Manti Te'o

Manti Te'o is speaking out about the 2012 catfishing incident in order to heal from it, he told "CBS Mornings."

"I want to bring more light to my grandmother because it almost is like this story overshadows her," Te'o said. Following the story, Te'o received backlash online for critics who said he was in on the scheme. "You don't expect for somebody to say 'Hey, somebody's dead,' and three months later, 'Somebody's alive.' What do you do with that information?" Reporters at the sports outlet Deadspin in 2013 were unable to locate records of Kekua's death or for a car accident on the reported dates. Football player Manti Te'o, who learned in 2012 that his online girlfriend not only faked her own death but also was not the person she claimed, says that he's speaking out about the situation so he can to heal from it. During Te'o's senior year at Notre Dame in 2012, he reported the death of both his girlfriend Lennay Kekua and grandmother within hours of each other.

The new Netflix documentary 'The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist' details how Polynesian football star Manti Te'o went from being a Notre Dame University star ...

Te'o was last signed with the Chicago Bears in January 2021 and did not play a game in the 2021-2022 season. In a moment of revelatory clarity featured in the doc, Te'o makes it clear he played his first three years in the NFL with his entire body feeling numb. Once the Deadspin article placed Te'o in an ignominious light, every NFL team passed on drafting him in the first round of the 2013 NFL draft. The photos that Tuiasosopo used to trick Te'o and other unsuspecting men originated from one of their friends, Diane O'Meara, who was mortified once she learned the web of deception Tuiasosopo weaved thanks to her photos. Through this ordeal, Tuiasosopo moved back to American Samoa and immersed themselves in the fa'afafine, a community that embraces people to identify and dress however they choose. Te'o remembers the con reaching cinematic levels when he would call her in the hospital and hear someone breathing through a mask as if they were really fighting for their life. More than nine years after Deadspin exposed the truth about Te'o dating a woman who didn't exist, the embattled and embarrassed former football prodigy is finally telling his side of the story in the new Netflix doc Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist. To make matters even worse, the island boy from Hawaii struggled to feel at home in the frigid Midwest, where he went from a "very strong Church of Jesus Christ community to probably the most predominant Catholic institution in the world." After Kekua told him she knew his cousin Shiloah, the star linebacker's cousin confirmed he had exchanged random text messages and calls with the mysterious young woman. By the time he entered the 2013 NFL Draft, he already had an online relationship with his fake girlfriend Lennay Kekua, told the world she had died (after finding out she had faked that too) and had every news outlet and comedian roasting him into oblivion. The hoax is both a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of blindly dating and a look into how internet culture has evolved into social norms. His sexuality was questioned after it was revealed the person behind the Lennay character was Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, and he lost out on millions of dollars in potential NFL salary after being drafted by the San Diego Charges in the second round following his first-round projections.

Te'o, 31, reveals in "Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist" that the incident haunted him for years as he tried to make it as an NFL player.

He played four seasons with the Chargers, three with the New Orleans Saints and was last active with the Chicago Bears in 2020. A handful of current and former Hawaii media personalities appear in old footage. “When I’m on the football field, I feel like nobody can beat me, and I played free and I played fast and I played physical. Te’o and Tuiasosopo recount, from opposite sides, the backstory to that season — Te’o being duped into a relationship through phone calls and messages, then, in a surreal sequence, him playing football through the tragedy of his grandmother’s death, followed by, supposedly, that of his girlfriend mere hours later. The revelation, and hordes of media, followed Te’o to the NFL Draft Combine and permeated his daily life. Part II encompasses the fall of player suddenly unsure of himself and the people around him.

Manti Te'o participated in a two-part Netflix documentary titled "Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist," in which he revealed his side of the infamous ...

Somebody was in the hospital,’ ” he said. “You don’t expect for somebody to say, ‘Hey, somebody’s dead,’ and three months later, ‘Somebody’s alive.’ What do you do with that information? I needed to reveal it,” Te’o said.

Also in Traina Thoughts: Patrick Reed's absurd lawsuit; 2022 NFL broadcast crews; Yankees fan did not get a haircut and more.

