Te'o's account does not add up: Deadspin writer
By MICHAEL BLAUSTEIN
Posted: 10:35 AM, January 17, 2013
The explanation by Notre Dame and Manti Te'o's that claims he was a victim of an "elaborate hoax" has some holes in it.
According to the timeline of events that Te'o and Notre Dame have stuck to so far, Te'o became aware that his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, was a hoax on December 6th.
However, Te'o gave an interview on Jan. 3 where he did not deny that the relationship existed.
"He was asked about the turmoil with his girlfriend and he said, 'The team is special to him and they've been there for him through all the hard times.' He did not correct the questioner, so he's somewhat implicit in that," Timothy Burke, the author of the Deadspin article which uncovered the hoax, told NBCSports.
Beyond merely continuing the myth in the run up to the BSC National Championship on Jan. 7, there are multiple inconsistencies in Te'o's supposed online relationship with Kekua that need to be accounted for. Te'o is expected to meet with the media or give a one-on-one interview in the coming days.
The lies that both he claimed on multiple occasions to have met Kekua in person.
[Huh?]Chief among these encounters was the origin story of Te'o and Kekua's relationship when, "Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te'o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes," according to a South Bend Tribune account of the pair's first meeting after Notre Dame's game against Stanford on November 28th, 2009.
"The whole story about them meeting at the Stanford game in 2009, somebody had to have told that story to a reporter for it to become news," Burke said.
"Manti T'eo said, 'I can't wait to see her again.' See her? You never saw her for the first time. How could you see her again?" Burke continued.
In another account of Te'o and Kekua supposedly meeting, Brian Te'o told the South Bend Tribune in October 2012 that, "Every once in a while, she would travel to Hawaii, and that happened to be the time Manti was home, so he would meet with her there."
"Where'd that story come from?" Burke wondered, "Did it come from Te'o? Did it come from his dad? It originated someplace."
NY Post