Manti Te'o

The Emmy-winning Vainuku, whose documentary about four Polynesian football athletes, In Football We Trust, premiered at Sundance in 2015, is from Salt Lake City ...

In 2021, gymnast Simone Biles was central to NBC’s promotion of the Tokyo Olympics but when she withdrew from competition, it became a telling moment to see how the sports media would handle the story, along with questions about mental health stresses that elite athletes face. Likewise, ESPN, which had been called out for its gratuitous piece in 2012, still was aching to ask “hard questions” of Te’o, in its effort to redeem its sloppy journalism surrounding the story by doing its own retrospective for its Backstory series in early 2021. Undoubtedly, the UNTOLD episodes finally give Te’o the opportunity to reclaim everything he had lost and to do so on his own terms. Furthermore, the documentary leads to truths well beyond the focus on a tale of “catfishing.” At the time when their online relationship began, the phenomenon of “catfishing” was not as widely known as it is today. He was selected in the second round by the San Diego Chargers. Now a free agent, he also was with the New Orleans Saints and, more recently, the Chicago Bears. Without a doubt in watching both episodes, to quote Vainuku, Te’o “is the definition of faith, family and football.” His high school career in Hawai’i became a badge of pride for his parents, who were excited about his college prospects. Tuiasosopo is sincere in her remorse while Te’o, who is married now, epitomizes grace and acceptance, holding no grudges against Tuiasosopo while reinforcing the importance of his LDS faith. Among the last interviews Te’o had done on the matter was in early 2013 with Katie Couric, in the immediate aftermath of the revelation. He was the young Polynesian athlete who was the epitome of a culture based on the pillars of faith, family and football. Most significantly, it is a satisfying closure for Te’o as well as Tuiasosopo, who at the time of filming, was going through gender transition. For today’s premiere of the second volume of Netflix’s UNTOLD, its sport documentary series, the first two episodes titled The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist, directed by Ryan Duffy and Tony Vainuku, revisit Teo’s story. For reporters covering the culture of sport, Teo’s story was perfect.

The Sporting News looks back on the bizarre catfishing hoax that hooked the star Notre Dame linebacker.

The friend also claimed Tuiasosopo said Te'o was not involved with the hoax. 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. So I kind of tailored my stories to have people think that, yeah, he met her before she passed away, so that people wouldn't think that I was some crazy dude." Catfishing is often carried out with the intent of duping a specific victim. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating. He wants to be with his teammates, he wants to be with the people that care about him. In either instance, the person creating the persona will use photos from a real person, often without their knowledge or consent, to deepen the illusion their fabrication is legitimate. Deadspin also interviewed sources who suggested the Notre Dame linebacker had to have some knowledge he was the victim of catfishing — a practice in which someone impersonates or creates an online persona. Te'o's story was bolstered not only by his play, but also by significant attention from local and national media: He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and was also featured as part of a "College GameDay" episode, for example. In the postgame interview, Te'o spoke extensively about his family and how much they meant to him. But his support and his family at home have been great, and all of the coaches and players have been there for him.

The Netflix documentary "The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist" explores the 2013 catfishing scandal involving Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o.

The 31-year-old is not currently signed with an NFL and is a free agent. Overnight, Te'o went from a beloved up-and-coming college football player to the subject of mockery and jest as the story became internationally famous. "At that time, I knew for sure there was something inside of me that just wanted to scream out and be like, ‘Why am I different?’ There were a couple of encounters online where it was like, ‘This guy’s cute. It was what I wanted to be a reality." "The Lennay profile was not necessarily a way out but a way to something else," Tuiasosopo says in the documentary. However, in January 2013, Te'o found out his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, was not a real person.

Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist takes a fresh look at the 2013 scandal and the collatoral damage left in its wake.

