Sports Circus January 19th, 2013 Edition | Page 5

MANTI HOAX'O?

By: Ryan Welte

Perhaps the story of the year in college football: Notre Dame's great season lead by Heisman candidate Manti Te'o. It turns out, everything we may have known about Manti Te'o,

This is possibly the most bizarre story I have ever heard. Apparently Te'o had been speaking with a girl online but had never met face to face with the so called "Lennay." It turns out Manti was tricked by 2 men and a women.

Te'o said in an interview with Jeremy Schaap that he "tailored" his stories so people would think he "met her before she passed away."

Te'o also said, "I wasn't faking it. I wasn't part of this." in the 2 1/2 hour interview.

Thankfully the facts came out before I had to write this story, so I didn't have to analyze who was lying and who wasn't. Before I explain my feelings, I want to say that I feel terribly for Te'o and can't imagine what would make people want to trick someone like that. It is just plain cruel.

As for Te'o, he should have known better. This situation is very unfortunate but it makes him look gullible and dumb. In a three year period, Te'o should have figured it out, that this

fake girl never

wanted to see

him face-to-

face. Why?

Because she

doesn't exist!

There were

multiple

planned

occassions in

which Te'o and

Lennay would

meet, but the

people behind

the prank

would make up

last second cop-outs to continue the joke,

As for whether this hurts his draft status, it shouldn't. It certainly doesn't help, but it shouldn't prevent a team from recognizing his on the field talent. I think Te'o will fall to a late 1st rounder, but not because of this scandal, but becuase he just played poorly in the National Championship against Alabama. Te'o mentioned that in the interview but said it didn't affect his play in their 42-14 loss. I don't buy it. That kind of news doesn't keep you from performing well at your job, no matter what it is.

The craziest part to me is the lack of effort on Te'o's partto insist that he see her in

person. Schaap asked

Te'o why he didn't go

see Lennay in the

hospital during her

cancer treatment.

"It never really

crossed my mind. I

don't know. I was in

school," he said.

Also surprising were

the actions of Notre

Dame athletic

director Jack Swarbrick who nearly broke down into tears infront of the media, insisting that Te'o was duped, without knowing for sure. If he had been incorrect, he would have lost his job, looked

like a

fool,

and

Notre

Dame

would

have

looked

pathetic.

While I feel horrible for Te'o, I'm glad to find out that he wasn't trying to fool the media.