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Downloaded from
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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[eerie music plays]

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[man] Friday afternoon, a tip comes in.

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I was an intern, which was unpaid,

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and I was paid in sandwiches…

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[chuckles] …and, like,
an occasional bottle of booze.

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Tips at <i>Deadspin </i>were mostly junk

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00:00:31,614 --> 00:00:36,286
or just like, "Hey, here's a funny picture
I took of the weather broadcast

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where the radar pattern
kinda looks like a dick."

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But occasionally someone would give you
a story that at least you could check out.

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And because I was still
sort of the eager college student,

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I thought, "I'll check it out."

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Tip says, "Subject,
Manti Te'o's nonexistent dead girlfriend."

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"I know you guys get thousands of tips
that are out-there or crazy."

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00:01:03,229 --> 00:01:06,107
"This is one
that should really be looked into."

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"I was born and raised a Laie boy
on the North Shore of Oahu."

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"While Manti Te'o is a loved native son
here in Hawaii, he is also a fraud."

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"The story about his girlfriend dying
is completely made-up."

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"Please use the actual reporting skills
you have to find the truth."

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"Much aloha, Chris."

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[eerie music builds]

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And I was like,

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"Boy, that would be fucking crazy
if it were true!" [chuckles]

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I sent the tip to Tim Burke.

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Tim is this sort of brilliant,
eccentric master

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of databases and analysis,

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and he just had tools that none of us had

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and that I would wager at that time maybe

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a dozen journalists
in the whole country had.

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[Tim] Before I started working
for <i>Deadspin,</i>

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I traveled
in some interesting online circles,

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including with Anonymous,
the notorious online hacker group,

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and I developed a reputation
as somebody who finds things.

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[eerie music continues]

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This tip is not like most tips.
This tip is different.

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I just googled "Lennay Kekua."

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Every single result,
a story about how she was

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the dead girlfriend
of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o.

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She physically did not exist

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outside of being
Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend,

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which was the whole story to me.

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["Your Sweet Love" by Lee Hazlewood plays]

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<i>♪ Stranger's arms ♪</i>

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<i>♪ Reach out to me ♪</i>

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<i>♪ 'Cause they know ♪</i>

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<i>♪ I'm so lonely ♪</i>

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<i>♪ Then my mind ♪</i>

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<i>♪ Goes back to you ♪</i>

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<i>♪ And your sweet love ♪</i>

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<i>♪ Sees me through ♪</i>

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-["Your Sweet Love" fades]
-[insects chirping]

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[woman breathing deeply]

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[camera shutters clicking]

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[man 1] Welcome to the press conference

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for the annual
78th Memorial Heisman Trophy.

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Tonight, we will name the most outstanding
college football player in 2012.

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[man 2] Look right.

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Look down at the cameras in front.

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[Manti] At this point,
I had got a call two days earlier

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that the girl who I thought was dead
is now alive.

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[man 2] Straight out again.

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[Manti] And I'm at the Heisman Ceremony
in New York.

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And I got a national championship game
that I got to play in.

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I don't know what to think.
I don't know what to do. Like,

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"What's true? What's not true?"

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And I can't tell anybody what's going on.

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I mean, what would you think?

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So I just stuck to the script.

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Manti, you're very resilient.

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You lose your girlfriend
as well as your grandmother

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within the span of 24 hours.
I'm just curious,

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what made you wanna keep playing the game?
Some kids could've taken time off.

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Oh, you know, my faith, you know.
I… I drew strength from my faith,

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um, from Heavenly Father,

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and the same thing
that everybody should draw strength from.

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To me, someone who recognizes
what the Notre Dame football mythos is,

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this was just another part of that.

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Oh, Notre Dame star linebacker
loses family members,

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dedicates his season to them.

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That's a Notre Dame football story.

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[Dickey] Notre Dame football is built
on these foundational myths,

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<i>Rudy,</i> "Win one for the Gipper."

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It's the nexus of football
and… and, literally, religion.

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The mysterious ways, uh,
you know, faith is rewarded.

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The thing that really helped me this year
is my relationship with my Heavenly Father

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and strengthening
my spiritual side of my life,

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and I think I attribute everything
that I've accomplished this year to that.

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Through the sports news media,
there were millions and millions of people

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who knew there was
a Notre Dame football player

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whose grandmother
and girlfriend had died the same night

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and that he dedicated his season to them.

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One problem.

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His girlfriend did not exist.

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[whimsical music plays]

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I started a Google Doc
and sort of laid out

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what I thought the natural progression
of events ought to be.

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The first one's obviously, like,
"Does Lennay Kekua exist?"

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[Dickey] "Where did she die?
How old was she when she died?"

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"Did she die before
or after Manti's grandma?"

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We did this exhaustive search

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of all of the news coverage
of Manti Te'o and Lennay Kekua.

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We found conflicting information reported
in major publications often the same day

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that described events
in wildly different ways.

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You had<i> Sports Illustrated </i>describing

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Manti Te'o's grandmother dying
before Manti Te'o's girlfriend

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and the other two publications reporting

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that the girlfriend died
and then the grandmother.

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And that's a pretty important distinction.

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I saw all of these newspapers,
all of these magazines, ESPN,

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reporting things that I, at that point,
felt quite confident weren't true.

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I thought, "This is a story

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about how<i> Sports Illustrated</i>
and <i>The New York Times </i>and ESPN

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all fell for a hoax."

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The opportunity to make ESPN look stupid?

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Oh my God!
That was what we were there for.

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We wanted to make sure
that we took every step to verify

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that we were on the right track.

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Harassing Stanford to try and tell us

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whether or not Lennay Kekua
had ever been a student there

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and calling every single funeral home
in California

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to see if they buried
someone named Lennay Kekua.

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[Dickey] Death notices, obituaries,
articles about her life

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that don't mention Manti Te'o.

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Nothing in the databases
that we were searching

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that revealed that Lennay existed.

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Then we started to wonder,

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"Could Manti have been involved
in any way?"

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[Tim] Manti Te'o had
an absolutely astounding senior year,

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without question.

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That's still not typically…
the sort of season

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that gets someone invited to New York
as a Heisman finalist.

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The Heisman Trophy is awarded every year

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to college football's
most outstanding player,

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but the winner is chosen by sportswriters.

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I don't think a person can deny

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that the dramatic story
of loss off the field

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helped his Heisman campaign.

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[man] Manti Te'o,
the Fighting Irish, 12 and 0,

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and headed for the BCS championship game
against Alabama.

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Folks, let's hear it for all
of our Heisman Trophy finalists for 2012.

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[Dickey] We did have a pretty good hunch

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that he knew
this thing had happened to him.

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Manti, you're excellent
at studying the nuances of the game.

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When you look at the trophy,
what do you notice about the player there?

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[Manti] We're on stage at the ceremony,

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and I remember I'm asked a question
about Lennay on that stage.

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There were a lot of cameras
around you this year.

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There was so much public sharing
of very private moments.

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Which shared moment will you never forget
above the others?

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[Manti] I remember vividly thinking,

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"What do I say with what I know?"

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I don't know what is going on.

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I don't know what's real and what's not.

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I should just answer their question,

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see if you win the Heisman,

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and we'll figure everything out.

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I'll never forget
the time when I found out

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that, you know,
my girlfriend passed away, and, uh,

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the first person to run to my aid was
my defensive coordinator, Coach Diaco.

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Should I have said
on a national stage at the Heisman that,

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"Hey, I just got a phone call
two days ago that

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the person who said she was dead
is now alive"?

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Do I do that? And that…

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You tell me.

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[woman] And now,

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the 2012 winner

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of the Heisman Memorial Trophy is…

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Johnny Manziel.

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[audience applauding, cheering]

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We start to figure out
what we need to prove

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that this tip is correct

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and that all these stories out there
were incorrect.

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Jack took on finding the identity
of the person behind it,

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and I took on finding the identity
of the person

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who actually appeared in the images.

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You have a mystery woman. Let's find her.

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[Naya] I was losing it.

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I couldn't share with anyone

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how I was feeling,
the pain that I was going through,

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00:11:05,289 --> 00:11:09,251
the guilt that I was feeling,
how it was really eating me up inside.

