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Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax


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http://www.tmz.com/2013/01/17/manti-teo-ronaiah-tuiasosopo-scandal-hoax-notre-dame-photo-girlfriend/

All SCAMS Lead to

RONAIAH TUIASOSOPO

The Manti Te'o not-really-dead-girlfriend hoax was perpetuated by a man namedRonaiah Tuiasosopo -- who served as a representative for the family of the fake "Lennay Kekua" ... and TMZ has the photo proof.

Here's what we know ...

While Manti was "dating" Lennay ... a Notre Dame die-hard fan who we'll call "Jan" (to protect her identity) reached out to Lennay on Twitter and began an online friendship.

After Lennay's supposed death, Jan became involved with a group called "Wear a Lei 4 Manti" -- in which fans wore Hawaiian leis to ND football games to show their support for the football star.

When the "Wear a Lei 4 Manti" movement began to receive media attention, Jan says she noticed she gained a Twitter follower named U'ilani Rae Kekua.

Jan tells TMZ ... she reached out to U'ilani and asked if she was related to Lennay -- to which U'ilani replied, "Yes, that's my baby sister." The two became friends.

In fact, Jan says they both mentioned how they were going to attend the Notre Dame vs. USC game in L.A. on November 24, 2012 ... so Jan sent U'ilani her cell phone number in case she wanted to meet up.

Here's where the story takes a turn ... Jan tells TMZ she got a phone call from U'ilani on the day of the game directing her to the famous Tommy Trojan statue in front of the stadium, so they could meet up.

But when Jan arrived to the statue, U'ilani was NOT there ... but guess who was --Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. Jan and Ronaiah even took a photo together (see above).

According to the Deadspin article, Ronaiah was the person who obtained the photo of the woman everyone believed to be Lennay ... and is suspected of having a major role in the hoax.

Jan tells us Ronaiah was with a little girl during the USC meeting who they called Pookah-- and together, they explained how Lennay's sister couldn't come down to visit, so U'ilani sent them instead. Jan says Ronaiah "made it seem as if he was a member of Lennay's family."

After Jan and Ronaiah took the picture together -- Jan says Ronaiah began to act paranoid ... and told her, "Make sure you don't post this photo online."

Soon after the game, Jan says she was contacted by U'ilani ... who also urged her NOT to post the picture of Ronaiah. She didn't explain why.

U'ilani later sent a photo to Jan showing a woman at a cemetery -- and told her, "This is me and my family at Lennay's gravesite. We're spending the day here."

0117-ronaiah-subasset-tmz-3.jpg

Clearly, the woman in the photo is not U'ilani ('cause she doesn't really exist) ... and some digging suggests the woman in the photo is actually a woman named Donna Tei, who doesn't seem to have a relationship with anyone involved in the hoax.

There's more ... Jan tells TMZ Lennay's "sister" continued to reach out to her after the USC game ... and delivered some more bad news -- that little Pookah had been diagnosed with lupus and was dying in a children's hospital in Orange County, CA.

Jan said she wanted to send flowers -- so Lennay's "sister" gave her an address. TMZ has learned the address belongs to a member of the Tuiasosopo family.

Jan also gave us the phone number Lennay's sister would use to contact her -- and we found out the number is registered to a man named Titus Tuiasosopo -- Ronaiah's father.

We tried to reach out to Ronaiah -- but we couldn't get a hold of him. So far, he has yet to comment to the media about the story.

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Can this get any more bizarre?

This sh*t is really ****ing weird.

it really is incredible. Swarbrick crying yesterday was priceless. Manti being treated like he has the intellect of a 3 year old was hilarious. Dated the girl for 3 years, no facebook, phone pics, tweeter,skype, etc, bizarre that there is so little of an online footprint. It's only going to keep getting better.

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I cant wait until the exclusive interview with Ron Tuiasosopopo

What I'm really waiting for is when all of the linking comes back around to eventually to show that his cousin Marques was in on it and how this evil scheming all started up with him sometime back in 2007. It will then be revealed that he got the idea from his employer at the time, ultimately placing the blame for all of this where? That's right.... the New York Jets.

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What I'm really waiting for is when all of the linking comes back around to eventually to show that his cousin Marques was in on it and how this evil scheming all started up with him sometime back in 2007. It will then be revealed that he got the idea from his employer at the time, ultimately placing the blame for all of this where? That's right.... the New York Jets.

