To compare Kevin McDougal to Everett Golson is perhaps too facile and superficial, but here goes: mobile quarterbacks from the South, consistently good enough in their bright-lights debuts to put the Irish in contention for a national championship. Sure, Kevin never had to look over his shoulder at a Tommy Rees, but both brought similar styles to a program trying to get back to the top. They are, in a way, the perfect bookends to our twenty years of “irrelevance.” You can imagine, then, my excitement when both Kevin and Oscar McBride (’94, www.oscarmcbride.com), agreed to sit down with me on January 17 and discuss the past season, Coach Kelly, the program’s direction and, of course, Manti Te’o.

“I Threw Up In My Mouth.”

When asked for his thoughts on the Alabama game, Oscar came out firing. “I threw up in my mouth.” I played tight end during the Holtz years. Back then, tight end didn’t mean being spread out in four wide. It meant being an extra lineman and opening up lanes for Jerome Bettis and Lee Becton and making sure that K-Mac stayed clean. So, [the NCG] was troubling. We were ‘out-physical-ed’ [and it looked like] we flinched. We looked like we were just happy to be there.”

Kevin agreed. “It’s hard to see a team get beat that way. It felt like from an offensive standpoint [that] we were not doing enough. We didn’t use the quarterback’s talents the way we had. You can still strike fast with a QB like that. We were behind to [Boston College] by 21, but we never went to five wide. [Coach] Holtz let me check to what I felt best doing. I’ve never been on [Coach] Kelly’s sideline, so I don’t know what he let Everett Golson do, but I know that when you coach against a cutting-edge coach like [Nick] Saban, you have to let your quarterback loose.”

Both former ND standouts were perplexed by what appeared to be a limited, and confounding, playbook in the big game. “[It was] disturbing,” said Oscar. “We didn’t run any draws or any screens.” “No post routes or underneath stuff,” added McDougal. Clearly frustrated, Oscar asked to no one in particular, “why go at the All American corner?” Pausing for either effect or in frustration, he continued, “football is a simple game. At the end of the day, it’s simple. You go where they are not. We seemed to go at [Alabama’s] strengths.” Later in the interview, Kevin returned to the topic to say, “that’s what was so disturbing. We didn’t try a trick play or anything.”

“If I’m getting beat to death, I’m going to blitz more.”

That my two interviewees played offense was not going to stop me from trying to get answers about the poor showing by our defense in the NCG. Kevin was quick to express his bewilderment about an anemic display that never changed throughout the game. “If I’m getting beat to death, I’m going to blitz more. I’m going to cause chaos and not let a QB like that have time. Any blitzes we did run came way too late and weren’t disguised enough. They played [the game] on grass and Landry looked pretty clean!” Oscar emphasized that on defense we seemed to play into ‘Bama’s strengths as well. “We didn’t take anything away from them. We didn’t put eight in the box and make McCarron beat us.”

Then, Kevin turned the tables and asked, “where do you draw the line in being a good athlete? How do you stack our athletes against theirs?” But these were questions to which Kevin knew the answers. “At some point, you throw the book away and just make plays. Against Boston College, we didn’t make plays all game. We didn’t play well. But at a certain point, we said ‘that’s it.'” Both former players cited specific plays in the NCG where the Irish just didn’t make the play. “Manti,” for one said Oscar, “came free in the A-gap and just missed Lacey.”

Oscar picked that theme up and ran with it. “As freshman, we were put in a room with Zorich and [the senior leadership]. They said, ‘you’re going to play our way, or this is not the team for you.’ Coach Kelly has done a great job changing the culture, but we still don’t have that bottom-line belief that somehow, some way, someone is going to make that play and we’re going to win.”

“Saban Can Do This With His Eyes Closed.”

Seeing that we were in the diminishing wake of the Coach Kelly-Eagles flirtation, I wanted their thoughts on whether they thought BK was the man to bring ND back, or whether he already had. To Oscar, the proof would be in the pudding and play of the upcoming season. “We’ll see next season. This will be [Coach Kelly’s] first senior class. They know his offense, his defense and his system. But, [winning and losing] is squarely on the men in the locker room.” “I agree,” said Kevin. “Kelly has a chance to build on what happened. I the game was a learning experience for Kelly, too. Saban can do this with his eyes closed.”

“Love Makes You Do Crazy Things. He’s Got To Know That the Moment Will Pass.”

