keep it on the DL.... and then this thing hit the fan and he didn't know how to deal with it and went along with it.

Probably turns Manti into a flashpoint for LGBT issues (might be an overall positive for him if it's true and he comes out). Potentially makes ND look bad if its Catholic culture made him feel like he needed the cover.

The single worst possible scenario is that they conjured this up for publicity. If that is true, I will be enraged.

Armageddon. Worst possible scenario. But I have a really hard time believing that such a huge lie could have been proposed and effectively hidden by ND.

 

[HawaiianIrish]

i do not think he is mahu (gay). His ex GF is/was playing soccer at Penn State.....

This **** is crazzzzzzzzy....

 

[IrishLax]

This is my point too. How is it even possible that sports journalists across the world were reporting on this story for weeks and not one person didn't stumble across it? No one looked for her obit? No one tried to reach out to her family? No one tried to get a comment from her friends?

Maybe it's just me not being able to take it, but the fact that ESPN, SI, CNN, and every other group that covered the story didn't see any signs. But a couple no name weirdos from Deadspin peiced it all together. Just doesn't make logical sense.

This is truly the most shocking part.

 

[woolybug25]

Guys I'm at work and haven't finished it yet and have skipped a couple paragraphs, but is this saying that the girl is a made up account that Te'o 'thought' he was dating (i.e., they never actually met), and the girl's account was actually a fake made by some dude?

They also make the claim that Teo personally knew the guy that made it up.

 

[gkIrish]

PLEASE be a real person. If Lennay was real, and died, a lot of the other stuff (like whether they were dating) won't matter that much.

This comes down to whether Manti made her up.

 

[PADOMERNUT]

Who said he was gay???? Why did no one else pick up on this??? Deadspin has the greatest investigative journalists in the world??? I call bullshit

 

[Irish Houstonian]

Can't we get through one controversy without having to dig up a corpse?

 

[Rhode Irish]

I wont believe it until it's vetted either. Deadspin isn't the bar for integrity in sports journalism. Furthermore, if this story is true, I find it bizarre that Deadspin is the first to report it.

I'm going to see how this thing plays out before jumping to conclusions.

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.

 

[LoveThee]

I will always be a Notre Dame fan.

If this is true, I will not be a Manti Te'o fan. And the University is gonna get a whole lot of **** about it.

I don't know what to think or hope for. But I am really sad.

 

[Grahambo]

John Koblin ‏@koblin
and here's the other very big angle MT ‏@davidfolkenflik did no previous reporter check Nexis?

 

[Jerry]

Aside: THANK GOD he didn't win the Heisman.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

Deadspin = bleacher report. They have gotten horrible in the past year.

Guarantee this blows up in their face.

 

[Jebediah Springfield]

I'll accept a gay Manti, but con man Manti...****.

 

[NDohio]

This is so bizarre. I'm speechless.

 

[Ironman8]

@DavidMcCoyWSBT:

#NotreDame tells me it will have a comment on the Te'o story "at some point."

 

[STLDomer]

Deadspin = bleacher report. They have gotten horrible in the past year.

Guarantee this blows up in their face.

Deadspin is 10 billion times better than BR

 

[Jebediah Springfield]

@DavidMcCoyWSBT:

This isn't good....

 

[Emcee77]

When I watch the show Catfish I think who would actually do this? Well...


For his sake I hope he was being conned and not doing the conning

Real sad either way.

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???