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Like, I couldn't share these feelings
with anyone. It just ate away.

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I lost sense of direction.
I lost every piece of a moral compass.

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I… I lost it all.

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I remember thinking to myself,

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"There's no more hiding, no more running,
no more trying to cover up."

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"I gotta come clean."

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I sat my mom down first,
and I remember sitting there just crying.

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Immediately, she's like,
"We need to talk to your dad."

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I told him about everything,
the life of Lennay and catfishing.

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It was the first time
that I had opened up about…

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my sexuality.

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[Manti] So after the Heisman,
I was able to go home for Christmas.

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I knew I had to tell my parents.
I need somebody's help.

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I told my parents exactly what it was.

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00:12:05,891 --> 00:12:09,937
I said, "Listen, I don't know
what's going on, but I got a phone call,

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00:12:10,020 --> 00:12:11,397
and I'm not sure,

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00:12:12,732 --> 00:12:16,694
um, if Lennay is alive,
if Lennay is dead."

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00:12:16,777 --> 00:12:18,863
They looked at me, and they were confused.

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00:12:19,613 --> 00:12:23,033
[hesitates] To me, he appeared like,
"Dad, Dad, she's okay."

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00:12:23,117 --> 00:12:25,786
"She's… she's alive.
She's this. She's that."

202
00:12:25,870 --> 00:12:27,371
And I'm thinking, "What?"

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00:12:27,872 --> 00:12:31,751
We just thought, "What sick joke
is someone trying to put on us?"

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We called one of my uncles,
um, who's a lawyer,

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00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:38,716
and we told him the whole situation.

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00:12:39,300 --> 00:12:42,511
My uncle immediately said,
"I think you're getting catfished."

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00:12:43,220 --> 00:12:45,681
And that was the first time

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00:12:46,682 --> 00:12:49,310
that somebody ever brought up
the term "catfish."

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00:12:49,393 --> 00:12:51,312
I didn't know what catfishing was.

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00:12:51,395 --> 00:12:52,938
Even when he explained what it was,

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I still couldn't understand
what that even entailed.

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00:12:56,734 --> 00:13:01,947
I told him,
"You put our family in a bad light,

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00:13:02,031 --> 00:13:03,699
and you should have known."

214
00:13:03,783 --> 00:13:07,912
Because he was my oldest
and because he wears that responsibility,

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00:13:07,995 --> 00:13:09,121
he should've known.

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00:13:09,205 --> 00:13:11,457
Immediately, I'm just like, "Oh crap."

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00:13:16,462 --> 00:13:19,465
On December 26th,
Manti shared the information

218
00:13:20,216 --> 00:13:24,094
that he had learned about the woman
he believed to be his girlfriend.

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00:13:25,012 --> 00:13:27,223
The initial response was
total bewilderment.

220
00:13:28,557 --> 00:13:29,475
And in some ways,

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00:13:29,558 --> 00:13:32,937
the most significant question
for the university was,

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00:13:33,020 --> 00:13:36,106
"How do we handle
this piece of information we have?"

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00:13:36,941 --> 00:13:41,028
An enterprise like a major university has
a lot of outside consultants

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00:13:41,111 --> 00:13:43,197
and others who come in with advice,

225
00:13:43,823 --> 00:13:47,284
and the consistent theme
of the advice was,

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00:13:47,368 --> 00:13:50,329
we don't need to say
anything publicly right now,

227
00:13:50,412 --> 00:13:55,918
but we do need to find out what happened
and be very, very careful.

228
00:14:01,507 --> 00:14:07,388
This was not the busy newsroom
from your famous journalism movies.

229
00:14:07,471 --> 00:14:12,268
Jack Dickey was on winter break
at his parents' house in Connecticut.

230
00:14:12,351 --> 00:14:15,563
I was in my office
in St. Petersburg, Florida,

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00:14:15,646 --> 00:14:19,400
and we really got into this workflow
where he would just send me a text.

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00:14:27,032 --> 00:14:28,951
[Dickey] There were pictures of a woman,

233
00:14:29,034 --> 00:14:33,330
so Tim sort of assembled
all the pictures he found on the Internet.

234
00:14:38,878 --> 00:14:41,213
[Tim] I had probably 20 photos,

235
00:14:41,297 --> 00:14:46,468
and I start doing
these Google reverse image searches.

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00:14:47,261 --> 00:14:51,891
It was a very frustrating process
because there were so many.

237
00:14:53,392 --> 00:14:56,228
But, on the last image, I got a hit,

238
00:14:56,312 --> 00:15:00,316
and it linked to a Myspace profile,

239
00:15:00,941 --> 00:15:03,944
and… [splutters] …there she was.

240
00:15:05,112 --> 00:15:08,032
But unfortunately, no name.

241
00:15:16,540 --> 00:15:19,752
[Naya] Now, as a Christian,
I firmly believe in the statement,

242
00:15:19,835 --> 00:15:21,587
"What is done
in the dark will come to light."

243
00:15:23,797 --> 00:15:25,466
I didn't know what it was,

244
00:15:25,549 --> 00:15:28,844
but I knew something…
something was wrong, something was up.

245
00:15:29,762 --> 00:15:31,472
I knew something was coming.

246
00:15:32,014 --> 00:15:34,058
[Dickey] We found
that there were some tweets

247
00:15:34,141 --> 00:15:37,770
that mentioned Ronaiah Tuiasosopo

248
00:15:37,853 --> 00:15:42,149
was connected to Lennay somehow.

249
00:15:43,192 --> 00:15:45,778
[Naya] I started to see
some tweets circulating.

250
00:15:50,032 --> 00:15:54,787
These tweets are coming from individuals
who were connected to Lennay's past.

251
00:15:58,457 --> 00:16:01,794
And these individuals
had started putting things together

252
00:16:01,877 --> 00:16:04,838
and figuring out
that Lennay wasn't who she said she was.

253
00:16:04,922 --> 00:16:07,758
In fact, it just might be Ronaiah.

254
00:16:11,804 --> 00:16:14,390
Once I started catching wind of this,

255
00:16:14,473 --> 00:16:17,434
I was like,
"This is about to hit the fan."

256
00:16:21,271 --> 00:16:22,898
While Dickey's doing all that work,

257
00:16:22,982 --> 00:16:24,608
I'm on a Myspace profile.

258
00:16:24,692 --> 00:16:25,651
There's no name,

259
00:16:26,276 --> 00:16:29,238
so I go through every single post
over a decade,

260
00:16:29,321 --> 00:16:32,241
and then I get to linking out to a Xanga.

261
00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:34,743
And so I go to the Xanga,

262
00:16:35,369 --> 00:16:37,871
and she had published her full name…

263
00:16:39,915 --> 00:16:42,209
which I then plugged into Facebook.

264
00:16:43,127 --> 00:16:46,839
And there she was,
Manti Te'o's allegedly dead girlfriend.

265
00:16:48,090 --> 00:16:52,011
I sent her immediately
a very urgent Facebook message.

266
00:16:52,094 --> 00:16:56,098
Understandably,
she was very confused by this.

267
00:16:56,807 --> 00:17:00,811
Working with her to try to piece
how these images might have come out

268
00:17:00,894 --> 00:17:04,565
really came down to one of those images,

269
00:17:06,275 --> 00:17:09,528
because of those 20 images that I had,

270
00:17:09,611 --> 00:17:13,282
19 of them were just taken
from her social media profiles.

271
00:17:14,450 --> 00:17:18,704
But one of those images
she had sent to a single person.

272
00:17:20,873 --> 00:17:23,000
And I say, "Who was it?"

273
00:17:23,584 --> 00:17:25,711
And she says,
"I don't wanna say just yet."

274
00:17:25,794 --> 00:17:27,379
"I wanna… I wanna talk to him."

275
00:17:27,463 --> 00:17:32,426
And while Jack Dickey is texting me
with the name "Ronaiah,"

276
00:17:32,509 --> 00:17:33,927
I say, "Is it Ronaiah?"

277
00:17:35,137 --> 00:17:36,847
And she hangs up.

278
00:17:36,930 --> 00:17:39,016
[interviewer] How did you get that photo?