When asked if he thought Manti Te’o had likely been affected in the NCG by the (then) secret hoax, Kevin was not sure. “Athletes handle adversity differently. We don’t know what happened. It could well have affected him But this is all one player, and the University is standing behind him, helping him get through and that’s what [recruits] want to see.” Oscar, though, was more certain that something wasn’t right with Manti. “We all watched the game and asked, ‘What the Hell is wrong with Manti?’ He was using his girlfriend’s death as fuel. He used it to get in the zone. And you put him on the banquet circuit and the trophies and I can’t imagine the guilt he must have felt. He was probably thinking about all the people he let down. I believe firmly that sport is life and how he handles this is the way he would respond to a different kind of loss.”

Kevin struck an almost fatherly note, adding “love makes you do crazy things. He [Manti]’s got know that the moment will pass.” That comment was Proustian madeleine for Oscar. “Remember our sophomore year (1991)? Tennessee calls it ‘The Miracle in South Bend.’ I remember how painful that was. And I remember Demetrius [DuBose] saying ‘if this doesn’t kill us, it will make us stronger.’ Manti can do that.”

“I’m on the Record: I’m Glad I’m Old.”

The Manti situation fomented more questions, mostly because I was fascinated to learn about the interaction between college stars and the world around them. Oscar started us off. “We had a class on how to handle the media and the expectations of being an ND player on the field, in the classroom and in the community. Of course, we didn’t have cell phones. I thought Tony Smith was the man because he had a beeper. We could go to our rooms and hang out. [To escape] all we had to do was not answer the phone.” Kevin carried on the theme by saying, “social media takes away your privacy. Everyone has access to you and can pretend to be your friend or your lost cousin.”

“Manti,” Oscar added, “shows that you can be a super human athlete and a celebrity and still be naïve enough to gall in love with a woman who doesn’t exist. These kids are babies and they’re thrust into constant media attention. It was hard enough for us.” Kevin quickly interjected, “now they can take a picture of you on a cell phone and doctor it. It’s scary. Back in the day, you could take a picture with anyone. Now…”

Oscar jumped in, laughing, “I’m on the record: I’m glad I’m old.”

“This is Going to Help the Program Big Time. Recruits Want to Play for a Winner.”

Since I had the opportunity, I asked Kevin about the looming battle royale shaping up at QB. He said that it’s “[a] nice problem. It shows to the recruiting classes that Kelly has great respect for them. He kept Golson in the whole game and I think that’s going to have Golson coming back with fire in his eyes. We’re going to be fine because at QB, if you’re set, you’re ahead of the game.” Oscar, too, was upbeat about the QB position. “[It’s a] great problem to have great backups. Make reservations now for the spring game. That competition will be insane.”

“For People to Give Him Grief for Looking at the NFL is Completely Unfair.”

I wrapped up the interview by asking for Oscar’s and Kevin’s thoughts on us, ND Fan, and the Eagles situation. Oscar started us off. “[Notre Dame] fans have always been consistent. They are by far the classiest group of fans I’ve seen. But that creates an expectation that you will be as loyal to ND as they are. You look at Coach Kelly. He’s always been fiery, he’s always been a hell of a coach and I think that gets NFL interest. He took over a team that was beat down and demoralized. For people to give him grief for looking at the NFL is completely unfair. There’s no loyalty in sport anymore. That he stayed is incredible. The fact that he [Coach Kelly] knew what was going on [with Te’o]. I’m not a big Pete Carroll fan. He just happens to leave right before the sanctions come down? Come on.”

Kevin, too, was nonplussed, if not impressed, by the whole thing. “I’m definitely glad he stayed. Like Oscar said, you definitely want to check. We all do that. If you have a great price on a microwave, you’re going to go check the other store just in case. I respect that he looked.”

As you can see, loyal readers, we covered a lot of ground. I cannot thank Oscar and Kevin enough for their time and their candor. These are special, special guys.

The post A Season Considered: Talking the NCG, Coach Kelly and Manti Te’o with Kevin McDougal and Oscar McBride appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

So without further ado, below is a timeline of all the events that I have been able to record (and most importantly, source) in order to help keep everything straight. Each event has a link associated with it so everyone can confirm the dates and my reasoning why I approximated certain dates/times like I did (as exact dates were not given for all events).

I will continue to update this timeline with any updates as they come my way. Feel free to fire away in the comments if I missed something (and please source via a link).

