Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o says he's the victim of a hoax surrounding his former girlfriend. (Photo: Matt Cashore, USA TODAY Sports) There are dozens of crazy things associated with the Manti Te'o "hoax story," first reported by Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey of Deadspin.com. The first, of course, is the hoax itself: Contrary to national reports, Te'o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, not only didn't die in September, she never existed at all. TE'O: Girlfriend story was a fake, as was girlfriend herself Outside of that one huge, enormous, unavoidable fact, here are the nine craziest aspects to Deadspin's Te'o-girlfriend-hoax story: 1. Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who Deadspin alleged created the Kekua persona, was friends with Te'o. Deadspin suggests in its piece (citing tweets by Tuiasosopo) that Te'o and Tuiasosopo met and spent time together during Notre Dame's trip to play USC in early December. 2. A friend of Tuiasosopo's told Deadspin that he was "80 percent sure" that Te'o was "in on it." 3. Stanford never had any record of anyone by the name Lennay Kekua attending the university. One of the original stories about Te'o and Kekua came in the Nov. 28, 2009 edition of the South Bend Tribune, which identified Kekua as a Stanford student. 4. After Notre Dame's 13-6 win over Michigan on Sept. 22, coach Brian Kelly awarded the game ball to Kekua. He gave it to Te'o and said "take this back to Hawaii," said the Deadspin story. 5. Te'o spoke about his girlfriend in a postgame interview with ESPN's Heather Cox following a win over Michigan State on Sept. 15: "They were with me. So, I couldn't do without them," he said, speaking of his girlfriend and his grandmother, who died on Sept. 11. "I couldn't do without the support of my family and my girlfriend's family. I'm so grateful for all the love and support that all the fans, both Michigan State and Notre Dame, and fans around the world for supporting me and my family and my girlfriend's family. I miss them. I miss them. But I know that I'll see them again one day."
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