RIP In Peace To Lennay Kekua As We Mourn Five Years Since We Lost Her
Everyone take a moment of silent prayer for remembrance of Lennay Kekua. Maybe my favorite story of all time. Today we remember the hoax of all time hoaxes, from when Manti Te’o got duped into an online relationship with a fake person and was convinced she was seriously injured in a car accident, later dying of leukemia. Let’s all take a look back on the story of the century.
Kekua and Te’o started “dating” in early 2012 strictly over the phone and internet (red flag city). They’d never met before (but they had, but not really), but managed to fall in love because Te’o is literally one of the dumbest people on the planet.
How could they talk on the phone if she didn’t exist? In steps the greatest actor of our time, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who impersonated a woman (Kekua) over the phone every time they spoke. Laugh out loud one of the funnier parts of this story was that Te’o got tricked into talking to a guy the whole time.
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Te’o’s grandmother actually died just before he learned of Kekua’s “passing” so obviously he was devastated. On the day Kekua was “buried” Notre Dame played Michigan as Te’o picked off Denard Robinson twice while recording eight tackles on the way to a 13-6 win. Brian Kelly gave Manti the game ball for his incredible efforts and told him to bring it back to Hawai’i for his deceased girlfriend. For the rest of the season, Te’o’s story of overcoming adversity swept the nation as Notre Dame finished the regular season undefeated. Then, just before the Heisman was announced (Manziel’s freshman year) the story of a major catfish began to leak out. No one actually could believe it because it was so ridiculous, and neither could the Notre Dame linebacker. But as more and more facts came out, the impossible became reality as Te’o’s dead girlfriend, never existed. And thus, one of the best shirts ever was born.
This was during my freshman year of college, as I was first getting into Barstool, and I don’t think I could’ve bought this shirt any quicker than I did. A lot of people assume Te’o was in on the whole thing, and there’s great belief he was to some extent. Pictures of his “girlfriend” were actually of a woman named Diane O’Meara who was friends with Tuiasosopo. Notre Dame conducted a private investigation on their own and concluded it was strictly an online relationship, which didn’t match up to what Te’o and his family said. After finding out about the hoax, Te’o repeatedly mentioned her death to the media, but that was most likely because it was too hard to explain he was tricked into a long term relationship with a fake person. January of 2013 leading up to the championship game was filled with all sorts of headlines.
Notre Dame went on to play Alabama in the national championship game and were dubbed 10 point underdogs. I mean how could you not take them to at least cover right?
Oh thats right, Everett Golson was the Fighting Irish QB, while Bama was stacked beyond belief with guys like Eddie Lacy, T.J. Yeldon, A.J. McCarron, Amari Cooper, C.J. Mosley, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, and Landon Collins. Realistically the spread should’ve been at least 21 points. Notre Dame’s national championship/undefeated season hopes vanished just like Lennay Kekua did…oh wait never mind she never existed, but neither did Notre Dame’s chances of beating Bama. Boom roasted
As of 2016 I’m happy to say Te’o has found real, actual, human flesh love with another female.
