The girl that wasn't there- and the girl who is:)

[captainsblog]

Yesterday, I posted about a client I couldn't find. At least I know, from firsthand experience, that she at least existed. The weirdest developing sports story of the week is about somebody who, apparently, never existed.

As you may have heard, Notre Dame University has a football team. Until they were decimated in a bowl game in early January, they were the #1 ranked team in the country, and their acknowledged star was a dude from Hawaii named Manti Te'o.  Manti had himself a Bad Day back in September, just as the college football season was getting under way. As the World Wide Leader explains it:

On Sept. 12, Te'o learned his 72-year-old grandmother, Annette Santiago, had died. Te'o said he was told just six hours later that Kekua had lost her battle with leukemia.

After Notre Dame's 20-3 win over Michigan State on Sept. 15, Teo said:

"My family and my girlfriend's family have received so much love and support from the Notre Dame family. Michigan State fans showed some love. And it goes to show that people understand that football is just a game, and it's a game that we play, and we have fun doing it. But at the end of the day, what matters is the people who are around you, and family. I appreciate all the love and support that everybody's given my family and my girlfriend's family."

He was asked again about his girlfriend on Jan. 3 prior to the BCS title game, saying: "This team is very special to me, and the guys on it have always been there for me, through the good times and the bad times. I rarely have a quiet time to myself because I always have somebody calling me, asking, 'Do you want to go to the movies?' Coach is always calling me asking me, 'Are you OK? Do you need anything?' "

"Kekua" would be a Hawaiian native, and Stanford coed, named Lennay Kekua. Or not- since as of this week, it has become clear that his girlfriend who lives in Canada  doesn't, actually, exist:

Friends and relatives of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, a high school classmate of Te'o, told Deadspin they believe he created Kekua. Kekua does not have a death certificate, Deadspin reported. Stanford, where she reportedly went to school, has no record of anybody by that name.

According to Deadspin, the only photos that have been found online that identified Kekua are actually pictures of another 22-year-old woman. That woman, not named in the report, told Deadspin one of those photos likely was shared by Tuiasosopo.

So, basically, it's a hoax. The only open question is whether it's a hoax on this player or a hoax by him. I've heard numerous audio clips of him, and of family members, in which he outright stated he'd met this "girl." So either he's dumber than a box of rocks, or he was in on the hoax and was using it to inspire his team to collegiate victory and/or raise his own standing in the upcoming NFL draft.

After the past several days, where numerous baseball players were denied Hall of Fame admission due to lying about steroids, and where Lance Armstrong has finally, apparently, come clean about his own history of lying, here we have one more lying, scheming, stinking, nasty sack of liquid crap.  And there's still an excellent chance he'll be drafted, by the Bills or somebody, in the first round of the NFL draft. Because, as one former player once explained, if Jeffrey Dahlmer could run a 4.4 40-yard dash, somebody would draft him and say he had an eating disorder.

Ultimately, though, the saddest part of this story isn't who fooled who- it's that WE were all fooled by the money machine that drives the denials of violations of truth, of financial limits, even of sexual abuse, when the cash registers of college football are involved. The story of this hoax was broken only today- not by a major newspaper, or Sports Illustrated, certainly not by ESPN, but by the sports website Deadspin, which prides itself on its independence from the follow-the-money trail of professional and semi-professional (i.e., college) sports. ESPN's own delayed lede on this story followed the money back to the pimps as well as anything I could say about them:

Notre Dame says a story about Manti Te'o's girlfriend dying, which he said inspired him to play better as he helped the Fighting Irish get to the Discover BCS National Championship, turned out to be a hoax apparently perpetrated against the linebacker.

Even after the breaking of the scandal news, and even a week after the event, ESPN is still compelled to refer to the national championship game by referencing its corporate "partner." All the more ironic, since it took an independent website to do all the "discovering" that got done here.

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Unlike Teo's girlfriend, lessthanpie is very real. And we're as lucky to have her with us as she is to be with us.  Happies of birthdays to you:)

Comments

[lessthanpie]

Thank you. :)

(I have met too many LJ people in person to ever pass for a fake anything.)

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

I don't follow feetsball, but I love the Dahmer analogy.

The Unindicted Co-Conspirator told me that a real woman who committed suicide after reporting a rape by a Notre Dame player received no mention at all.