:rl:

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Sources: Manti Te'o's representatives passed on chance to release story about fictional girlfriend

http://sports.yahoo....dGlvbnM-;_ylv=3

In the days following the BCS championship game, there was significant internal debate at Notre Dame about when to go public with the revelation that star linebacker Manti Te'o's girlfriend was a hoax, Yahoo! Sports has learned.

Some administrators were pressing for a unilateral public disclosure by the school, while others wanted to let Te'o himself make the stunning news public, the source said. Notre Dame officials were in contact with Te'o's agent, Tom Condon of Creative Artists Agency, and were told the Heisman Trophy runner-up planned to release his version of events Monday. The decision was made to wait and let Te'o and CAA control the message.

But that disclosure never came, and instead the news broke in a bombshell report from Deadspin on Wednesday afternoon.

"Their plan was Monday," the source said. "In hindsight, we shouldn't have given them that time."

A call and email from Yahoo! Sports to Condon were not immediately returned Thursday.

The website reported that Lennay Kekua, widely reported to be Te'o's late girlfriend who died of leukemia in September, never existed. The story became the most compelling narrative of the college football season, with Te'o a willing party to it by discussing his relationship with Kekua.

Te'o and Notre Dame now say he was the victim of the hoax, not a perpetrator of it. But the school's delay meant it had to react to the Deadspin report instead of proactively announcing it.

Despite failing to get in front of the story, a source said Notre Dame officials were certain it would become public knowledge.

"There was never a belief in any quarter that it wouldn't get told," the source said.

The hoax started coming to light in early December, according to sources.

While attending the ESPN college football awards show in Orlando, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Te'o got a call from the phone number he had associated with Kekua. Te'o was deeply disturbed by the call and suspected it was Kekua's purported sister. Although Te'o's parents were with him in Orlando, he did not inform them of the call, a source said.

The person kept calling and saying it was Lennay herself, and over the course of 10 days Te'o engaged the woman in several conversations.

"He was asking questions only Lennay would know," said the source, adding that phone records show multiple calls between Te'o and that number.

By the time first-semester classes were over at Notre Dame, Te'o was convinced Lennay Kekua was a hoax, the source said. He went home to Hawaii for Christmas and told his mother about it on Christmas Eve. The day after Christmas, he informed defensive coordinator Bob Diaco, head coach Brian Kelly and athletic director Jack Swarbrick. Upon returning to campus, Te'o met with Notre Dame officials on Dec. 27 and told them he had never met his girlfriend.

That obviously ran counter to public comments Te'o had made, including a South Bend Tribune story that ran earlier in the season. Te'o's father, Brian, also was quoted several times in the media about his son meeting Lennay.

"That's pretty much Brian Te'o," a source said. "He's a great guy, but he loves to add color." Brian Te'o couldn't be reached for comment.

An IMG employee told Yahoo! Sports' Eric Adelson that Te'o is at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., on Thursday, where he is preparing for the upcoming NFL draft.

The school initially looked into whether the alleged hoax was a potential criminal act. When told it was not, it hired a private investigative firm to do some digging. The BCS championship game against Alabama in Miami Gardens loomed Jan. 7.

"While apprised by that investigative firm of their work along the way, we received a final report from them on January 4th," Swarbrick said in his press conference Wednesday night. "I met with Brian and Ottilia Te'o in Miami on the 5th to share with them the essence of those findings. 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."

According to a source, Te'o lacked his usual spirited demeanor in the days leading up to the championship game. He played very poorly, missing a high number of tackles.

"He wasn't the same spark in the locker room," a source said. "He was a different kid wearing the same number."

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According to a source, Te'o lacked his usual spirited demeanor in the days leading up to the championship game. He played very poorly, missing a high number of tackles.

"He wasn't the same spark in the locker room," a source said. "He was a different kid wearing the same number."

jeez. who is gonna draft this hot mess in rd 1?

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ESPN Knew About the Manti Te’o Hoax 10 Days Ago, But Was it in Their Best Interest to Report Anything Before the BCS Title Game?

http://www.thebiglea...bcs-title-game/

Sources tell me that ESPN suits in Bristol at the “top of the food chain” were made aware of the Manti Te’o hoax/fake girlfriend story on January 6th – the day before the BCS Title game between Notre Dame and Alabama. The game was televised on ESPN.

That’s one day after Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick met with Te’o and his family in Miami to reveal the contents of an investigation about who was behind the hoax that created Lennay Kekua.

When I reached out to ESPN for comment about being made aware of the Te’o story on Jan. 6th, I was told they only found out about it on Jan. 10th. That is when they claim they began to investigate the story.

Sources say after ESPN received the initial tip on Jan. 6th, they began to investigate the hoax angle, but some in Bristol wondered if it would be in their best interest to air anything they had in advance of the much-anticipated Title game.

