CNN news 2013-01-21 加文本

cnn news 2013-01-21

A really bizarre, unbelievable story is unfolding right now tonight, a story that garnered a lot of sympathy and admiration for a Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o all season long. It's apparently been exposed as a hoax by the website Deadspin.com. Now, Te'o, almost won the Heisman Trophy this season. What he was supposedly dealing with off the field got a huge amount of attention. The way that story went, on September 11th, in the span of just six hours, Te'o got word that both his grandmother and his girlfriend had died. But Te'o went out and led his team to a 20-3 upset of Michigan State, he made 12 tackles on that day.

His strength in the face of such loss took on a life of its own. Well, ten days later, Te'o skipped to his girlfriend's funeral because she said she made him promise not to miss a game. Notre Dame crushed Michigan that day and the team's coach Brian Kelly, gave Te'o the game ball in the memory of his girlfriend. That's the moment right there captured by NBC sports.

But now Deadspin has learned that Lennay Kekua, Te'o supposed girlfriend never existed. That's right, there was no woman by that name. Te'o contends he was the victim of a hoax. In a statement he said, quote, "This is incredibly embrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with the woman I met online. 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."

Notre Dame also released a statement saying that on December 26, they 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 as Manti and conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia.

Now a lot of people are scratching their hands out now wondering how all of this could possible add up. Timothy Burke joins me now. He broke the story tonight on Deadspin.com. And David Haugh, the sports columnist with the Chicago Tribune.

Timothy, so I don't quite understand that Te'o released his statement today in reaction to your investigation and said he was duped by someone online from your reporting on this and you broke this story, does that add up?

"Well, you know, I think that my colleague Jack Dickey who wrote the story with me and I really sort of went out to not focus on anybody really sort of being the victim or the perpetrators here, Te'o's story that he is completely innocent in this doesn't really shake through with us for a few reasons. First we had a lot of stories about how they met, that you know she was a student at Stanford and they met after the 2009 football game, you know that it didn't happen."

"Right, it was supposed to be a face to face meeting."

"Where did they come, where did that story came from, you know, so there is some responsibilty there for that, when Te'o said, I know I'll see my girlfriend again someday, we know now that they never saw each other in the place. So what's he referring to when he says again someday."

ESPN did an interview with Te'o after what he said with the death of his girlfriend. I just want to play part of that.