Manti Te’o Hoax: Timeline

Manti Te’o Hoax: What We Know

Manti Te’o Lied

Let’s just get this out of the way right now: Manti lied. He said so himself.

This likely can account for some of the discrepancies in some dates (e.g. when he started to date Lennay) as well as some of the details of the relationship. Considering he lied to his father, Brian Te’o, this might also account for why the South Bend Tribune article contains so many details that just didn’t happen. Even Eric Hansen, who wrote that piece, seemed beyond confused about this while asking questions during Swarbrick’s presser.

The bottom line though is that Manti made things a lot harder for himself by embellishing any details about his relationship with Lennay. There likely wouldn’t be nearly as much backlash and doubt on him if he had been truthful the whole time.

Manti Te’o Fell Victim to This Hoax

Despite the lies, Te’o is still a victim in the hoax. I’ve caught some flack on Twitter about this stance, but I think some people misunderstand what is means to be victimized in this case.

Let’s say I get one of those Nigerian scam emails or something like it and fall for it. I hand over money and rationalize it to my family and friends that I’ve met this person before and felt they were honest when they spoke to me. Later I realize I’m duped and cry foul play. Despite my obvious lie, I still got scammed. Just because I used poor judgement in talking to others and lying about the situation doesn’t change that fact.

With all the evidence now in front of us, Manti definitely believed Lennay was real (even up to the point until Ronaiah confessed to him just a few days ago!). He feel for the hoax. He might not have helped himself out when he lied to his dad, but the fact remains that he got suckered.

The Notre Dame Investigation Leaves a Lot to Be Desired

Perhaps one of the more shocking developments has been how the South Bend Tribune described this investigation:

The investigation ordered by Notre Dame was limited to the electronic search, Brown said. Investigators did not interview Te’o or his family, nor did anyone attempt to contact Ronaiah Tuiasosopo or any of his relatives.

In response to questions, university officials said the investigators did not examine cell phone records, e-mails or other electronic communication to determine the length or extent of Te’o’s communication over the past few years with the person claiming to be Lennay Kekua, nor did the university ask Te’o to take a lie detector test.

I assume that the University wished to protect Te’o’s privacy and just find any other evidence related to this hoax. This seems a bit odd to me, but I’m not even going to try and hypothesize on what Notre Dame decided in regards to any privacy issues.

The bottom line here is that Notre Dame was given enough information via Twitter alone that this was a hoax. I definitely wish phone records at the very least would be released, but it is what it is.

Notre Dame Knew About the Hoax When They Said They Did

Thus far, there has been no evidence to suggest that Notre Dame and its athletic department knew about the hoax any earlier than December 26, 2012.

There have also been many allegations and assumptions that Notre Dame somehow knew about the hoax and used it to help promote Manti. This of course, is traced back to the Michigan State and later the Michigan game. However, there is no proof of this. Again from the SBT:

Brown said university leaders have never had any reason to doubt Te’o or his word, and never had concerns that the extent of Te’o’s relationship with the dead “girlfriend” was overstated last fall.

The wearing of leis and chants of “Man-ti Te’o!” by fans during games was a grassroots phenomenon, Brown said. “It was not orchestrated by the university in any way,” he said. “We’ve looked back as an institution to ask, did we push that story as a tragedy? We don’t think we did,” he said.

And, on our end, I can confirm this when HLS decided to become involved with the “Leis For Manti” movement. I had members of TNNDN reach out to me back in September via Twitter and I decided to move forward based on those tweets. No one from any official Notre Dame channels ever contacted myself or HLS about promoting this movement.

The fans drove it and helped make it a success along with members of Student Organizations like the Leprechaun Legion whom operate outside the chain of command within the Athletic Department. Manti’s performance that night against Michigan and the success of the campaign helped to add even more visibility to the story.

If Notre Dame knew about this, evidence would have already come to light. Anything suggesting anything of the sort has been conjecture and opinion.

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo Is the Ringleader of the Hoax

Deadspin, any source that’s come to ESPN, Manti Te’o, and Ronaiah Tuiasosopo himself have confirmed this. There are other people involved, but Ronaiah remains at the center of it all.

Manti Te’o Hoax: What We Don’t Know

The Other People Involved with the Hoax

There are at least two others (one male, one female), but their identities haven’t been released as of yet. At this point, we likely won’t ever know until Ronaiah details his hoax.