279
00:17:39,099 --> 00:17:45,606
I asked Diane to write on a paper, like,
a certain sequence of letters and numbers,

280
00:17:45,689 --> 00:17:49,068
and I said it was for a friend
who was sick or whatever.

281
00:17:49,151 --> 00:17:54,531
His cousin got in a car accident,
and he needed me to send a picture

282
00:17:54,615 --> 00:17:57,159
because he was gonna be inspired
to recover.

283
00:17:57,242 --> 00:17:59,870
Like, as horrible as it felt to do that,

284
00:18:01,246 --> 00:18:04,958
it was kind of a relief
knowing that I was able to validate,

285
00:18:05,959 --> 00:18:08,378
still, a girl that wasn't even real.

286
00:18:10,047 --> 00:18:13,258
[Dickey] And so from there, it was,
"Okay, well, who is Ronaiah?"

287
00:18:13,342 --> 00:18:16,595
Because Diane didn't really know
Ronaiah that well.

288
00:18:16,678 --> 00:18:18,472
There were people who said

289
00:18:18,555 --> 00:18:22,601
Manti had a hand in the creation
of the Lennay character.

290
00:18:22,684 --> 00:18:24,269
We were trying to figure that out.

291
00:18:24,895 --> 00:18:26,855
[Tim] We're trying to establish a link

292
00:18:26,939 --> 00:18:30,025
between Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and Manti Te'o,

293
00:18:30,109 --> 00:18:34,404
and we found a series of tweets

294
00:18:34,988 --> 00:18:37,324
where they were interacting
with each other.

295
00:18:41,495 --> 00:18:47,668
We found people saying he and Manti were
family or friends or something.

296
00:18:52,714 --> 00:18:56,385
We couldn't get the story
behind why that was.

297
00:18:57,970 --> 00:19:00,681
[Manti] I thought
I was talking to Lennay's cousin.

298
00:19:00,764 --> 00:19:03,433
I wasn't gonna turn down
an opportunity to help somebody

299
00:19:03,517 --> 00:19:08,230
and give him some words of encouragement,
and so I was more than happy to give it.

300
00:19:08,313 --> 00:19:13,235
At that point, it became really evident
to us that we had a major story.

301
00:19:13,318 --> 00:19:14,403
[crowd cheering]

302
00:19:17,072 --> 00:19:19,199
[announcer]
<i>Alabama and Notre Dame come together</i>

303
00:19:19,283 --> 00:19:22,119
<i>on the football field for the first time</i>
<i>in a generation.</i>

304
00:19:22,202 --> 00:19:25,747
<i>The unique one-game</i> <i>season</i>
<i>to decide the championship.</i>

305
00:19:25,831 --> 00:19:31,044
<i>It's been called Alabama Dynasty</i>
<i>versus Notre Dame Destiny.</i>

306
00:19:31,128 --> 00:19:32,671
Herbie, if you're like me,

307
00:19:32,754 --> 00:19:35,549
about the only way
we could describe Notre Dame being here

308
00:19:35,632 --> 00:19:38,177
is Magical Mystery Tour.

309
00:19:45,058 --> 00:19:48,103
At this time,
I don't know what's going on.

310
00:19:48,604 --> 00:19:51,315
I don't know what's true, what's not true.

311
00:19:52,232 --> 00:19:54,902
All I know is I got national championship.

312
00:19:54,985 --> 00:19:56,486
This is what you dreamed of.

313
00:19:56,570 --> 00:20:00,908
This is why you came to Notre Dame
is to play on the biggest stage,

314
00:20:00,991 --> 00:20:03,535
and it doesn't get any bigger
than the national championship.

315
00:20:03,619 --> 00:20:05,287
This is what it's all about.

316
00:20:09,082 --> 00:20:12,169
And so I try to push
all of that to the side,

317
00:20:13,378 --> 00:20:14,880
and I focused on ball.

318
00:20:16,298 --> 00:20:17,758
[Herbie] <i>He's so instinctive.</i>

319
00:20:17,841 --> 00:20:20,219
[Manti] It was an escape
from all of that stuff.

320
00:20:20,302 --> 00:20:23,805
[Herbie continues speaking indistinctly]

321
00:20:23,889 --> 00:20:25,265
[crowd cheering]

322
00:20:25,349 --> 00:20:26,516
[commentator]<i> Game on.</i>

323
00:20:28,185 --> 00:20:30,270
<i>Jones from the one-yard line.</i>

324
00:20:32,189 --> 00:20:34,816
<i>To the middle and out to about…</i>

325
00:20:34,900 --> 00:20:37,569
He'll never say it affected his play,

326
00:20:37,653 --> 00:20:40,489
but you could definitely see
something was up.

327
00:20:44,701 --> 00:20:46,370
[commentator] <i>Yeldon will follow Johnson.</i>

328
00:20:46,453 --> 00:20:47,704
<i>Johnson got blown out.</i>

329
00:20:47,788 --> 00:20:50,290
<i>Yeldon with a second effort breaks free!</i>

330
00:20:50,874 --> 00:20:53,210
[Herbie]<i> We've seen Manti Te'o miss</i>
<i>a couple tackles,</i>

331
00:20:53,293 --> 00:20:55,170
<i>something we've not seen all year.</i>

332
00:20:55,254 --> 00:20:58,632
That national championship game
was really just devastating.

333
00:20:58,715 --> 00:21:01,260
[spluttering]
It was hard for me to watch that.

334
00:21:01,343 --> 00:21:03,595
[commentator]
<i>Lacy. Bolts middle. Still going.</i>

335
00:21:03,679 --> 00:21:07,224
<i>End zone! And Eddie Lacy scores</i>
<i>the first touchdown…</i>

336
00:21:07,307 --> 00:21:09,726
I could only imagine
how it was to him and his family.

337
00:21:10,435 --> 00:21:12,062
[commentator]<i> Touchdown Alabama!</i>

338
00:21:14,606 --> 00:21:18,068
Obviously, when you watch him
play that game, he just wasn't there.

339
00:21:18,151 --> 00:21:19,736
He's just all over the place.

340
00:21:19,820 --> 00:21:21,905
[commentator]
<i>He's one of the most decorated</i>

341
00:21:21,989 --> 00:21:23,782
<i>college football players ever,</i>

342
00:21:23,865 --> 00:21:26,493
<i>and yet he'd probably trade</i>
<i>all that hardware</i>

343
00:21:26,576 --> 00:21:28,745
<i>for a 7-7 score right now.</i>

344
00:21:29,246 --> 00:21:32,791
I wish I could sit in front of you
and say that I was a national champion.

345
00:21:32,874 --> 00:21:34,501
I gave it everything I had.

346
00:21:35,460 --> 00:21:39,548
And we… we just… we just lost
to a really good Alabama team, man.

347
00:21:39,631 --> 00:21:41,633
[somber music playing]

348
00:22:04,531 --> 00:22:08,285
[Tim] At this point,
Manti had been on this meteoric rise,

349
00:22:08,368 --> 00:22:11,788
and then the whole team collapsed
in the national championship game,

350
00:22:11,872 --> 00:22:14,708
and now he's moving on to his pro career.

351
00:22:15,542 --> 00:22:16,668
I'm obviously disappointed…

352
00:22:16,752 --> 00:22:21,006
[Tim] And it's important that
before you publish a story on someone,

353
00:22:21,089 --> 00:22:22,674
that you call them for comment.

354
00:22:23,717 --> 00:22:27,429
It's also important
you put a reasonable limit

355
00:22:27,512 --> 00:22:29,598
on how long you're going to wait
for that comment.

356
00:22:29,681 --> 00:22:31,433
People will try to get out in front

357
00:22:31,516 --> 00:22:34,186
of what they perceive
to be a negative story

358
00:22:35,395 --> 00:22:39,441
with a much more sympathetic version
of it, quickly.

359
00:22:39,524 --> 00:22:42,194
We were engaged in conversations
with Manti about,

360
00:22:42,694 --> 00:22:44,696
"We… This has to be talked about."

361
00:22:44,780 --> 00:22:46,281
"What's the plan?"

362
00:22:46,365 --> 00:22:50,827
Manti was working on revealing the story.

