According to Deadspin, Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend is a Hoax

on PTI Manti literally admitted it was not a true relationship

Didn't the NCAA set a precedent with Penn State that things like this would be punished? This is football being bigger than the university by definition, so the NCAA better not back off now. If they are going to start going down that path then they should stick to it.

this whole thing is weird.

I had a fake girlfriend once... In middle school...

And she didn't "die," I just "broke up with her." Jesus.

ND says he was duped, sounds like he was in on it to me

I still can't decide which is more astonishing--that someone would fabricate this story, or that evidently NONE of the mainstream news outlets vetted the story before reporting it. Pretty shoddy journalism. I thought this was an interesting read:

http://mobile.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2013/01/manti_te_o_ho...

@justinrmegahan dug up some older tweets from this guy, and now that he's been exposed a lot more he came out with this. I can't make any sense of these tweets.

Okay this is getting way out of hand.. everybody is tweeting that i had something to do with this scandal.. thats so far from the truth!— jay.R (@jayRahz) January 17, 2013

we caught Ronaiah's persona as Lennay Kekua back in 2008 and ended all ties with him..— jay.R (@jayRahz) January 17, 2013

i didnt even know Manti Teo's "girlfriend"'s name til way after she supposedly died.. when i found out it was Lennay.. i tweeted about it!— jay.R (@jayRahz) January 17, 2013

A few accounts tweeted me back w/ Ronaiah's picture and tagged @lennaykay which is how Ronaiah found out.. all I did was tweet..— jay.R (@jayRahz) January 17, 2013

everyone needs to hit up Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and get the truth.. the truth will set you free!!— jay.R (@jayRahz) January 17, 2013

@ceeweezy IS NOT LENNAY KEKUA.. thats all RONAIAH!!— jay.R (@jayRahz) January 17, 2013

Then his cohort just tweeted this:

EVERY TWEET @jayrahz and I had about Lennay Kekua were all jokes. We knew from the beginning she was fake!— C. (@ceeweezy51) January 17, 2013

We were all duped. ND was really not the #1 team in the country. It was all part of a feel good story to soften up the poll voters.

When the truth comes out that the administration knew about it all along and failed to do anything because it would kill the football team's momentum, then the crap will hit the fan.

Manti's fake girlfriend was actually AJ's. Brent Mussberger is in on it too.

That is my conspiracy story and I am sticking with it.

Seriously, if he actually was duped, I feel sorry for him and fully support additional head trauma examinations for those playing football. Because surely, if he believed, he's had one too many concussions.

Now, if this was an actual ploy by Manti and/or ND, well played sir, well played. Your only mistake was that you didn't cover it up well enough to keep it from getting out until after the NFL draft.

Do I think it makes his draft stock go down? No, no really. The NFL doesn't really care how "smart" you are. They are hiring him to be a ruthless hunk of meat on the field. They don't care if you're dumb enough to get duped into a LTR with a cyber chick in Guatemala. As long as you pick up the blocks you're supposed to on the field and stay out of trouble with the law off the field, that's all that matters. And he did that. If he managed to "play the field" and win some sympathy votes from the fans/media along the way, well, we all got duped as well.

As far as NCAA sanctions and stuff, that's just a bunch of hot air. So ND helped him cover up a fake girlfriend? Big deal. There were no laws broken as it appears on ND's or Manti's part, only a (potential) broken heart which isn't illegal. Yes, there could have been laws broken by the person responsible for the alleged fake account, but only if there was an exchange of property/money (i.e. defrauding someone for financial gain). So, at this point, I say if we ignore it, it goes away. Live and let live.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/01/16/brazilian-website-creates-fake-gi...

Manti is gay. No way he can admit this at a major D1 football school...much less the Catholic hall of fame. Additionally no NFL team would draft him. Makes up a "girlfriend" to take the heat off why he isn't out with chicks. "Kills" her off for sympathy and to make the story go away (breaking up would cause reporters to go find her).

Absolutely no facts in my statement, just a guess that make the story no feasible.

This is the only reasonable explanation I can come up with for this whole Manti girlfriend debacle.

The best part about this story is how shit journalism has become in this country.

latest news is that Roniah, his male cousin, and female cousin all took COUNTLESS hours out of their lives to do these. Apparently the female cousin spent every night "falling asleep" with Te'o on the phone for that ridiculous span. I don't know about most Americans, but this is absolutely ludicrous. You can't tell me they wasted that much of their lives for in the end to get a "hahahaha we tricked ND's star LB". Just doesn't make sense.

I want the guy from the Catfish movie and MTV show (Nev) to investigate this and do an episode. The show is absolutely crazy, just like this "hoax". He is great at getting the perpetrator to open up and spill the beans on the situation.