manti te'o's dead girlfriend is a hoax: with update

So it turns out the big sob story of the year in college football was completely made up.

I really didn't start this blog to just be an anti Notre Dame blog. But if that's the way the tide is going, who am I to stop it? There are already two dead bodies related to Notre Dame football, there now could be a third... Kind of, well not really.

You've all heard Manti Te'o's inspirational story about how he played against Michigan State the same day his girlfriend and grandma were killed.

Now according to a Deadspin article just released, it seems it was all a hoax.

The long and short of it is that although he really did lose his grandma on Sept. 11 of last year, there are no records anywhere of Lennay Marie Kekua's death. No official records could be found in the newspaper, online, or anywhere else. There are no records of her ever being enrolled at Stanford, no records of her being involved in a car wreck, frankly there is no record of her existing. 

According to that article the picture being used as Lennay is that of some random woman who has never even met Te'o.

Supposedly Notre Dame is about to release a statement here very soon and I can't wait to see how ESPN and SI talk about this, if they do at all.

I'm also dying to see why he'd do this. Publicity? Covering up being gay? Massive shithead? Some combination of all the above.

Stay tuned.

edit: the Notre Dame statement:

Te'o statement:

"This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her. "To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating. "It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother’s death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life. "I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been. "In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was. “Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I’m looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft."