Manti Te'o. The Heisman runner-up, All-American from college football's biggest brand. Playing a monster game against Michigan State after his grandmother and girlfriend died on the same day.
You know the girlfriend.
The one in a car wreck...then a coma...and then died of leukemia. The one that Te'o only knew from Twitter, texts, etc. The one that he communicated with via Skype and FaceTime, but couldn't see because her image was always a black box.
The one that was part of stories by Sports Illustrated, ESPN and the local South Bend paper, none of whom ever interviewed her--or her family.
What a colossal fraud, by somebody. Either Te'o is the world's most naive college student (who certainly had to have had girls throwing themselves repeatedly at him) or part of the seemingly never-ending hero worship that happens in sports media. Let's just respect these athletes for their talents in the arena and not try to make their stories into a sports-as-life metaphor.
At least Deadspin wasn't completely fooled.
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