Te’o’s Girlfriend and Modern-Day Journalism Have One Thing in Common: They Don’t Exist

Teo

It’s September 10th, 2012.

Manti Te’o is perhaps the most decorated defensive player in Notre Dame’s elaborate and successful history. He’s the star of the most popular (and overrated) college football team in America. He’s the captain of an undefeated team, and he’s the leader of a defense that ranks 7th in the NCAA. He’s projected to be a top-5 selection in the upcoming NFL draft, despite playing a position that historically never even gets considered within the top 10 picks. He’s a Heisman candidate even though he plays on defense, a side of the ball that is constantly overlooked. His moral compass points due north. His character is clean. He can do no wrong; everyone loves the guy.

On September 11th, Te’o’s beloved grandma passes away. Within hours, his girlfriend loses her battle with leukemia and dies. The media feels for him. ESPN spreads the news in a somber tone to millions of sports fans. The nation begins to blindly support him. Americans sympathize with his unimaginable losses, subconsciously rooting for him to play against Michigan State on Saturday, and to play well.

It’s September 12th.

You are a professional journalist. And on your boss, the editor of your website, magazine or newspaper, tells you, “I need a story on Manti Te’o’s tragedy yesterday.”

What do you do? How do you write it? Where do you start?

Well, obviously, you would start by describing what a great athlete and person Te’o is. And then your first instinct, as a professional journalist, is to try to get some quotes from sources close to the subject. Perhaps you’ll quote Te’o himself.  But you will most certainly try to contact his family or friends. You think to yourself: “There has to be someone with knowledge about the situation who is willing to talk.” You have to get quotes, and more importantly, you need some more details.

That all makes sense. After all, you’re getting paid to write a feature story on this tragedy in this famous athlete’s life. So you might as well find out what kind of relationship Te’o had with those who were lost. You need to at least write something about who his grandmother was, what she did for living, how close they were, and perhaps a nice childhood story of a time they bonded. For his girlfriend, you need to find out who she is, how long they were dating, how they met, how long she was battling cancer, what kind of organizations she participated in at Stanford, what she was studying and whether or not she was a good student.

After all, when someone passes away, that’s what you write about in his or her obituary:

WHO WAS HE? WHAT DID THEY DO? WHAT WERE THEIR PASSIONS?

RIP Nick Guarisco – Nick was a 22-year-old recent graduate of LSU. He graduated with “Cum Laude” honors in mass communications with a degree in public relations, earning a 3.77 GPA. He attended St. Paul’s High School, a place he held close to his heart. He had plans to go to law school in order to fulfill his dreams of working for the NFL in some form. A long time Saints fan, the NFL was his passion. He spent countless hours studying, analyzing and writing about the league. He lived by his wonderful parents, his loving younger sister, his incredible friends and his three fat dogs.

There’s mine.

So if I’m a professional journalist, and I’m writing a story about Te’o, those details are the kind I would absolutely need to make my story whole and informative.

Now, I’d estimate that at least 10,000 journalists wrote a story about this. Yet, it was just revealed publicly yesterday (Jan. 16) that his girlfriend did not in fact die because she actually never even existed.

So let me get this straight: there’s an athlete on that high of a pedestal, with that type of fame and popularity, who has a beloved girlfriend die during the season, and you’re telling me that no journalist, reporter or even fan found out she was completely made up until yesterday?!

I don’t even care whether he made this entire gig up or if it was a big catfish-sized hoax that he dramatically fell for. The real story here is NOT about that. To me, the real story is how NO ONE found out until yesterday! Sure, his family might have known privately. Notre Dame obviously knew about it for the past month or so. But not ONE SINGLE PERSON, not one journalist, not one reporter, not one teammate, not one fan, not one person knew this human being DID NOT EVEN EXIST. Wow.

How does that happen in today’s technologically-advanced and vastly networked society?

And how far has good journalism fallen?

Has it fallen so far, to where to everybody receives the news, but not a single reporter or journalist had the decency and put in the minimal effort to find out whether this story was even real, whether this person even existed? “It’s some simple mouse clicks and a phone call,” says LSU law student, Sam Collett. To simply call Stanford University and ask for Te’o’s girlfriends’ name (Lenny Kekua) isn’t even considered investigative reporting. It’s basic freshman Journalism 101. It’s absolutely mind-blowing that no one looked into it.

Teo did not even attend the “woman’s” “funeral,” for crying out loud. (Editor’s note: I did not know whether to put WOMAN or FUNERAL in quotations. Both may or may not exist, so I just played it safe).

