Even though the court of public opinion already perceives
Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te’o as in on the hoax, are such social
network “catfish shenanigans” truly a victimless crime?
By: Ringo Bones
The story is so heartwarming that during the time when it
immediately came out, not a single high-profile journalist made the requisite
due-diligence to double – or even triple – check the story of the dying wish of
the girlfriend of the Notre Dame football team’s star linebacker, Manti Te’o,
to not miss the game just to attend the star linebacker’s girlfriends own
funeral. And what makes the said story more heartwarming is that Te’o’s
girlfriend passed away within 24 hours of his own grandmother. Even though
Manti Te’o’s grandmother is real, there’s now evidence that recently surfaced
that his girlfriend is allegedly a made-up social media hoax.
The first journalist who uncovered anomalies about Manti
Te’o’s girlfriend was the Deadspin reporter Timothy Burke. And ever since the
evidence suggesting that the Notre Dame’s star linebacker’s girlfriend named
Lennay Kekua could be just a made-up Facebook profile hoax, the public is now
already polarized on either Manti Te’o is generally hoodwinked by some prankster
or is in on the hoax himself. Though a recent in-depth report made by MTV a few
years ago titled “Catfish” about people who made-up fake Facebook or other
social media profiles in order to defraud, make shenanigans or as a result of
deep-seated psychological disorders. From this perspective, Manti Te’o could be
a genuine victim of social media “Catfishing”. Either way, some of us ever
wondered why a “hunk of a jock” named Manti Te’o would ever make up a “fake
girlfriend” even though his fame and athletic build makes him one of the worlds
eligible bachelors – up there with Britain’s Prince Harry.
Could the “dead girlfriend hoax” eventually spell the death
knell of Manti Te’o’s lucrative sporting career? Even though the jury is out on
whether Manti is really in on this somewhat bizarre hoax, many now are starting
to wonder if the Notre Dame star linebacker is suffering from deep-seated
psychological issues and that his deep Freudian scars really compelled him to
make up an imaginary girlfriend. Or maybe he might have impregnated 50 or so of
the world’s ugliest women during one victory night’s drunken debauchery – only
time will tell.