If one of the goals of the series was to make Tuiasosopo a sympathetic figure, then that’s the one thing it didn’t accomplish. What’s noteworthy and sad here is that Eckersley is getting attention for speaking the truth and being honest. The most powerful moments in the series, though, are the ones that highlight how much damage this did to Te’o and his family. Cohn, who recently re-signed with the network, talks about being at ESPN for 30 years and anchoring more SportsCenters than any other host in the show’s history. Reed claims Chamblee and Golf Channel have been “actively targeting” him for nine years to “destroy his reputation, create hate and a hostile work environment for him, and with the intention to discredit his name and accomplishments as a young, elite, world-class golfer.” Red Sox analyst Dennis Eckersley unloaded on the Pirates organization during last night’s game and his comments got a lot of attention. The CBS lineup is superior from top to bottom. And that’s the crux of this series. Part 1 of the series mainly focuses on how Naya Tuiasosopo, who recently transitioned, catfished Te’o in 2013 when he was a senior at Notre Dame. I don’t necessarily mean that in a positive way; at its root, this is a story about how an innocent man had his life messed with in a sick way. It was fascinating to remember what the Internet and sports blogosphere were like back then. (Full disclosure: Dickey is a former SI colleague and current Sports Illustrated union rep who I’m friends with, and Burke will be a guest on

Former Notre Dame star Manti Te'o and the perpetrator revisit the elaborate hoax that became an Internet sensation in a new documentary.

Tuiasosopo explains in the documentary that she created Kekua partly because she was “hurting” and struggling with her identity. “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,” Te’o said in the documentary that he verified her through mutual acquaintances, and catfishing wasn’t as well-known back then. “You’re going to have hundreds and thousands and millions of people that tell you, ‘You ain’t worth nothing, man,’” he said, “but there’s going to be the one that’s going to say, ‘You’re worth the world to me,’ and I play for that person. Te’o led the Fighting Irish to a 20-3 upset of Michigan State that week. In the documentary Te’o said his therapist told him, “You have to forgive that kid.

Te'o, 31, reveals in "Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist" that the incident haunted him for years as he tried to make it as an NFL player.

He played four seasons with the Chargers, three with the New Orleans Saints and was last active with the Chicago Bears in 2020. A handful of current and former Hawaii media personalities appear in old footage. “When I’m on the football field, I feel like nobody can beat me, and I played free and I played fast and I played physical. Te’o and Tuiasosopo recount, from opposite sides, the backstory to that season — Te’o being duped into a relationship through phone calls and messages, then, in a surreal sequence, him playing football through the tragedy of his grandmother’s death, followed by, supposedly, that of his girlfriend mere hours later. The revelation, and hordes of media, followed Te’o to the NFL Draft Combine and permeated his daily life. Part II encompasses the fall of player suddenly unsure of himself and the people around him.

HONOLULU — A new two-part Netflix documentary takes a fresh look at Hawaii native Manti Te'o and the infamous catfishing hoax that ensnared the former college football star a decade ago. “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist” is a roughly ...

He played four seasons with the Chargers, three with the New Orleans Saints and was last active with the Chicago Bears in 2020. A handful of current and former Hawaii media personalities appear in old footage. “When I’m on the football field, I feel like nobody can beat me, and I played free and I played fast and I played physical. Te’o and Tuiasosopo recount, from opposite sides, the backstory to that season — Te’o being duped into a relationship through phone calls and messages, then, in a surreal sequence, him playing football through the tragedy of his grandmother’s death, followed by, supposedly, that of his girlfriend mere hours later. The revelation, and hordes of media, followed Te’o to the NFL Draft Combine and permeated his daily life. Part II encompasses the fall of player suddenly unsure of himself and the people around him.

The new Netflix documentary “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist” tells the story of how Manti Te'o was a victim of an elaborate and cruel catfishing ...

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A new Netflix documentary digs into Manti Te'o's football career. He chose to play for Notre Dame after being highly recruited — and after feeling confident ...

... I knew that the Lord was trying to tell me something,” he said. I just always thought you’d go to a place like Notre Dame and be the only Manti Te’o,’” Te’o recalled for Netflix. “I told my family I was going to go to SC. From the beginning, Te’o was most interested in the University of Southern California, the program he’d loved since he was a kid. Make sure you pray about it.’ The next day, I’m sitting in class and I say, ‘Heavenly father, I want to go to SC. The film has brought renewed attention to his college career, which was followed closely by many BYU fans.

The Manti Te'o documentary is officially out on Netflix. It dives deep into what happened with the catfishing event when he was at Notre Dame from 2009-12.

Manti and I were teammates during his first 2 years in the NFL (my final 2 seasons). The dude showed up to work like a pro and wore a smile most days. The Manti Te'o documentary is officially out on Netflix.