Who Played Lennay on the Phone

Manti Te’o, Brian Te’o, and even Carlo Calabrese’s mom have all talked to someone claiming to be Lennay on the phone. But the identity of this person? Completely unknown.

How Brian Te’o Came Up with All the Details in the South Bend Tribune Story in October

Yes, we know Te’o lied to his father, but only about meeting her while in Hawaii. Where did the rest of the story come from? There’s details of a meeting during a 2009 Stanford game (which we now know as the wrong Stanford game (misunderstanding or another falsehood?) and Brain said there were multiple meetings with Lennay and his son.

Perhaps Manti failed to detail all the lies he told to his father or Brian further embellished the stories when the SBT called. Either way the only things we know for sure about this story is that the details came from Brian (Eric Hansen said this during a question at Swarbrick’s presser) and the erroneous facts presented in that article still need explanation.

[Update: 1/20 10:00pm ET] Move this into the “What We Know” column. Brian Te’o has cleared up his quotes with Hansen:

Brian Te’o was contrite about the misunderstanding, Hiltzik said.

“The statement included the qualification ‘as I understand it’ because it was based on information from a source later revealed to be Lennay’s (fake) brother.” “It’s sad,” Hiltzik added, “that well-regarded journalists like Eric, who are just trying to do their jobs, have joined the list of victims of this complex web of deceit.”

“I appreciate Brian Te’o setting the record straight,” Hansen said.

Who in the World Gave Deadspin Their “80%” Quote and What It Was Based On

Honestly, I don’t want to try to rake Deadspin through the mud. I’m not that petty. They broke the story and they got it largely right.

However, what they got dead wrong was the quote about a source being “80% sure” that Manti was in on this. I only harp on this because not only was Deadspin’s story the first narrative out, but that 80% quote has stuck for a lot of people.

I’m curious as to who feed them that line and what they based it on. Perhaps the source was referring to Manti’s lies to his father and the details about his relationship. Maybe the source simply got it wrong or based it on information they didn’t know it was false. Or, quite possibly, the source was full of shit and pulled the wool over Deadspin’s eyes.

Either way, of all things listed here, this is one thing I don’t ever expect to find out.

[Update: 1/20 10:12pm ET] Totally missed this in the media whirlwind, but J.R. Vaosa was one of the Deadspin sources and they confirmed it:

Another one of Smith’s sources, a man named J.R. Vaosa, spoke to us for our original story, saying Tuiasosopo had confessed to his best friend. He tried to put us in touch with her, to no avail. Vaosa was one of our two unnamed sources who believed that Tuiasosopo had been in league with Te’o in the deception.

Te’o’s role in the hoax remains the biggest unanswered question. Notre Dame’s investigators said they were certain that Te’o had no knowledge of the hoax before he received a phone call from the number he’d known as Lennay’s on Dec. 6. (Regarding the confession’s timing: Tweets accusing Ronaiah of masterminding the whole thing surfaced on Dec. 4.) But Vaoso, whose cousin had been duped by Lennay/Tuiasosopo in for a month in 2008, said he was “80 percent” certain that Te’o had known of the hoax at some point before Lennay’s “death.”

I’d still like to know what Vaosa based his initial quote on. Especially since they told ESPN the following:

“When I found out about the Samoan football player (and) his girlfriend, his Grandma died the same day, I was like, ‘Whoa this is crazy,’ I feel so bad for him, so I just looked him up,” Vaosa said. “I found out his girlfriend’s name was Lennay Kekua. And right when I read the name Lennay Kekua, I immediately thought of Ronaiah. Then I thought of my cousin — that this has to be the same person.”

The cousins said they were convinced Te’o was being victimized, but they were uncertain of what to do. They said they began tweeting their suspicions. Many of their tweets were laced with sarcasm including claims that they were the real Lennay Kekua. After Deadspin.com broke the story on Te’o and Swarbrick held a news conference, Vaosa and Tuioti-Mariner found reporters at their door and said threats were made to them and their families on Twitter.

The post The Te’o Hoax: A Timeline, What We Know, What We Don’t Know appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

More news has come out and this story has yet again taken even more crazy twists and turns. This will likely continue until Manti speaks and tells his side of the story, but until then, the speculation and craziness will remain.

But hey, the Roundup must go on right? Let’s get to the latest developments in this circus.