363
00:22:50,911 --> 00:22:56,458
Given that he had a high-powered agent
and had the resources of Notre Dame,

364
00:22:56,541 --> 00:23:01,546
we hurried because we didn't want, uh,
to get beat on the story.

365
00:23:02,214 --> 00:23:05,050
I called Ronaiah probably eight times.

366
00:23:05,133 --> 00:23:07,886
Someone from <i>Deadspin</i>
actually texted my phone,

367
00:23:08,387 --> 00:23:12,724
and I was just kinda like, "No, I don't…
No, this is not how we're gonna do this."

368
00:23:12,808 --> 00:23:15,560
It just wasn't anyone else's place
but my own.

369
00:23:16,395 --> 00:23:19,898
[Manti] I get a phone call
from Lennay's cousin, Ronaiah,

370
00:23:19,981 --> 00:23:22,234
and he just starts apologizing.

371
00:23:23,068 --> 00:23:25,278
And he just says, "Hey, man, I just…"

372
00:23:25,362 --> 00:23:28,490
His exact… his exact words,
"Before anybody else found out,

373
00:23:28,573 --> 00:23:30,325
I just wanted to apologize."

374
00:23:32,119 --> 00:23:34,329
And I said,
"What are you apologizing for?"

375
00:23:34,413 --> 00:23:37,332
He's like,
"I just wanted to apologize, man."

376
00:23:38,083 --> 00:23:40,043
[Naya] I don't remember
if I hung up, they hung up.

377
00:23:40,127 --> 00:23:41,503
I just remember that was that.

378
00:23:42,212 --> 00:23:46,049
And I would never have any communication
or contact with Manti again. Mm-hmm.

379
00:23:47,926 --> 00:23:53,306
We called Brian and Manti,

380
00:23:53,390 --> 00:23:58,186
I want to say somewhere maybe one o'clock
or two o'clock in the afternoon.

381
00:23:58,270 --> 00:24:02,357
I was actually at work,
and I got this message on my voice mail.

382
00:24:02,441 --> 00:24:05,610
It was a man. I can't remember his name.
He said he was from <i>Deadspin,</i>

383
00:24:05,694 --> 00:24:09,364
and I didn't pay him any attention.
I just ignored it, went back to work.

384
00:24:09,448 --> 00:24:12,492
He didn't call back,
and so I called Manti's number.

385
00:24:12,576 --> 00:24:14,536
As far as <i>Deadspin </i>is concerned, I…

386
00:24:16,496 --> 00:24:20,459
There was so much coming at one time
that I didn't know what to do.

387
00:24:20,959 --> 00:24:23,378
At that point,
we had the story put together.

388
00:24:23,462 --> 00:24:26,965
We had talked to everyone
who would talk to us,

389
00:24:27,632 --> 00:24:32,637
and it wasn't worth it for us
to delay the story any further.

390
00:24:32,721 --> 00:24:38,894
We weren't going to wait to publish
until we knew every little thing,

391
00:24:38,977 --> 00:24:41,104
because someone's gonna beat you to it.

392
00:24:41,855 --> 00:24:43,607
An hour after that, we hit publish.

393
00:24:57,621 --> 00:24:59,623
[birds chirping]

394
00:25:00,248 --> 00:25:02,250
[Manti]
After the national championship game,

395
00:25:02,334 --> 00:25:04,961
I flew to Florida to prepare
for the Combine.

396
00:25:13,512 --> 00:25:15,430
I get a call from my agent. He's like,

397
00:25:15,514 --> 00:25:18,725
"I need you to go to your apartment
and lock yourself in there,

398
00:25:18,808 --> 00:25:19,935
and I'll call you."

399
00:25:20,727 --> 00:25:22,729
I say, "Wait, what… what's going on?"

400
00:25:23,396 --> 00:25:24,272
He's like,

401
00:25:25,607 --> 00:25:27,567
"It's gonna be a long ride, bro."

402
00:25:29,444 --> 00:25:35,200
And so I went on my Twitter at that time,
and… the <i>Deadspin </i>article just leaked.

403
00:25:36,576 --> 00:25:37,994
And I saw everything

404
00:25:38,078 --> 00:25:42,707
just on the feed, just racking up,
everything everybody had to say about me.

405
00:25:50,340 --> 00:25:51,466
And that's when I read it.

406
00:25:56,638 --> 00:25:58,390
But I still couldn't understand.

407
00:26:01,017 --> 00:26:01,977
[sniffles]

408
00:26:11,069 --> 00:26:14,239
[Naya] I got a call from my dad,
and my dad was like, "Come straight home."

409
00:26:14,322 --> 00:26:17,909
"When you come home, walk straight
in the door. Don't answer no questions."

410
00:26:19,035 --> 00:26:21,496
[Manti] My agent called me
when he was outside of my apartment.

411
00:26:21,580 --> 00:26:23,164
He's like, "We're gonna move you."

412
00:26:23,665 --> 00:26:26,293
So I packed up all my bags.
I jumped in the car.

413
00:26:26,376 --> 00:26:31,214
As we approach, as we made the turn
down the road that the front gate is on,

414
00:26:31,298 --> 00:26:33,216
he told me to recline my chair.

415
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:36,886
And so I remember
I… I'm laying in the car,

416
00:26:36,970 --> 00:26:41,349
and as he starts to make the turn,
I kinda, like, look up a little bit,

417
00:26:42,058 --> 00:26:47,105
and I see all the news trucks
in the parking lot across the street.

418
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:52,152
And I asked him, I was like,
"Is that all for me, man?"

419
00:26:52,235 --> 00:26:54,070
And he's like, "That's all for you."

420
00:26:54,571 --> 00:26:57,032
As we're going closer to our house, like,

421
00:26:57,115 --> 00:27:01,077
I could see the news trucks pulling in
one by one, stacking.

422
00:27:01,161 --> 00:27:05,206
They had, like, huge satellites set up
outside our house.

423
00:27:05,290 --> 00:27:07,667
People were, like, taking pictures
over our backyard fence.

424
00:27:07,751 --> 00:27:10,045
-[man] Is that Ronnie?
-[woman] We're late for a flight.

425
00:27:10,128 --> 00:27:11,630
[man] Did you create Lennay?

426
00:27:13,214 --> 00:27:15,425
[Manti] Against their advice,

427
00:27:15,508 --> 00:27:19,596
I left my apartment the next morning
to go to training, right?

428
00:27:27,479 --> 00:27:29,564
And I walk into the cafeteria,

429
00:27:29,648 --> 00:27:32,317
and everybody's just talking,
talking about whatever.

430
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:34,861
And I turn into the cafeteria,
and it goes silent.

431
00:27:38,073 --> 00:27:39,074
And I looked at everybody,

432
00:27:39,157 --> 00:27:42,077
and everybody kind of just looked at me
and looked down,

433
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:45,413
and nobody was really talking anymore.
And I'm like, "Okay."

434
00:27:46,581 --> 00:27:48,166
And I sat by myself,

435
00:27:48,750 --> 00:27:50,919
and that said everything

436
00:27:52,045 --> 00:27:55,799
that needed to be said
about what my world was like from then on.

437
00:27:57,676 --> 00:27:59,302
And that was just the beginning.

438
00:27:59,386 --> 00:28:02,055
I made the case the university
had to speak before the end of the day.

439
00:28:02,764 --> 00:28:07,060
This was a very elaborate,
very sophisticated hoax

440
00:28:08,353 --> 00:28:11,940
perpetrated for reasons
we can't fully understand.

441
00:28:12,023 --> 00:28:15,819
I don't think anyone can fully appreciate
how big a story it became.

442
00:28:15,902 --> 00:28:17,904
It just swept the news.

443
00:28:17,987 --> 00:28:21,324
And a bizarre story
out of college football is blowing up

444
00:28:21,408 --> 00:28:23,326
across the Internet today.

445
00:28:23,410 --> 00:28:25,328
It does not get any stranger
than this one.

446
00:28:25,412 --> 00:28:29,874
Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o
is at the center of a giant hoax.

447
00:28:29,958 --> 00:28:32,335
[reporter] <i>The story of the hoax</i>
<i>broke on </i>Deadspin,

448
00:28:32,419 --> 00:28:37,048
<i>a popular sports website that's reporting</i>
<i>the girlfriend doesn't even exist.</i>

449
00:28:37,132 --> 00:28:38,967
The girlfriend never even existed.

