In 2012, Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o seemed to have made an immensely popular name for himself, both on the field and with the public, by demonstrating his fearless leadership skills and dedication to his team despite a series of personal tragedies.
In September, it was reported that Te’o had lost his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, to leukemia and his grandmother within a matter of days. The news soon went viral, and Manti Te’o became a household name.
The shocking news that once again put Te’o in the media spotlight came Jan. 16 when it was reported that the death of Te’o’s Internet girlfirend was a hoax. The news came in light of the revelation that there was no record of Kekua’s death, and the real woman in the pictures on her profile claimed to have never met Te’o.
The scandal has also raised some questions about Te’o’s role in the hoax. In particular, there is speculation in the minds of those who have followed the scandal that Te’o played a role in promoting the death of a fake woman to enhance his chances of being awarded the Heisman Trophy.
Notre Dame quickly responded to this allegation in a statement on the NBC Sports website that was penned by the university spokesman, Dennis Brown. Brown stated that Te’o was a “victim of what appears to be a hoax.”
Te’o has also released a statement, saying, “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 a 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…. In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was.”
The Te’o scandal seems like a classic example of what airs every Monday night on MTV’s reality series “Catfish,” which chronicles Internet relationships and exposes many online identity hoaxes. The series derives from the 2010 documentary “Catfish” that details creator Nev Schulman’s online relationship with a woman named Megan. When Shulman ventures to meet Megan, he finds out that she is a completely fictional online person created by another woman named Angela. Shulman now hosts MTV’s “Catfish” to help unite people in online relationships that have ended like his own.
TIME Magazine reports that the term “Catfish” has now gained a place in the urban dictionary and refers to people who pretend to be someone they are not on social media (usually in pursuit of romance), while the individual who has been “catfished” is the victim of the hoax. Clearly, it seems that Te’o has been “catfished,” like many of the other people who appear on the MTV show.
Shulman was quick to express his sympathy towards Te’o and quickly dispelled rumors of Te’o’s involvement in the hoax by comparing Te’o’s situation to his own experience.
Although Shulman and those involved in MTV’s “Catfish” are still looking into the situation, Fox News suggested that Shulman has reached out to Te’o, citing a tweet stating, “I know how you feel. It happened to me. I want to help tell your story & prevent this from happening to others in the future. Let’s talk.”