A source says ESPN was unable to verify some information prior to the game, but continued researching the hoax in the days after the game. [This morning on his ESPN radio show, Colin Cowherd said he was told of the Manti Te'o hoax story Monday.]

Ultimately, verification was the big hang up, a source says. My guess, and this is pure speculation, is that ESPN is withholding revealing whatever it has while lobbying Te’o for the coveted “first interview.” Part of ESPN’s early reporting could be seen last night, when they surprisingly buried these bizarre quotes from an NFL player about Kekua.

One prevailing theory (read: speculation) connecting Te’o and ESPN: He decided after the title game that the best way to get this story out was through a media outlet, and that outlet was ESPN. Why didn’t it happen? Maybe Te’o's family (and his agent at CAA) thought this story would never come out (or he was still too embarrassed about it), even though AD Jack Swarbrick said a few times during his press conference he was certain the story would hit the media.

Yahoo’s Pat Forde has shed some light on the process:

Some administrators were pressing for a unilateral public disclosure by the school, while others wanted to let Te’o himself make the stunning news public, the source said. Notre Dame officials were in contact with Te’o's agent, Tom Condon of Creative Artists Agency, and were told the Heisman Trophy runner-up planned to release his version of events Monday. The decision was made to wait and let Te’o and CAA control the message.

So it seems Notre Dame wanted Te’o to get out in front of this to do some damage control, but the linebacker’s camp bricked, and Deadspin beat them to the punch.

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At least his not really dead from imaginary leukemia girlfriend gives crazycarl another excuse for why Teo and the rest of ND got dry humped up and down the field in the national championship.

Aww. How sweet of you to talk about me. It's so... lame. You don't know me so don't presume you do.

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ESPN Knew About the Manti Te’o Hoax 10 Days Ago, But Was it in Their Best Interest to Report Anything Before the BCS Title Game?

http://www.thebiglea...bcs-title-game/

Sources tell me that ESPN suits in Bristol at the “top of the food chain” were made aware of the Manti Te’o hoax/fake girlfriend story on January 6th – the day before the BCS Title game between Notre Dame and Alabama. The game was televised on ESPN.

That’s one day after Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick met with Te’o and his family in Miami to reveal the contents of an investigation about who was behind the hoax that created Lennay Kekua.

When I reached out to ESPN for comment about being made aware of the Te’o story on Jan. 6th, I was told they only found out about it on Jan. 10th. That is when they claim they began to investigate the story.

Sources say after ESPN received the initial tip on Jan. 6th, they began to investigate the hoax angle, but some in Bristol wondered if it would be in their best interest to air anything they had in advance of the much-anticipated Title game.

A source says ESPN was unable to verify some information prior to the game, but continued researching the hoax in the days after the game. [This morning on his ESPN radio show, Colin Cowherd said he was told of the Manti Te'o hoax story Monday.]

Ultimately, verification was the big hang up, a source says. My guess, and this is pure speculation, is that ESPN is withholding revealing whatever it has while lobbying Te’o for the coveted “first interview.” Part of ESPN’s early reporting could be seen last night, when they surprisingly buried these bizarre quotes from an NFL player about Kekua.

One prevailing theory (read: speculation) connecting Te’o and ESPN: He decided after the title game that the best way to get this story out was through a media outlet, and that outlet was ESPN. Why didn’t it happen? Maybe Te’o's family (and his agent at CAA) thought this story would never come out (or he was still too embarrassed about it), even though AD Jack Swarbrick said a few times during his press conference he was certain the story would hit the media.

Yahoo’s Pat Forde has shed some light on the process:

Some administrators were pressing for a unilateral public disclosure by the school, while others wanted to let Te’o himself make the stunning news public, the source said. Notre Dame officials were in contact with Te’o's agent, Tom Condon of Creative Artists Agency, and were told the Heisman Trophy runner-up planned to release his version of events Monday. The decision was made to wait and let Te’o and CAA control the message.

So it seems Notre Dame wanted Te’o to get out in front of this to do some damage control, but the linebacker’s camp bricked, and Deadspin beat them to the punch.

Oh, **** ESPN (and the rest of these douches). This has been going on for months and months, but we're now supposed to believe everyone else knew about it first (but just by a couple of days to excuse their lack of reporting on it)? I don't believe this load of sh*t for a second. They're just pissy because they got scooped on this story by ****ing Deadspin. They all had their heads firmly planted up their asses and don't want to have to admit how awful of a "news" source they really are.

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