Manti Te’o he was a big star football at university level in his own right: he was part of a very successful 2012 campaign Notre Dame Fighting Irishas the defensive leader of a team that reached the national final that season.
Te’o won more than five prestigious individual awards that year and was even unanimously voted as All-American. After leaving the college stage, he reached the NFL with the 38th pick in the Draft and between 2013 and 2020 he played for San Diego Chargers (where he became captain)New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bearsuntil injuries ended up ruining his professional career in which he received more than 10 million dollars in salaries and bonuses.
However, his name is about to return to the limelight for one scandal who carried the fame of his name more than his athletic prowess had done in his prime.
Netflix the documentary will be released on Tuesday, August 16 “The Girl Who Didn’t Exist”, as part of the sports documentary series Unmentionablea story that will focus on what he experienced Manti Te’o a decade ago.
What happened to Manti Te’o and his fake girlfriend?
Te’o, a native of Hawaii, rose to prominence in the final months of 2012 because of his strong performances on the field and a story he told early in the campaign. He said on September 11, 2012, he had suffered the death of his grandmother and his girlfriend, Lennay Kekuaa Stanford University student she had met three years earlier who died of heart disease. leukemiasomething discovered after suffering a crash. Lennay’s brother had informed him of the girl’s death about six hours after Te’o received the news of his grandmother’s death.
Te’o shined in a game after that tragic date and, while showing off as an athlete, won the hearts of the entire United States by telling his story in front of the television cameras. In the meantime, he didn’t even miss a game to attend Lenay’s funeralbecause according to Te’o, that was her wish.
The story affected everyone, it led to awareness donations to help leukemia patients and also pushed the candidacy of Te’o, then 21, to win the Heisman Award given to the best player in all of college football.
However, in early 2013 two journalists (Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey) published an article in which they stated that Lennay never existed and that everyone had been deceivedeven Manti Te’o. How was this possible?
They accused as the creator of the deception Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, a friend of Te’o’s family and an acquaintance of Manti’s own, is also associated with college football. The photos of Lennay that had been published by the press were of Diane O’Meara, a friend of Tuiasosopo’s who, it is believed, had worked with him by sending pictures to cheer up a friend who was facing brain surgery.
The University of Notre Dame itself clarified that everything had been done a virtual deception suffered by Te’o, who had never met his girlfriend in personsomething that, however, It contradicted the stories the athlete and his relatives had told about Lennay.
Then Theo, he is accused of making up the story dead girlfriend with Tuiasosopo to create marketing around his name, he defended his innocence on TV, explaining that he had lied to his family so they wouldn’t think he was crazy for having a sham love affair, that he knew Tuiasosopo because he had met as Lennay’s cousin and that Ronaiah himself had confided in him on January 16, 2013 that he was behind the deception.
He further stated that in December 2012 had received a call from “Lennay”in her own voice, in which she told him that he had faked his death to avoid trouble with drug dealersand that’s when he started to he suspects that he had fallen victim to a hoaxso that he told the story to his family and his trainers.
Also, when all was known, Te’o released a statement in which he explained that he felt very ashamed of what had happened to him. “For a long time, I developed a relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought was a genuine relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone and I grew to care deeply. Realizing that I was the victim of what was obviously a practical joke and constant lies by someone was, and is, painful and humiliating.. It also hurts me that the pain I felt at the time of my grandmother’s death in September was somehow deepened by what I thought was another great loss in my life.”He said.
The story was kept on general interest television shows: Te’o relayed the voicemails he had from his alleged girlfriend to show that it sounded like a girl, which suggested more people could be involved, although Tuiasosopo said he was the one recreating the voice. Tuiasosopo he also confessed that he did all the cheating because he was in love with Theo and I wanted to be close to him too “killed” Lennay because Te’o had ended the relationship.
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Later Te’o had his professional career in the NFL and started a family alongside Jovi Nicole Engbino, while Tuiasosopo is now a transgender woman in his name Naya.