It's a story about the lies we tell to feel alive, the lies we tell to save face, and the cost of not asking questions we don't really want the answers to. At the end of the day, the story of Manti Te'o, Naya Tuiasosopo, and the lie that grew too big not to leave some serious collateral damage in its path, is a lot more understandable than a lot of people were willing to allow at the time. But they also left a lot of questions unanswered in their initial story, and the national media was all to happy to swoop in and provide their own answers. That both Te'o and Tuiasosopo seemed to have arrived at a place of relative peace on the other side of this is a blessing. (Of course to not expect the national media to go all-in on a scandal about lies and sexuality when they could otherwise be talking about fact-checking practices in sports journalism is pretty naive itself.) The doc runs through the process of how Deadspin writers Tim Burke and Jack Dickey broke the story, and then how the national media ran with it, interpreting it in whatever way suited them. As both Burke and Dickey attest, this was the perfect Deadspin story: a way to make ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and the rest of the credulous, cheerleading sports media look stupid while tearing down one of that year's most pious myths in sports. As told in the two-part doc directed by Ryan Duffy and Tony Vainuku, the catfishing of Manti Te'o forms the root of a story about two incredibly lonely people whose circumstances had both more and less in common than was originally surmised. What elevated Te'o's story above the ranks of a typical catfishing story was in part sinister and in part circumstantial. Because Te'o was Notre Dame's top freshman recruit and this happened just before the football season began, it quickly became easy and enthusiastic fodder for the sports media, who took this story of double tragedy and ran with it all season. She tells a story that feels a bit less exotic in 2022, about feeling comfortable in an online relationship where she could pretend to be this made-up person. It its first season, Netflix's sports documentary series Untold did a good job of living up to its title, offering illuminating looks at stories that had previously not been covered covered nearly as extensively.

Manti Te'o -- the college football superstar who fell for one of the most famous catfishing scams to date -- is opening up on his decision to go public with ...

"Cam Jordan with the Saints took a bunch of us teammates to a Jay-Z concert," Te'o said on "CBS Mornings." Manti Te'o -- the college football superstar who fell for one of the most famous catfishing scams to date -- is opening up on his decision to go public with his side of the hoax ... saying attending a Jay-Z concert helped him come forward. Manti Te'o Jay-Z Inspired Me To Speak Out ... On Catfishing Hoax Now, Manti says he's happily married ... with one daughter, and a son on the way. Manti -- who was eventually drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft -- is now speaking about the whole thing ... and says he was first inspired to go public with his story after attending a Jay-Z concert as a member of the New Orleans Saints in 2017. Manti Te'o Says Jay-Z Inspired Him To Speak Out On Catfishing Hoax

He was the golden boy in his Hawaii hometown, active in his faith and easy to get along with. Then, tragedy struck. His grandma died, then his girlfriend. Both ...

Yes, it is a sports story, a football story to a degree, but really it's a story about two individuals who were pretty young at the time -- I think they were 19-, 20-years-old when they were building this relationship -- and so to us they were really the only two people that knew what those conversations were, that knew what their relationship was like, that knew how each other felt about one another. I think it was just something that felt genuine and important in the way that they talked about it. When we first talked to Naya, the way she spoke about her journey of self-discovery and a journey of self-identity was an evolving process. But I do think in a way, none of our documentaries, even though they're sports documentaries, really have anything to do with who's going to win the championship game, who's going to hit the three-pointer as the clock winds down and win the game for their team. But at the time that we were filming this documentary, her journey was evolving to a degree. Was there anything that surprised you as you all were going about the research and reporting process? One thing that stood out to me is this is a story about Manti obviously, but you choose to lead with Naya, and you just said that you actually spoke to her first. I don't think they wanted that media coverage to be the period at the end of this really long sentence that was a story between these two individuals. And so I think for both of them the opportunity to really interview at length, at deep, about this story was appealing and attractive to them. I think there was a pile of documentary pitches sitting in his inbox over the course of the years. It's just always been a white whale in the sports documentary space; it's something that my brother and I remember very well, just kind of reading the news media on it and all the noise. It was probably a call that was only going to be 15, 20 minutes, and we ended up talking to her for two hours.

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.

As the world reacts to a Netflix show about Manti Te'o and the infamous girlfriend hoax, we take a look at his life with partner Jovi Nicole.

I have a daughter and we have a son on the way,” he announced during an interview on CBS Mornings. “Yesterday I got to marry my best friend and the love of my life in an intimate beach ceremony,” As the world reacts to a new Netflix documentary about the story of football star Manti Te’o and the infamous girlfriend hoax, we take a look at his life with partner Jovi Nicole Engbino.

HE was tricked into falling for a woman who never existed - but Manti Te'o's heart was eventually made whole.The football star went on to find the lov.

"I'll take all this c**p. I'm trying to figure out all these ways to reprogram myself." He said: "I couldn’t give you the world but I think I did better … Like, when I'm on the football field, I feel like nobody can beat me. And that was what made me great. I gave you my last name and it looks good on you Mrs.

The pain of being catfished in front of the entire world has followed Manti Te'o for nearly a decade, but he is finally finding himself in a good place.

Netflix is perhaps more kind to Tuiasosopo than she deserves, and less understanding of Te’o than they should have been. Although beaten out by Johnny Manziel, Te’o was a highly touted linebacker who was tipped to be the first defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy since Charles Woodson in 1997. And in many ways he was right.

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.