Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend Hoax: A Victimless Crime?

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.