Almost everyone has heard about Manti Te’o, the great Notre Dame linebacker and runner-up for the 2012 Heisman Trophy, and the controversy surrounding him and his hoax girlfriend. Te’o may have lost the trust of many, and has been revealed to be a person who was easily duped, yet I believe he had a bad lapse of judgment.
For those who don’t know, Te’o, the most decorated defensive player in college football history, was exposed to have had a fake girlfriend. During the 2012 college football season, Te’o announced that his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, had died of leukemia the same day that his grandmother died. Te’o later went on that week of tragedy to play a game, despite what had occurred. People applauded Te’o for his dedication to football and he soon became a Heisman candidate.
Recently, news broke that Te’o’s girlfriend was a hoax, and he was tricked in to believing she existed. Te’o explained to the world that his believed relationship with his girlfriend was strictly online, and that he had never actually met the girl, despite making previous statements that he had. It was exposed that a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, along with two other people, created this fake girlfriend by taking pictures from a girl who Tuiasosopo was an acquaintance of and tricking Te’o into believing that this girl actually existed. Further along in the whole controversy, Te’o admitted to finding out about the whole hoax on December 6, 2012, yet still made statements about his girlfriend days later.
Te’o clearly is a fool for believing the hoax to begin with. I can understand that he was tricked into believing the girl existed, although it shows that he is extremely gullible, but when he found out about the hoax he should have come clean. Yet I can still see why he would do that. he was in the middle of trying to win the Heisman Trophy, and to all of a sudden come out saying that this girl never existed would make him sound like a complete idiot. Te’o is still an inexperienced person, as most people are his age, and he just made the wrong choice. Many people who have met him, including coaches and other football players, all say that Te’o is one of the nicest people out there, and that they do not believe he would deliberately lie in order to harm others. Was it wrong for Te’o to lie? Of course it was, but again, he is still young and naïve. Ultimately, it was a dumb mistake to make, yet it did not harm him or others, or compromise the integrity of his sport.