450
00:28:39,050 --> 00:28:42,345
It turns out
that girl apparently never existed.

451
00:28:42,429 --> 00:28:44,973
That's right.
There was no woman by that name.

452
00:28:45,056 --> 00:28:47,892
It was baffling.

453
00:28:47,976 --> 00:28:51,396
It does rank among
the most wild off-field items we've seen

454
00:28:51,479 --> 00:28:53,314
in recent times in college football.

455
00:28:53,398 --> 00:28:56,693
I think one of the first questions
that everybody asked is,

456
00:28:57,193 --> 00:28:59,195
how could he be so naive?

457
00:28:59,279 --> 00:29:02,240
And then, I think, the second question
everybody started wondering is,

458
00:29:02,323 --> 00:29:03,366
was he complicit?

459
00:29:03,450 --> 00:29:07,412
The question tonight is,
is Manti Te'o in on this elaborate hoax?

460
00:29:07,495 --> 00:29:10,206
Was he complicit?
Where was the transparency at Notre Dame?

461
00:29:10,290 --> 00:29:11,833
It seems odd to me

462
00:29:11,916 --> 00:29:14,794
that he would tell the story
about his girlfriend so often

463
00:29:14,878 --> 00:29:17,255
but never mention
that he had never actually met her.

464
00:29:17,338 --> 00:29:21,217
It just was like a huge tidal wave,
and I was drowning.

465
00:29:21,301 --> 00:29:26,389
You can't feel anything, taste anything,
smell anything, nothing.

466
00:29:26,473 --> 00:29:29,517
I remember people talking to me,
and I was just nodding like, "Yeah."

467
00:29:29,601 --> 00:29:31,519
"Thank you. Yeah, okay."

468
00:29:31,603 --> 00:29:35,315
And, in all honesty, I don't even remember
what they were saying.

469
00:29:35,398 --> 00:29:39,027
I could never really remember
if they even asked a question.

470
00:29:39,110 --> 00:29:40,403
I was just numb.

471
00:29:40,487 --> 00:29:42,864
I spent the next 36 hours

472
00:29:42,947 --> 00:29:47,076
after we published that story
almost exclusively doing live television.

473
00:29:47,702 --> 00:29:51,122
[reporter 1] Timothy Burke is the reporter
from deadspin.com who broke this story.

474
00:29:51,206 --> 00:29:52,791
-Timothy, good morning.
-Morning, Matt.

475
00:29:52,874 --> 00:29:57,754
Shows that had nothing to do with sports
at all, all wanted to talk Te'o.

476
00:29:57,837 --> 00:29:59,589
Now we're learning
the identity of the woman

477
00:29:59,672 --> 00:30:02,550
whose picture Te'o apparently believed
was the girlfriend.

478
00:30:02,634 --> 00:30:05,678
[reporter 2] Inside Edition
<i>has identified her as Diane O'Meara.</i>

479
00:30:05,762 --> 00:30:08,932
She said she had no idea
her image was being used

480
00:30:09,015 --> 00:30:11,559
and that the man
many say is behind the hoax

481
00:30:11,643 --> 00:30:13,353
has now called to apologize.

482
00:30:13,436 --> 00:30:15,230
Ronaiah has called

483
00:30:15,313 --> 00:30:19,025
and not only confessed,
but he has also apologized.

484
00:30:19,108 --> 00:30:24,739
But I don't think there's anything
you can say to me that would… fix this.

485
00:30:25,698 --> 00:30:29,369
If Lennay Kekua was not a real person,

486
00:30:29,869 --> 00:30:31,830
who was Manti talking to

487
00:30:31,913 --> 00:30:34,374
in these phone conversations
he was having?

488
00:30:34,457 --> 00:30:37,126
A lot of what you write centers
around this mysterious guy…

489
00:30:37,210 --> 00:30:39,045
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.

490
00:30:39,128 --> 00:30:41,047
The man who was allegedly behind it all.

491
00:30:41,130 --> 00:30:43,967
The next shoe to drop is really gonna be
when Ronaiah,

492
00:30:44,050 --> 00:30:45,969
who's allegedly
the perpetrator of the hoax,

493
00:30:46,052 --> 00:30:48,638
if he comes out and speaks,
that will explain a lot.

494
00:30:58,565 --> 00:31:01,150
My first impressions in meeting Ronaiah

495
00:31:01,234 --> 00:31:07,699
was how immature, naive,
and vulnerable he presented.

496
00:31:07,782 --> 00:31:11,160
We spent, uh, many hours here,

497
00:31:11,244 --> 00:31:14,747
uh, the day we did the interview
before the interview actually started.

498
00:31:15,957 --> 00:31:17,876
It got pretty bizarre at times.

499
00:31:19,043 --> 00:31:22,297
Going into my interview with Dr. Phil
and preparing for that,

500
00:31:22,380 --> 00:31:26,384
of course I want to speak the truth,
of course I want to talk about everything

501
00:31:26,467 --> 00:31:30,930
and be transparent and be honest,
but during that time it was very critical,

502
00:31:31,014 --> 00:31:33,433
because that's when Manti was preparing
for the Draft.

503
00:31:33,516 --> 00:31:36,102
I didn't want to say too much,

504
00:31:36,686 --> 00:31:38,688
but I also didn't want to lie.

505
00:31:39,272 --> 00:31:42,025
A part of me felt like
I still needed to protect him.

506
00:31:42,692 --> 00:31:45,069
As twisted and as confusing as it may be,

507
00:31:45,570 --> 00:31:48,573
um, yeah, I mean, I cared for this person.

508
00:31:48,656 --> 00:31:52,452
Um, I did all that I could to help
this person become a better person.

509
00:31:53,119 --> 00:31:56,581
It's very painful to even talk about,
but, you know,

510
00:31:57,498 --> 00:32:00,376
the truth of it is, is that happened.

511
00:32:00,460 --> 00:32:02,253
I grew feelings. I grew emotions

512
00:32:02,337 --> 00:32:06,966
that, um, I… sooner or later,
I couldn't control anymore.

513
00:32:07,050 --> 00:32:08,593
Were you in love with him?

514
00:32:10,470 --> 00:32:14,015
I mean, yeah. If… if I had…

515
00:32:14,098 --> 00:32:16,559
We were doing our interview,
and everything was good.

516
00:32:16,643 --> 00:32:19,437
Then, um, his interview came out.

517
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:20,647
Today, Manti speaks

518
00:32:20,730 --> 00:32:23,983
in his first television interview
since the scandal broke.

519
00:32:24,067 --> 00:32:26,486
[Manti]
As far as that crisis management period,

520
00:32:26,569 --> 00:32:30,740
I'm gonna be 100% honest.
I was just going with what they told me.

521
00:32:30,823 --> 00:32:34,661
I didn't know who to talk to.
I didn't know who I should talk to.

522
00:32:34,744 --> 00:32:37,413
You know, honestly,
I didn't wanna say anything.

523
00:32:37,497 --> 00:32:41,584
Did you have any involvement
in creating this scam?

524
00:32:42,085 --> 00:32:43,419
No.

525
00:32:43,503 --> 00:32:45,004
I… I… I did not.

526
00:32:45,088 --> 00:32:49,717
One of the theories, many theories,
Manti, making the rounds is

527
00:32:49,801 --> 00:32:53,054
somehow you created this whole scenario

528
00:32:53,137 --> 00:32:55,640
to cover up your sexual orientation.

529
00:32:55,723 --> 00:32:57,350
-[Manti chuckles]
-Are you gay?

530
00:32:57,433 --> 00:32:58,643
No.

531
00:32:58,726 --> 00:33:00,019
Far from it.

532
00:33:00,103 --> 00:33:01,437
<i>Far</i> from that.

533
00:33:01,521 --> 00:33:03,523
-[Manti chuckles]
-[audience laughs]

534
00:33:04,023 --> 00:33:07,110
[Manti] That interview that I did
didn't sit too well with me.

535
00:33:07,610 --> 00:33:09,195
Was it embarrassing for me? Yeah.

536
00:33:09,278 --> 00:33:13,908
But it made me more angry
because my parents were there.

