This is extremely weird and probably won't make sense to many, but Manti Te'o, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish linebacker, never had a girlfriend who died of leukemia back in September. Lennay Kekua, in fact, was made up.
Unfortunately, we don't know who to trust in this story because the media spun the story and played along with whatever Te'o told them. ESPN was in on the mix as well as they reported stories in relation to Te'o's girlfriend and her death.
The story begins way back in 2009 when Te'o and Kekua supposedly established a friendship and exchanged numbers after a Stanford game. Here's the catch, Kekua was supposedly a Stanford student, but there are no records showing a Lennay Marie Kekua enrolled in their school.
The two became a couple in 2012 and she eventually had a car accident that initially almost cost Kekua her life. She then recovered from her accident, but was diagnosed with leukemia.
Check out the image of the girl used by the media as "Lennay Kekua"
Kekua was recovering from bone-marrow transplant, but died just days after being released from the hospital. This story coincides with the death of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, who indeed passed away on Sept 11, 2012 and there's proof that the 72-year-old lady passed away. According to deadspin.com, there are no records of Lennay Kekua that passed away.
The weird part is that Te'o would continue the story about this supposed Kekua girl in his life. He would use her in his stories when consoling others saying he understood what it was like to lose a loved one.
It gets weirder when coach Brian Kelly dedicated a game ball to Kekua after Te'o racked up two interceptions following her death. Te'o said "All she wanted was some white roses. So I sent her roses and sent her two picks along with that."
It's completely creepy. He never showed up to her "funeral" because, supposedly, Kekua told him never to miss a game.
So now what? How will NFL teams handle this?
Te'o is indeed an amazing star and should be a first-round draft pick, but how does a team trust a man who practically made up a situation and then used it to his advantage to gain popularity? He never stepped up to correct the media and was living a lie.
If punishable, how do you think Manti Te'o should pay for this?
This is almost too weird to believe.