The Roundup

There is one member of the Te’o family that spoke out. Manti’s uncle, Alema Te’o, did an interview on The Zone Sports Network. In the interview, Alema talks about how Manti met Ronaiah Tuiasosopo before the USC game, along with a young girl introduced as Pookah, supposedly a cousin of Leenay, but in reality was Ronaiah’s little sister. Further, in this meeting, Ronaiah continuously brought up fundraising efforts that he was trying to start for yet another Stanford girl suffering from Leukemia. Perhaps we have more of a motive than just pulling a prank now.

If you don’t have 30 minutes to devote to listening to that interview. You can catch the highlights here.

The rest of the Tuiasosopo family though has stayed rather silent. Save for this Facebook post from Ronaiah’s father, Titus.

It seems that Ronaiah tends to go to the same well…a lot. First, there’s the story from Alema Te’o about him fabricating yet another girl with Leukemia above and then there is this piece from US Weekly (I cannot believe I’m actually linking something from there), that Ronaiah tried out for The Voice and had a great sob story about being in a car accident. You just can’t make up this level of WTF.

Apparently, Manti was supposed to talk this past Monday. According to Pat Forde’s sources, that was waived off. Further there was conflict within ND as to whether or not let the Te’o family break the news or to do it themselves. Of course, Deadspin then forced their hand on Wednesday.

While we await for Manti to answer everyone’s questions, we can look to his words in September. Sports Illustrated has released the entire transcript from his interview. It’s definitely well worth reading, especially to see that the rabbit hole went even deeper on this scam as Manti was led to believe that Lennay nearly died twice in her coma post-car accident and that even his high school teammate admitted to knowing Lennay even though he had never met her.

The Beer

All of it.

No, I’m not being lazy. I’m dead serious. We all need a beer or twenty after this week.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Yes, Even More Te’o Hoax News” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

It was all a lie.

Manti Te’o’s girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, was nothing more than a “catfish“, and the Deadspin story turned every Notre Dame fan’s world upside-down. Speculation ran rampant across the internet. Was Te’o involved in the hoax? Did Te’o create the hoax himself? Or was Te’o simply a victim?

To answer these questions, let’s take a look at everything that unfolded yesterday.

After the Deadspin story, Notre Dame released the following statement on their Facebook page:

On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.

This of course, leads to the obvious question: How in the hell did Notre Dame know about this for so long and let Deadspin beat them to the punch? While it would be rather understandable for Notre Dame to not want this out as a distraction before the BCS title game, it seemed rather odd that everyone would still stay silent after the game and even after Brain Kelly’s flirtation with the NFL.

Shortly after Notre Dame released their statement, Manti Te’o released one of his own to ESPN:

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. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her.

To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating.

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. “I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been. “In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was.

Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I’m looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft.

However, this statement conflicted with several parts of the Deadspin report. Most notably, the back-story of the relationship that Manti’s father, Brian Te’o, gave to the South Bend Tribune in October:

It never felt like a chance meeting, although it probably appeared that way from the outside looking in.

Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te’o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes.

…

Lennay Kekua was a Stanford student and Cardinal football fan when the two exchanged glances, handshakes and phone numbers that fateful weekend three seasons ago.

She was gifted in music, multi-lingual, had dreams grounded in reality and the talent to catch up to them.

The plan was for Kekua to spend extensive time with the whole Te’o family when upwards of 40 of them came to South Bend in mid-November for ND’s Senior Day date with Wake Forest.

“They started out as just friends,” Brian Te’o said. “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. But within the last year, they became a couple.

All of a sudden, we’ve gone from an “online” relationship to a story that has Te’o not just meeting Lennay at the Stanford game, but also spending time with her in Hawaii.

This left Irish fans with two possibilities. Either Brian Te’o helping build this lie, or he was simply trying to give his son a better story than “they met online” perhaps either out of personal embarrassment or protection of his son’s personal life. Either way, all Irish fans were left with were questions.

Enter Jack Swarbrick and his press conference (full transcript).

Swarbrick came out firing, placing his full confidence in Manti Te’o and his version of the events. He confirmed that Deadspin was correct in calling the whole relationship a hoax; however, Te’o was the victim and “nothing about what [he had] learned has shaken [his] faith in Manti Te’o one iota.”

Swarbrick went on to detail that Manti reported the following:

On the morning of December 26th, very early morning, Manti called his coaches to inform them that, while he was in attendance at the ESPN awards show in Orlando, he received a phone call from a number he recognized as having been that he associated with Lennay Kekua. When he answered it, it was a person whose voice sounded like the same voice he had talked to, who told him that she was, in fact, not dead.

