I’ve been a Notre Dame fan for as long as I can remember. When I had the chance, they were my choice for college. I went there from 2009-13, so Manti Te’o holds a special place for me. We were there for the same 4 years, and he was the best player in my class.
On the field, he was an incredible player. With over 400 tackles, he ranks third in school history. Senior year he even got 7 interceptions as an inside linebacker. He was the heart of the defense that got ND to the national championship game, won basically every defensive award he was eligible for, and came in second in Heisman voting.
Off the field, he’s the victim of maybe the most famous catfishing scandal ever. Naya Tuiasosopo, pretended to be Lennay Kekua, a Stanford student, and catfished Manti for several years. None of this is under dispute.
What is controversial is whether Manti was involved in this or not. After the Deadspin article dropped, it was taken essentially as fact based on the “reporting” that Manti was in on the whole thing.
A friend of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo told us he was "80 percent sure" that Manti Te'o was "in on it," and that the two perpetrated Lennay Kekua's death with publicity in mind. According to the friend, there were numerous photos of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and Te'o together on Tuiasosopo's now-deleted Instagram account.
The sheer quantity of falsehoods about Manti's relationship with Lennay makes that friend, and another relative of Ronaiah's, believe Te'o had to know the truth. Mostly, though, the friend simply couldn't believe that Te'o would be stupid enough—or Ronaiah Tuiasosopo clever enough—to sustain the relationship for nearly a year.
There are 2 things I’d like to address here. Firstly, Manti could absolutely have been that stupid.
More importantly, we’re basing this entire thing on 2 people who are guessing that Manti was probably in on it. This isn’t reporting. I went to school with Manti, too, can I be a source? There’s no evidence, these people don’t know anything, it’s just guessing. You’re also essentially accusing Manti of faking a person and killing them for the purposes of getting more football exposure, which is basically calling him a sociopath.
Obviously Manti did get catfished, and maybe he got caught up into making the relationship into a bigger deal than it was. But to say he was in on it just because some people who weren’t involved think he might’ve been is going too far. Manti has been unfairly maligned for 12 years, and it’s time for it to stop.