Manti Te'o Catfished America

If you haven’t read the Manti Te’o story on Deadspin.com yet, I suggest you do so. It’s not only the most intriguing sports story of the past five years, it’s one of the most interesting stories I’ve ever read. I strongly suggest you read the full article, but if you’re one of those lazy “tl;dr” people, here’s the short version: Manti Te’o’s grandma and girlfriend died on the same day earlier this fall. The story galvanized sports fans, led people to donate thousands to leukemia research, and propelled Te’o and Notre Dame to the National Championship Game. Only it turns out that girlfriend never existed. That picture above, which sports fans were told was Lennay Kekua, is actually some random girl, who learned of the hoax when she saw her picture on the news a couple months ago. It’s still unclear whether Te’o was duped by someone in a cruel hoax, or if he purposely fabricated the story in order to gain publicity. Basically he’s Kaiser Soze, Tyler Durden, Ray Finkle and the balloon boy all wrapped up in one. Here’s an excerpt:

By Tom Z

January 17, 2013