When you watch a Notre Dame football game, Teo is mentioned or shown about five thousand times. AJ McCarron’s girlfriend now has 100,000 viewers on Twitter because ESPN showed her once or twice during a game. But not one professional journalist, Facebook-stalking fan or interested viewer looked into Teo’s girlfriend. That’s mind-boggling.

What’s more upsetting is this: WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS? Why is no one talking about this essential aspect of the story?

I’ll tell you why: because most of the people who are reporting the story now are the SAME ONES at fault for not discovering this earlier. And ESPN, thousands of various sports media outlets and other journalists don’t want you to know that. But it’s true. Now, they want you to focus on whether or not Te’o made the whole thing up or whether he was Ashton Kutcher punked in a cruel and unusual way.

But the bottom line is: it’s their fault. And everyone who covered the story should be absolutely ashamed and embarrassed at WHAT SHOULD NOT  be “breaking news.” In fact, I don’t even watch college football. I don’t remotely care about college football players until after they graduate (because at that point, they turn into NFL prospects), and I’m even a little embarrassed myself.

“Notre Dame beat writers should be burying their heads in sand right now,” said Collett.

Actually, they should be looking for new jobs.

Te’o’s Draft Stock

I normally don’t steer away from NFL topics, and I couldn’t get through this article without mentioning how this is going to affect his draft status. To sum it up in two words: it will.

But it’s a little more complicated than that. Obviously, if he’s an attention-seeking loser, then 31 teams are going to frown at that, sliding the potential character concern down their draft boards (which the lone exception of the Jets, in which case Te’o’s large media sensation probably moves him up the team’s big board daily).

If he’s found innocent, and this entire spiel was a massive, heartless joke, then teams likely won’t really care. The worst thing he can do is continue to cover up stuff that is not true. Now that he’s dug a huge hole for himself, he needs to realize that he can dig a much deeper hole if he continues to lie. Because then it his evaluations will turn from “OK, this guy is a serious publicity-whore,” to “Wow, this guy has some serious mental issues.” If he continues to lie, his stock could fall as far as a player who gets caught for smoking marijuana twice (hypothetically speaking, of course). In that case, we are looking at the 4th round or lower.

The problem is going to be proving the world that he’s not guilty. In a way, especially around the LSU area, WANT him to be guilty. They want to be able to make jokes and laugh about him. So even if this “so-called girlfriend” speaks out and admits it was a hoax, the majority of people won’t buy it, or they will believe she was paid off to confess in order to clear Te’o’s name. Keep in mind, the NFL is a business, and Te’o is likely going to lose millions of dollars for this.

But if you think for one second teams will care about this possible publicity stunt more than they will care about the pathetic performance (or excellent disappearing act, depending on how you look at it) against Alabama in the national championship game, you are sadly mistaken.

Tape and potential override character concerns in the NFL. And while his draft stock will be damaged because of this incident, it likely won’t be broken… even if everything is true.

Draft expert Mel Kiper mocked Te’o to the Buffalo Bills (8th overall) yesterday morning before the incident was leaked. After the Alabama game, I’d say that’s a little high. However, I understand his logic because the Bills desperately need an inside linebacker (Kelvin Sheppard is not at all a 3-down linebacker in the NFL). If everything that has surfaced is indeed fact, I imagine he’ll slip to the late first round, early second. A lot of teams will take him completely off their board, but it only takes one team to like him in order for him to be picked. That team will probably have a need at inside linebacker, as well.

We’ll found out more in the coming weeks about his draft stock as the story progresses, but some teams I think would consider taking him are as followed:

  • The Pittsburgh Steelers at 18 overall – Larry Foote is likely retiring. Te’o could remind them of a young Lawrence Timmons.
  • The Cincinnati Bengals at 21 overall – Rey Mauliluga is a free agent. The Bengals have never shied away from players were character concerns.
  • Minnesota Vikings at 23 overall – Middle linebacker is purely a position need.
  • Atlanta Falcons at 28th-32nd overall – Position need. Akeem Dent is a liability.
  • The first four teams selecting in the second round are Kansas City, Jacksonville and Oakland; they could desperately use an inside linebacker.

There will be more draft coverage after I finish all 32 team breakdowns (expect draft coverage to begin in March). But Te’o is an interesting case, and I’m excited to hear inside reports on what teams think of him.

Hold up.

I’m sorry. I have to cut this article short. I’m in an argument with my girlfriend. She says we can’t hang out this weekend because she doesn’t exist…

*Photo Credit: Chicago Tribune/MCT/LANDOV

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Categories: NFL Feature Stories, The NFL Draft

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1 reply »

  1. awesome site!
    -Kristin

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