If you’re like me, you probably went “Huh?” when you first heard the name Manti Te’o float around social media. Usually when that happens to me, I do a quick google search and in about five seconds, I’ll know the deal. This time, however, the news was not so easy to decipher. Why? Well, this particular breaking news story is complicated and happened over a period of time, so if you weren’t religiously following college football or, more specifically, Notre Dame football, you might get lost in the mix.
Because of this conundrum, I decided to break down the Manti Te’o news story so you can finally understand what the heck is going on in the media.
The uber simplified version of what happened:
A news website, Deadspin, published an article that claimed the college football player, Manti Te’o, lied about having a girlfriend who died of Leukemia to the media, and even got someone to claim he only did so for publicity and attention in the sports world.
Ok, now for the details:
Ok wait–Who is Manti Te’o, again?
Manti Te’o is a football player at Notre Dame University. He played on the undefeated team until they lost horrendously in the championship bowl. He’s very talented and is up for the NFL draft and a college sports award.
So… why is it a big deal he lied about having a girlfriend? Even though the fake-death thing is a little strange.
It’s a big deal because the past couple months, the media followed Te’o’s whole relationship with this “girlfriend” who he claimed to have lost to Leukemia during the football season. It sounds weird, but they did so because Te’o was playing super awesome on an undefeated college football team all the while suffering through the death of not only his grandmother, but apparently his girlfriend, too. They thought it was a feel-good story of a kid who is playing amazing football while mourning two deaths of people close to him – the sports version of Jennifer Hudson’s tragic story. And Sports Illustrated even did a very elaborate piece on him, his life, and these apparent tragedies.
People just found out about this now?
Yes. Deadspin did some digging and published the article yesterday exposing Te’o with significant proof that the girlfriend he claimed to have didn’t exist and definitely didn’t die. The proof included things like tweets, friends coming forward, and even a guy who says he created the “girlfriend’s” twitter account to make Te’o’s lie look believable. Long story short, they called him out for trying to pull a publicity stunt.
And that’s when crap hit the fan. People couldn’t believe that a) someone would lie about having a girlfriend when you’re in the spotlight b) that he would fake her death, like who does that? and c) that the entire sports world fell for it without a problem. Because that’s not supposed to happen.
OMG Did they figure out what’s going to happen?
Not yet. Apparently ESPN knew Te’o’s story could have been a hoax before Deadspin did and didn’t do anything. So did Notre Dame who released a statement that they would conduct an investigation on it. Manti Te’o also released a statement claiming to have been “catfished” all along. He said he met the “girlfriend” on the internet and dated her on there and he was tricked into believing she died, somehow.
It’s all bizarre, but that’s the gist of it. If you really want to know more about every individual discrepency and possible lie as well as a timeline of events–from when Te’o “met” the girl up to when he released his statement you can check out the USA Today story here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2013/01/17/manti-teo-girlfriend-hoax-timeline/1842389/