Manti was very unnerved by that, as you might imagine. I will let him again talk about that and his reaction to it. But he maintained that secret vis a vis the members of the football family until he called the coaches on the morning of the 26th. They promptly reached out to me to inform me of this shocking piece of news, and I arranged to meet Manti upon his return to campus and did so on the afternoon of the 27th.

Later on in the press conference, Swarbrick explained that there was a twenty day gap (as the award show was on the 6th) in getting an initial because Manti first wanted to meet with his family before he did anything else. Swarbrick also stated that the public silence from Notre Dame was due to the fact that they felt that “this is Manti’s story to tell and we believe he should have the right to tell it.”

On top of that, Notre Dame didn’t even receive the report from investigators until January 4th. The next day, Swarbrick met with the Te’o family to discuss it. The result:

We left that meeting with an understanding that they would think about what they had heard, engaged Manti’s future representation, which would be determined later in the week, in consultation as to how to best respond, and keep the university fully informed of their intentions and work in concert with us when they were ready to communicate the story.

It was my understanding…is my understanding that they were on a timetable to release the story themselves next week when today’s story broke.

Of course, now that timetable has now gone to hell. Swarbrick believed that Manti might speak sometime today on this issue, but he couldn’t confirm it.

Even though Notre Dame clearly placed all their support behind Te’o, many burning questions were left unanswered. Sticking to the stance of letting Manti tell the story, Swarbrick differed questions about Brian Te’o’s back-story for Lennay as well as what exactly was uncovered in the investigative report. Swarbrick even went as far as to confirm that there were no plans to release it, which certainly didn’t ease my fears at all and I’m sure many Irish fans were right there with me. Even crazier, Swarbrick confirmed that the person calling as “Lennay” that December night wanted to keep the hoax going, explain away “her” death, and continue the relationship.

Later in the night, it was one strange story after another.

A report surfaced that an unnamed player wasn’t exactly too surprised that Lennay turned out to be non-existant. While the report seemed rather keen on getting a money quote about Te’o lying, the player went on to say that he felt that Te’o simply tried to keep up with the media storm around him. He went on to say while players were suspicious, no one ever confronted Te’o about it.

Then a report from Collegespun detailed how a website, Playerwives.com, were contacted by Lennay’s “sister” and requested that a piece about Lennay be taken down. The date of this request: December 6th, the same date Manti received his phone call from Lennay at the ESPN awards show.

The Big Lead also ran a piece wondering how Te’o now dead girlfriend was writing letters from the grave. The claim was that Te’o stated in an interview that he read a letter from Lennay before the Stanford game. However, a SI interview published in the fall clearly stated that these letters were written in advance and were read to Te’o by Lennay’s “siblings”.

There was also a report that Lennay’s twitter account magically sprung back to life; however, SBN proved it was fake.

One of our readers stated on Twitter that the rabbit hole went even deeper. He claimed that he took a photo with Lennay’s “family” outside the Coliseum before the USC game. [Editorial note: I requested this photo; however, the request was declined due to not knowing the ages nor identities of the parties in the photo.]

If that all wasn’t strange enough, an Arizona Cardinal claimed he actually met Lennay:

Reagan Mauia, an Arizona Cardinals fullback, said he believes Kekua existed because he met her in person when he and other Polynesian teammates and Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu went to do charity work in American Samoa in June 2011.

“This was before her and Manti,” Mauia said Wednesday evening. “I don’t think Manti was even in the picture, but she and I became good friends. We would talk off and on, just checking up on each other kind of thing. I am close to her family. When she was going through the loss of her father, I was — I offered a comforting shoulder and just someone to bounce her emotions off. That was just from meeting her in Samoa.”

Mauia said Tuiasosopo — whom Mauia believes is Kekua’s cousin — introduced the two. After the initial meeting, Mauia said he met her at an “after-party” for all of the athletes involved in the camp.

“She was tall,” he said. “Volleyball-type of physique. She was athletic, tall, beautiful. Long hair. Polynesian. She looked like a model … ”

He said it is his understanding that Kekua’s mother is operating her Twitter account. He said he’d never met her mother. When told by a reporter that she apparently might not have existed, Mauia said: “No, she is real.”

With all of this uncertainty floating about, the Twitter floodgates opened and the story started to become a bit clearer.