537
00:33:14,826 --> 00:33:16,744
I was angry
because I was being protective.

538
00:33:17,328 --> 00:33:21,082
The hardest part of this whole experience
is seeing my family go through it,

539
00:33:21,165 --> 00:33:23,418
all because of something that I did.

540
00:33:25,420 --> 00:33:28,089
He's not a liar. He's a kid.

541
00:33:28,172 --> 00:33:30,591
He's a 21-year-old kid, and I love him.

542
00:33:33,761 --> 00:33:34,679
I really do.

543
00:33:36,639 --> 00:33:39,392
I asked if I could watch the interview
in a separate room

544
00:33:39,475 --> 00:33:41,853
and if I could watch it with privacy.

545
00:33:41,936 --> 00:33:46,065
I just wanted to be there and to listen
to whatever it was that Manti had to say.

546
00:33:46,149 --> 00:33:50,361
You have no idea who the voice
on the other end of the phone was

547
00:33:50,445 --> 00:33:51,904
for all those months.

548
00:33:52,447 --> 00:33:53,448
Mm-hmm.

549
00:33:53,531 --> 00:33:58,745
Do you think Ronaiah
could've been playing the role of Lennay?

550
00:33:58,828 --> 00:34:01,873
Do you think that might've been a man
on the other end of the phone?

551
00:34:03,416 --> 00:34:04,250
Well,

552
00:34:05,626 --> 00:34:07,211
it didn't sound like a man.

553
00:34:07,295 --> 00:34:11,090
And then… Manti released the voice mails.

554
00:34:11,174 --> 00:34:13,551
[Lennay]<i> Hey, babe,</i>
<i>I'm just calling to say good night.</i>

555
00:34:13,634 --> 00:34:16,054
<i>I love you.</i>
<i>I know that you're probably doing homework</i>

556
00:34:16,137 --> 00:34:19,849
<i>or you're with the boys or grubbing.</i>
<i>What a fatty.</i>

557
00:34:19,932 --> 00:34:22,977
<i>But I just wanted to say I love you</i>
<i>and good night, and I'll be okay tonight.</i>

558
00:34:23,061 --> 00:34:24,812
<i>I'll do my best. Um…</i>

559
00:34:25,313 --> 00:34:29,734
<i>Yeah, so get your rest,</i>
<i>and I'll talk to you tomorrow.</i>

560
00:34:29,817 --> 00:34:31,319
<i>I love you so much, hun.</i>

561
00:34:31,402 --> 00:34:32,987
<i>Sweet dreams.</i>

562
00:34:33,071 --> 00:34:37,158
The damn voice mails!
I was like, "Bro, why did you do that?"

563
00:34:37,241 --> 00:34:40,745
'Cause, like, when…
once he posted those voice mails…

564
00:34:40,828 --> 00:34:44,373
I mean, I get it. You know,
I mean, you needed to get the public

565
00:34:44,457 --> 00:34:46,459
to kinda see where you're coming from.

566
00:34:46,542 --> 00:34:48,795
How could you not think this was a female?

567
00:34:48,878 --> 00:34:52,256
Get it. But it was, like,
the voice mails that, like…

568
00:34:52,757 --> 00:34:56,135
Not only was I having to answer for this.
Now I was, like, having to validate that.

569
00:34:57,011 --> 00:35:02,141
So I contacted the private contractors
for the FBI and the Secret Service.

570
00:35:03,226 --> 00:35:06,145
They said the chance
that you are the person

571
00:35:06,229 --> 00:35:09,857
on that voice mail
is like one in ten million.

572
00:35:09,941 --> 00:35:10,858
Yup.

573
00:35:10,942 --> 00:35:12,193
That it is not you,

574
00:35:12,276 --> 00:35:13,820
not even possible.

575
00:35:13,903 --> 00:35:17,657
I think it's important
for people to see the voice control

576
00:35:17,740 --> 00:35:21,035
and see you speak in the female voice.

577
00:35:21,119 --> 00:35:22,453
You can read something,

578
00:35:22,537 --> 00:35:26,707
but I think people need
to see you speak in that voice.

579
00:35:26,791 --> 00:35:30,294
-What's the easiest way for you to do it?
-No. I can't, even if I tried.

580
00:35:30,878 --> 00:35:32,880
There's a whole lot that went into

581
00:35:32,964 --> 00:35:35,925
pushing me to do something like that,
to go to that extreme.

582
00:35:36,008 --> 00:35:38,177
It was like a method actor.

583
00:35:38,678 --> 00:35:41,806
He said, "For me to get into character,

584
00:35:42,431 --> 00:35:44,600
I had to be in a dark room,

585
00:35:44,684 --> 00:35:49,897
in this mind space
where I morphed into this character."

586
00:35:49,981 --> 00:35:52,525
[Naya] He had me laying
on this little sofa thing,

587
00:35:52,608 --> 00:35:55,945
and I'm looking at him like, "Dr. Phil,
I don't got no little itty bitty body."

588
00:35:56,028 --> 00:35:58,739
"I'mma need a little bigger…
Let me get, like, a real bed."

589
00:35:59,824 --> 00:36:03,369
Hey, babe. Um, I'm just calling
to say good night and I love you.

590
00:36:04,036 --> 00:36:07,999
I know you're probably doing homework
or with the boys or grubbing.

591
00:36:08,499 --> 00:36:11,502
[chuckles] What a fatty.
But I just wanted to say I love you

592
00:36:11,586 --> 00:36:14,589
and good night, and I'll be okay tonight.

593
00:36:14,672 --> 00:36:15,840
I'll do my best.

594
00:36:16,340 --> 00:36:19,343
Um, yeah, so get your rest,
and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

595
00:36:20,178 --> 00:36:22,471
I love you so much, hun. Sweet dreams.

596
00:36:24,265 --> 00:36:29,478
I brought in, uh, world-class experts
that do voice analysis and all,

597
00:36:29,562 --> 00:36:34,525
and that was him speaking
to Manti Te'o all of this time.

598
00:36:34,609 --> 00:36:36,277
The plot has apparently thickened

599
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:39,488
in the already bizarre
dead girlfriend hoax.

600
00:36:39,572 --> 00:36:42,033
Since news
of the Manti Te'o love hoax broke,

601
00:36:42,116 --> 00:36:45,912
the story has been bringing more questions
than answers.

602
00:36:45,995 --> 00:36:51,083
I did not believe that this guy,
Ronaiah, could… could actually do

603
00:36:51,167 --> 00:36:54,462
a woman's voice passably for so long
on the phone, but then when you hear it,

604
00:36:54,545 --> 00:36:56,672
to me, it sounded identical.
What do you think?

605
00:36:57,256 --> 00:37:01,219
It was alleged to us
in the days after we published

606
00:37:01,302 --> 00:37:03,346
that there were multiple people involved

607
00:37:03,429 --> 00:37:07,934
in the construction
and operation of… Lennay Kekua.

608
00:37:08,434 --> 00:37:11,604
People underestimate how elaborate it was

609
00:37:11,687 --> 00:37:15,942
in terms of creating this impression, uh,
that they were able to create.

610
00:37:16,025 --> 00:37:19,278
I legit became a computer myself.

611
00:37:19,362 --> 00:37:22,823
It became so automatic.
It was like second nature where…

612
00:37:22,907 --> 00:37:24,325
You know, like tying your shoes.

613
00:37:24,408 --> 00:37:28,037
Like, the moment my phone rang,
and I saw, you know, his name come up,

614
00:37:28,120 --> 00:37:31,666
I would just literally be like,
"Okay, let me walk away." Boom.

615
00:37:31,749 --> 00:37:34,418
There have been many conversations
that I had during that time

616
00:37:34,502 --> 00:37:37,672
where the phone was passed to somebody.

617
00:37:37,755 --> 00:37:39,590
I spoke to a young man.

618
00:37:40,091 --> 00:37:43,052
-You spoke to a young man and young lady.
-And a young lady.

619
00:37:43,135 --> 00:37:47,431
So, there are two people
that at least spoke to us.

620
00:37:47,515 --> 00:37:52,895
If it is Ronaiah alone,
then, I mean, he deserves to be in Disney.

