Te’o’s Online Relationship Threatens His Draft Standing

Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o, the star on the #2 college football team in the country and runner up in the Heisman voting, has a mystery that is could be bigger than any other story in sports history and could drastically impact his draft stock.

At the beginning of Te’o’s freshman year at Notre Dame he started dating a woman he met online named Lennay Kekua. As a senior still at Notre Dame Kekua and Te’o were dating for about three years, but Kekua was never real.

In September, during the season, Te’o found out the morning that his grandma had passed away. Later that same day Te’o got a call from Kekua’s brother. He told Te’o that Lennay had passed away from Leukemia.

According to CBSSports.com, Te’o said, “Coming back to play football following the deaths of my grandmother and girlfriend just four days apart this season makes everything I’ve achieved since then more worthwhile.”

On September 15th, just a couple of days after his grandmother and girlfriend’s passings, Te’o went out and played in a game against Michigan State and recorded 12 tackles in the 20-3 win over the Spartans.

After the game Te’o Told ESPN reporter Heather Cox that Kekua and his grandmother were with him during the game. “So, I couldn’t do without them. I couldn’t do without the support of my family and my girlfriend’s family,”  he said,  “I’m so grateful for all the love and support that all the fans, both Michigan State and Notre Dame, and fans around the world for supporting me and my family and my girlfriend’s family. I miss them. But I know that I’ll see them again one day.”

On December 6th Te’o got a call from the number that he contacted Kekua with prior to her death. “ The voice on the phone was Lennay’s,” Te’o said to Katie Couric in an interview. “She told me that she wasn’t dead, I was confused and very, very angry”

A couple days after the interview Te’o got a text from an unknown number that identified a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo that created Lennay Kekua who, according to DeadSpin.com, had an instagram that had pictures of him and Te’o on it. The instagram account is now deleted.

Te’o said in his interview with Couric that Tuiasosopo was sick and that his prank caused Te’o and his whole family a lot of trouble. “I forgive him though” Te’o said “I hope he learned his lesson.”

Tuiasosopo, in an interview with Doctor Phil, said that through the three years of being Lennay that he developed feelings for Te’o. When asked if he was gay, Tuiasosopo said “ In this case, yes.” Tuiasosopo concluded the interview saying that Te’o had no participation in creating this major hoax.

Even though Te’o is reported to having no participation in the creation of Kekua, many think Te’o’s draft position will majorly drop. “Being the quarterback of the defense is more than a physical job, it’s a cerebral one, and the ability to be tricked in such a way could be a red flag for teams,” said Los Angeles Times writer Sam Farmer,  “It’s one of those teams, after all, that would be investing millions of dollars in him.” Farmer said.

According to Gil Brandt, a long time scout expert, the Kekua hoax has Te’o dropping from 9th overall pick in the 2013 NFL draft to 19th overall to the New York Giants.