First, a former Stanford football player came to Manti’s defense:

https://twitter.com/MMasifilo/status/291735118819766272

Justin Megahan then blew the whole thing wide open, sending me on a Twitter hunt late into the night:

Well looky here, a couple people who new Lennay was fake joking about it a month ago. https://t.co/A1tVGGUN

— Justin Megahan (@justinrmegahan) January 17, 2013

And here's them joking about running the fake Lennay account earlier this month https://t.co/s6GcluIY

— Justin Megahan (@justinrmegahan) January 17, 2013

And here he is in early December outting Ronaiah Tuiasosopo https://t.co/cSSTLuOR

— Justin Megahan (@justinrmegahan) January 17, 2013

Hey, and here he is crediting Catfish as motivation https://t.co/zm8xXWv5

— Justin Megahan (@justinrmegahan) January 17, 2013

And here they are trying to contact the people from the Catfish doc about the scam http://t.co/vcRHlbZK

— Justin Megahan (@justinrmegahan) January 17, 2013

Here's another since deleted twitter account discussing the scam http://t.co/ZrRH8Pw4

— Justin Megahan (@justinrmegahan) January 17, 2013

With the genie out of the bottle, Twitter exploded. Soon more tweets were flying into my timeline about the hoax. The tweets below seem to back up not just Manti’s story of being victimized, but also Swarbrick’s account of the private investigation uncovering discussions about it from people online:

@jayRahz Lennays Resurrection day will be that day

— Celeste ? (@tuiguru_) December 19, 2012

lets all go to ronaiahs church n wear manti te'o jerseys lol

— TERRENCE DADO LUAPO (@BAMM90745) January 17, 2013

https://twitter.com/IvoryFlocka/status/286708645046149120

EVERY TWEET @jayrahz and I had about Lennay Kekua were all jokes. We knew from the beginning she was fake!

— Celeste ? (@tuiguru_) January 17, 2013

One of the players in this, “jay.R”, gave even more detail on his knowledge of the hoax:

https://twitter.com/jayRahz/status/291783250685349888

https://twitter.com/jayRahz/status/291783880841785344

https://twitter.com/jayRahz/status/291784129090056192

https://twitter.com/jayRahz/status/291784379234123776

https://twitter.com/jayRahz/status/291784953132376064

https://twitter.com/jayRahz/status/291785578431782912

And then I saw this:

Lmaaaaooooo so im just learning that this Lennay Gal did the same shiet to my cousin from Inglewood! "lennay" made a fake myspace profile

— joana (@bighomieJOJO) January 17, 2013

Of my cousin and used her pictures and shiet to talk to guys! LMAAAOOO Aint that some shiet.

— joana (@bighomieJOJO) January 17, 2013

A Google search does reveal that there is in fact a Lennay Kekua profile from MySpace. While the account is protected, Google still shows comments from the account from 4-5 years ago which matches up with the timeline of when “jay.R” found out about Ronaiah’s alter ego.

So with all of the above, where does that leave us?

Personally, I don’t see how Manti Te’o doesn’t come off as the victim in this whole situation. Despite that though, there are still some blanks that need to be filled in. Brian Te’o’s false comments about Lennay to the South Bend Tribune must be addressed. Manti would also do himself a big favor by detailing how he met “Lennay” as well.

While I’m disappointed that Notre Dame and/or Manti couldn’t get out in front of this story first, what’s done is done. Now is the time to be as open as possible and hold nothing back.

As Swarbrick said though, this will be Manti’s story to tell, and we should let him tell it. At the very least, the Notre Dame family owes him that before any final judgments are made.

UPDATE (1/17 12:53 PM ET): TMZ has now broken a story, complete with photographic evidence of Ronaiah and other people claiming to be Lennay’s family. Further Update (2:23 PM ET): TMZ has allowed HLS to publish said photos. Credit for both images below via TMZ.com: [Update 1/23: TMZ only allowed HLS to have the photos up for a week, therefore, they have been removed.]

UPDATE (1/17 1:11 PM ET): Pat Forde now has a clearer explanation as to why ND sat on the story. Sources confirmed that a decision was made to let Te’o break the story; however, for whatever reason they passed, allowing Deadspin to beat them to the punch.

UPDATE (1/17 2:37 PM ET): TMZ has released another story. Remember that family with a young child stricken with cancer that Te’o famously reached out to? They talked with TMZ and backed Te’o.

The post Hook, Line, and Sinker — Manti Te’o Reeled into Hoax appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.