NEW YORK (AP) — Manti Te'o tried to put one of the strangest sports stories in memory behind him, insisting he was the target
of an elaborate online hoax in which he fell for a fake woman created by pranksters, then admitting his own lies made the
bizarre ordeal worse.
Whether his off-camera interview with ESPN was enough to demonstrate that the Notre Dame star linebacker was a victim in the
scheme instead of a participant is still an open question.
The most important judges of the
All-American and Heisman Trophy finalist may be pro football teams. Te'o
has finished his
coursework at Notre Dame and is preparing for the NFL draft at an
elite training facility in Florida, where the 2½-hour interview
was conducted late Friday night.
ESPN reporter Jeremy Schaap said that the 21-year-old Te'o answered all his questions in a calm voice, and tried to clear
up the mysteries and inconsistencies of the case.
Among the highlights:
• Te'o denied being in on the hoax. "No. Never," he said. "I wasn't faking it. I wasn't part of this."
• Te'o provided a timeline and details of
his relationship with Lennay Kekua, his virtual sweetheart, who went
through an
array of medical calamities before "dying" of Leukemia in
September, just hours after Te'o got real news of his grandmother's
death.
• He acknowledged that he lied to his father
about meeting Kekua in person, then exacerbated the situation after her
supposed
death when he "tailored" his comments to reporters to make it
sound as if their relationship was more than just phone calls
and electronic messages.
"I even knew, that it was crazy that I was
with somebody that I didn't meet, and that alone — people find out that
this girl
who died, I was so invested in, I didn't meet her, as well," Te'o
said. "So I kind of tailored my stories to have people think
that, yeah, he met her before she passed away, so that people
wouldn't think that I was some crazy dude."
In the same part of the conversation, Te'o said: "Out of this whole thing, that is my biggest regret. And that is the biggest,
I think, that's from my point of view, that is a mistake I made."
• He detailed the confusing phone
conversation he had on Dec. 6, when the woman who was posing as Kekua
contacted him and
told him one last hard-to-believe story about how she had to fake
her own death to evade drug dealers. Te'o said it left him
piecing together what exactly was going on over the next few days,
when he was bouncing from interview to interview while
taking part in the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York on Dec. 8
and another awards dinner in Los Angeles the next night.
He mentioned his girlfriend in interviews at least three times
over that period.
• Even after he went to his parents, coaches
and Notre Dame officials with the story by Dec. 26, and the school
provided an
investigation that it says corroborated Te'o's version by Jan. 4,
the player told ESPN that it was not until Ronaiah Tuiasosopo,
a 22-year-old acquaintance who lives in California, contacted him
Wednesday and confessed to the prank, that he finally believed
Kekua was not real. Schaap said that Te'o showed him direct
messages from Twitter in which Tuiasosopo admitted to masterminding
the hoax and apologized.
Schaap remarked to Te'o earlier in the interview that he still talked about Lennay as if she existed.
"Well, in my mind I still don't have answers," Te'o replied. "I'm still wondering what's going on, what happened."
Tuiasosopo has not spoken publicly since Deadspin.com broke the news of the hoax on Wednesday and identified him as being
heavily involved
At the Tuiasosopo house in Palmdale, Calif., the family did not answer the door Saturday. Cars remained parked outside and
members of the media trickled in and out all afternoon, as a small pile of business cards and letters sat untouched on the
front stoop of the two-story home.
Whether Tuiasosopo ultimately confirms Te'o's version of the story will go a long way toward determining where this saga is
headed.
In the interview with ESPN, Te'o implied that he was not holding a grudge against Tuiasosopo.
"I hope he learns," Te'o said. "I hope he understands what he's done. I don't wish an ill thing to somebody. I just hope he
learns. I think embarrassment is big enough."
Te'o was the emotional leader and best player on a Notre Dame team that went from unranked to playing for the program's first
national championship since 1988. And Te'o's tale of inspired play while dealing with a double-dose of tragedy became the
theme of the Irish's unexpected rise and undefeated regular season.
Not until Te'o and the Irish faced Alabama in the BCS championship did the good times end. The Crimson Tide won in a 42-14
rout on Jan. 7, the hoax was then exposed and suddenly the dream season was tarnished.
So far no law enforcement agencies have
indicated they are pursuing a criminal case in the scam, and Notre Dame
athletic director
Jack Swarbrick in a news conference earlier this week said the
university was going to leave it up to Te'o and his family
to pursue legal action.
Bennett Kelly, founder of the Internet Law
Center in Santa Monica, Calif., said a criminal case of fraud against
the perpetrators
probably wouldn't work because it appears they took nothing of
value (money or other items) from Te'o. The player said at
one point the fake girlfriend asked for his checking account
number but he declined.
A civil suit would be difficult as well, Kelley said.
"It's not as easy as it's often portrayed," Kelley said. "The context has to be outrageous. There usually has to be some kind
of physical manifestation. It can't just be that it was a bummer."
Swarbrick said from the start that it didn't seem as if laws were broken or NCAA rules violated. He had publicly encouraged
Te'o to give his side of the story.
"Manti put this to rest for me and the
University long ago," Swarbrick said in a text message to the AP on
Saturday. "I am
just glad that everyone (at least everyone open to the facts) now
knows what we have long known — that a great young man was
the innocent victim of a very cruel hoax."
While fans and the members of the media might not be satisfied with where Te'o has left it, he won't necessarily be compelled
to answer to them — just to potential employers starting in February.
At the NFL combine, Te'o will have his
physical skills and fitness tested, and he will be interviewed by NFL
executives and
coaches. He has been projected as a potential first-round draft
pick. If his involvement in this hoax sets off red flags for
teams and it causes him to slip in April's draft, it could cost
him millions of dollars.
Said former Dallas Cowboys general manager and NFL draft consultant Gil Brandt: "Between now and 97 days from now when the
draft comes, there'll be a lot of people investigating just what took place."