621
00:37:52,979 --> 00:37:57,692
I mean, the amount of voices,
the… the amount of cell phones.

622
00:37:57,775 --> 00:37:59,860
It was just crazy shit.

623
00:37:59,944 --> 00:38:03,114
No, there was never
no other outside influence outside

624
00:38:03,197 --> 00:38:05,116
or like a helping hand in any of this.

625
00:38:05,199 --> 00:38:07,785
It was 100% me the entire time.

626
00:38:11,414 --> 00:38:13,833
-[camera shutters clicking]
-[indistinct chatter]

627
00:38:18,921 --> 00:38:22,133
The hardest part
for me was going in public.

628
00:38:23,926 --> 00:38:26,554
And which once was, "That's Manti Te'o!"

629
00:38:27,972 --> 00:38:30,558
Now was…
[whispers] …"Hey, that's Manti Te'o."

630
00:38:31,809 --> 00:38:33,811
"That's the guy that got catfished."

631
00:38:35,229 --> 00:38:36,897
Your whole world changes.

632
00:38:36,981 --> 00:38:40,192
Te'o, talk us through the moment
you found out your girlfriend was dead.

633
00:38:40,276 --> 00:38:43,863
Well, a couple months ago,
she called me up on the phone,

634
00:38:43,946 --> 00:38:47,366
and she was like,
"Hey, I have bad news. I'm dead."

635
00:38:47,450 --> 00:38:48,409
[audience laughs]

636
00:38:48,492 --> 00:38:53,164
And I said, "Oh no!
Do you need a ride to the funeral?"

637
00:38:53,247 --> 00:38:55,750
[reporter]<i> Fans entering</i>
<i>tonight's Florence Freedom game</i>

638
00:38:55,833 --> 00:39:00,629
<i>were given a voucher for a bobblehead</i>
<i>of Manti Te'o's girlfriend.</i>

639
00:39:00,713 --> 00:39:03,591
We removed Lance Armstrong
from the front page.

640
00:39:03,674 --> 00:39:06,969
It blows Lance Armstrong outta the water.
I'll say that.

641
00:39:07,053 --> 00:39:09,513
Oh boy. You know what?
This is the best thing that ever happened

642
00:39:09,597 --> 00:39:11,307
to Lance Armstrong. You are so right.

643
00:39:11,390 --> 00:39:15,644
Now Lance Armstrong looks
like a Girl Scout compared to this guy.

644
00:39:15,728 --> 00:39:16,854
[audience laughs]

645
00:39:16,937 --> 00:39:18,647
There was an article that came out,

646
00:39:18,731 --> 00:39:22,068
but the title was
"The Most Hated Athletes in the World."

647
00:39:22,151 --> 00:39:23,152
Tiger Woods,

648
00:39:24,653 --> 00:39:25,488
Lance Armstrong,

649
00:39:25,988 --> 00:39:27,239
and Manti Te'o.

650
00:39:28,908 --> 00:39:32,286
I was like,
"What am I doing on that list?"

651
00:39:33,162 --> 00:39:38,626
There was this sort of notion
of fallen heroes going on, right?

652
00:39:38,709 --> 00:39:42,421
[splutters]
Lance fed into Manti, in that regard.

653
00:39:42,922 --> 00:39:47,760
I don't think he had any concept
of how much the media will build you up

654
00:39:47,843 --> 00:39:51,013
and then how quickly
they will tear you down.

655
00:39:51,097 --> 00:39:54,100
You gotta be awfully dumb not to think
that this is gonna blow up in your face.

656
00:39:54,183 --> 00:39:58,229
I mean, anybody who has had
an imaginary girlfriend for three years,

657
00:39:58,312 --> 00:39:59,855
I mean, it just… it boggles your mind.

658
00:39:59,939 --> 00:40:04,151
The aftermath of the story was instructive

659
00:40:04,235 --> 00:40:09,073
in that we had no idea

660
00:40:09,156 --> 00:40:13,911
how little control we'd have
over how people responded to it.

661
00:40:13,994 --> 00:40:17,665
Maybe he was trying to keep
his personal life extremely private.

662
00:40:17,748 --> 00:40:20,000
[reporter]<i> "If a football player wanted</i>
<i>to hide being gay,</i>

663
00:40:20,084 --> 00:40:23,087
<i>a fictitious girlfriend is</i>
<i>a good way to do it."</i>

664
00:40:23,170 --> 00:40:26,882
It's hard to be a Mormon at Notre Dame,

665
00:40:26,966 --> 00:40:29,510
who's a liar and probably gay.

666
00:40:29,593 --> 00:40:33,764
The jump to that…
frankly shocked me a little bit.

667
00:40:33,848 --> 00:40:36,600
There wasn't a whole lot of interest
in trying to understand

668
00:40:37,101 --> 00:40:40,813
the… the real complexity of this story.

669
00:40:40,896 --> 00:40:44,024
Was he gay?
Like, I… I think all of these questions

670
00:40:44,108 --> 00:40:46,861
were things people just wanted to discuss.

671
00:40:46,944 --> 00:40:49,572
Did you ever think, Tim,
in a million years,

672
00:40:49,655 --> 00:40:51,532
that the motivation
behind this whole thing

673
00:40:51,615 --> 00:40:54,285
was because Ronaiah
was in love with Manti Te'o?

674
00:40:54,368 --> 00:40:55,828
To me, this was a story

675
00:40:55,911 --> 00:41:00,166
about how the most powerful
media companies in the world

676
00:41:00,249 --> 00:41:02,835
didn't fact-check things
that they published,

677
00:41:03,544 --> 00:41:06,130
and <i>Deadspin,</i>
a blog with eight employees, did.

678
00:41:06,213 --> 00:41:07,882
He was caught up in an online hoax--

679
00:41:07,965 --> 00:41:11,802
[Tim] But it became something else
that I really did not see coming.

680
00:41:11,886 --> 00:41:13,637
Every single person I talked to said,

681
00:41:13,721 --> 00:41:15,931
"I think he's gay and covering it up."
What do you think?

682
00:41:16,015 --> 00:41:18,267
The <i>Deadspin </i>mission was

683
00:41:18,350 --> 00:41:24,148
to make the mainstream sports media
look… foolish.

684
00:41:24,231 --> 00:41:28,068
I don't care what Manti Te'o…
like, what his sex life is.

685
00:41:28,152 --> 00:41:31,530
I don't care what Ronaiah's… sex life is.

686
00:41:31,614 --> 00:41:36,035
Like, I… I think… that wasn't our…
that wasn't our motivation at all.

687
00:41:37,244 --> 00:41:43,209
If anyone cared about that stuff,
they were wrong to care about that stuff.

688
00:41:43,292 --> 00:41:45,711
-[camera shutters clicking]
-[indistinct chatter]

689
00:41:55,471 --> 00:41:57,348
-[Manti] It's a lot of cameras.
-[man] Questions?

690
00:41:57,431 --> 00:41:59,350
[reporter]
Manti, what's up? How are you feeling?

691
00:41:59,433 --> 00:42:01,060
I'm kinda tired right now.

692
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:05,523
We, uh, had a long day
of, you know, just exams, medical exams.

693
00:42:06,023 --> 00:42:08,484
Um… It's all part of the process.

694
00:42:10,528 --> 00:42:15,658
Prior to the NFL Draft,
I met with 22 teams.

695
00:42:17,243 --> 00:42:20,913
Every one of them asked me
about getting catfished.

696
00:42:20,996 --> 00:42:23,791
Oh yeah, I mean, for me…
you know, I hopefully…

697
00:42:23,874 --> 00:42:28,212
I'm just looking forward to getting ready…
you know, getting straight to football,

698
00:42:28,295 --> 00:42:30,506
and I understand
that, you know, people have questions,

699
00:42:30,589 --> 00:42:33,551
but, you know, I think I've answered
everything I could,

700
00:42:33,634 --> 00:42:37,429
um, and for me,
I… I'd really like to talk about football.

701
00:42:37,513 --> 00:42:39,265
I'm totally aware

702
00:42:39,348 --> 00:42:43,561
there's this huge thing
across my forehead that says,

703
00:42:44,061 --> 00:42:48,941
"This is the guy who got catfished."
And I was afraid this was going to affect,

704
00:42:49,441 --> 00:42:53,195
uh, my NFL future
as far as me being drafted.

