I’ve mentioned this before, but the one Notre Dame game I’ve been to was the 2012 win over Michigan. It was the Irish’s first home contest after the apparent death of Manti Te’o’s girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. The student cheering section waved leis in support of Te’o. But no one, including Te’o, suspected they were being had, and now, the ESPN series “Backstory” is ready to examine it.
Up next on BACKSTORY… Manti Te’o: Too Good to Check.
Coming this fall… pic.twitter.com/rzVzmGI1lz
— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) June 29, 2020
John Buhler of FanSided gave a nice reaction to this news and mentioned what many of us still think about the whole thing years later. The revelation that Te’o had been catfished was one of the most bizarre bombshells in the history of sports. Fortunately for Te’o, the story had faded from the public consciousness by the start of his NFL career.
Enough time has passed that this hoax can be examined with all available information. Some lessons are bound to be learned, or at least relearned, in this documentary. The obvious one is you probably should actually meet someone before claiming to be in a relationship with them. The rest will be realized as we watch this story unfold all over again.