705
00:42:53,279 --> 00:42:55,906
Manti Te'o's poor performance

706
00:42:55,990 --> 00:42:57,908
at the BCS championship game

707
00:42:57,992 --> 00:43:02,204
together with this weird Polynesian plot
to embarrass him

708
00:43:02,288 --> 00:43:07,209
has reportedly given some NFL scouts
second thoughts about drafting him.

709
00:43:07,793 --> 00:43:12,006
[Mike Florio]<i> Teams want to know</i>
<i>whether or not Manti Te'o is gay.</i>

710
00:43:12,089 --> 00:43:13,257
<i>They just want to know.</i>

711
00:43:13,340 --> 00:43:15,134
I think he's gonna really be hurt by this,

712
00:43:15,217 --> 00:43:18,262
because one of the main attributes
he was supposed to have

713
00:43:18,345 --> 00:43:19,513
was his leadership.

714
00:43:19,597 --> 00:43:20,931
You know, people would follow him.

715
00:43:21,015 --> 00:43:23,642
He's this inspirational story, Jack,
you've been talking about.

716
00:43:23,726 --> 00:43:26,312
The guys are not gonna look at him
as a leader now.

717
00:43:26,937 --> 00:43:30,899
[man]<i> And welcome, everybody,</i>
<i>to the 2013 NFL Draft.</i>

718
00:43:30,983 --> 00:43:31,942
[crowd cheering]

719
00:43:32,026 --> 00:43:35,237
Manti makes a choice
that he's gonna spend the Draft in Hawaii.

720
00:43:35,321 --> 00:43:36,989
He's gonna surround himself
with his family.

721
00:43:37,072 --> 00:43:38,824
They're not gonna deal
with any of the circus.

722
00:43:38,907 --> 00:43:42,411
It is somewhere over my shoulder here
in one of these beach houses

723
00:43:42,494 --> 00:43:45,748
where the Te'os are sitting,
waiting to watch the Draft.

724
00:43:49,001 --> 00:43:51,629
We had everybody there,
and, you know, it was…

725
00:43:51,712 --> 00:43:53,547
We were all… we were all excited.

726
00:43:53,631 --> 00:43:56,216
My agent was telling me,
"We're gone the first day."

727
00:43:56,300 --> 00:43:59,720
Like, "You're getting picked.
It's just a matter of where and when."

728
00:43:59,803 --> 00:44:03,515
Manti Te'o, as we all know, uh,
was in the news in January.

729
00:44:03,599 --> 00:44:06,143
He jumped from the sports page
to the news page.

730
00:44:06,226 --> 00:44:11,690
There are many people out there interested
in his, uh, status for tonight's Draft.

731
00:44:11,774 --> 00:44:13,817
Where will he wind up?

732
00:44:13,901 --> 00:44:17,821
I really believe, Mooch,
that he's gonna get out of it tonight,

733
00:44:17,905 --> 00:44:20,532
heading somewhere on a plane
with a big smile on his face.

734
00:44:21,742 --> 00:44:26,121
With the first pick,
the Kansas City Chiefs select Eric Fisher.

735
00:44:26,955 --> 00:44:30,084
The Miami Dolphins select Dion Jordan.

736
00:44:30,167 --> 00:44:31,460
Lane Johnson.

737
00:44:31,543 --> 00:44:32,753
Jonathan Cooper.

738
00:44:32,836 --> 00:44:35,005
Eric Reid, defensive back.

739
00:44:35,506 --> 00:44:39,051
I remember
we were going through the Draft,

740
00:44:39,134 --> 00:44:41,303
and I knew
that the Giants really liked me,

741
00:44:41,387 --> 00:44:42,221
but…

742
00:44:43,263 --> 00:44:44,139
I…

743
00:44:44,973 --> 00:44:46,600
I just wasn't sure.

744
00:44:47,685 --> 00:44:51,647
-The New York Giants select Justin Pugh.
<i>-</i>[man] <i>There you go, Coach.</i>

745
00:44:51,730 --> 00:44:55,234
They didn't pick me up, and I'm like,
"Oh man. I'm not gonna get picked."

746
00:44:55,317 --> 00:44:57,444
And the Ravens were the last pick.

747
00:44:57,528 --> 00:45:00,489
So now it's up to, uh, the Ravens
to wrap this puppy up.

748
00:45:00,572 --> 00:45:02,449
And the commissioner comes up.

749
00:45:03,450 --> 00:45:06,453
[reporter]<i> Here it is,</i>
<i>the final first-round selection</i>

750
00:45:06,537 --> 00:45:07,913
<i>of the Draft in 2013.</i>

751
00:45:07,996 --> 00:45:10,416
I remember they said,
"With the 32nd pick…"

752
00:45:10,499 --> 00:45:14,962
With the 32nd pick in the 2013 NFL Draft…

753
00:45:15,045 --> 00:45:16,630
"…the Baltimore Ravens select…"

754
00:45:16,714 --> 00:45:18,841
…the Baltimore Ravens select…

755
00:45:18,924 --> 00:45:20,259
"Ma…"

756
00:45:20,342 --> 00:45:22,344
And my whole family went… [gasps]

757
00:45:22,928 --> 00:45:27,599
…Matt Elam. That concludes
the first round of the NFL Draft.

758
00:45:27,683 --> 00:45:29,101
I was shocked.

759
00:45:30,018 --> 00:45:35,274
I thought Manti could go anywhere
from 15 down to the Ravens at 32.

760
00:45:35,858 --> 00:45:38,777
Is it possible that you looked at him

761
00:45:38,861 --> 00:45:41,488
and you said, "I don't want the drama"?

762
00:45:41,572 --> 00:45:43,991
I don't think a lot of people
would've guessed back in December

763
00:45:44,074 --> 00:45:47,453
that Manti Te'o would not be
a first-round Draft pick,

764
00:45:47,536 --> 00:45:50,414
but certainly a lot has happened
between then and now.

765
00:45:50,497 --> 00:45:53,876
But even Manti has to be surprised,
because he truly believed

766
00:45:53,959 --> 00:45:58,172
that by the end of today, he would know
where he was going to be playing.

767
00:45:58,255 --> 00:46:00,090
Not only are the optics bad

768
00:46:00,174 --> 00:46:03,969
of sliding from the first round
into the second round of the NFL Draft,

769
00:46:04,052 --> 00:46:05,679
but maybe more importantly,

770
00:46:05,763 --> 00:46:08,932
the money and the contracts
change pretty drastically.

771
00:46:09,016 --> 00:46:12,561
So now, this incident had cost him

772
00:46:13,270 --> 00:46:17,775
not only, in some ways, his dignity
but millions and millions of dollars.

773
00:46:19,693 --> 00:46:22,404
I walked down to the beach,
and I just started bawling.

774
00:46:27,159 --> 00:46:28,535
I had a decision, man. I was like,

775
00:46:28,619 --> 00:46:32,539
"You can pout, but you got a whole family
over there celebrating you, dude."

776
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:35,334
Like, "Go spend it with them."

777
00:46:35,417 --> 00:46:37,711
So I walked back over there,
hugged all my family.

778
00:46:37,795 --> 00:46:40,756
We were like,
"Man, we're gonna get picked up tomorrow."

779
00:46:41,340 --> 00:46:45,427
With the 38th selection
in the 2013 NFL Draft,

780
00:46:45,511 --> 00:46:47,763
the San Diego Chargers proudly select

781
00:46:48,514 --> 00:46:50,933
Manti Te'o, linebacker, Notre Dame.

782
00:46:51,016 --> 00:46:52,184
[crowd cheering]

783
00:46:53,435 --> 00:46:55,270
[commentator]<i> And there it is!</i>

784
00:46:55,354 --> 00:47:00,442
<i>Manti Te'o, the last guy,</i>
<i>Todd, you had as a first-round grade.</i>

785
00:47:00,526 --> 00:47:02,486
<i>Mel, your best available…</i>

786
00:47:02,986 --> 00:47:06,240
Man, when they announced my name,
oh man, that was…

787
00:47:06,323 --> 00:47:07,699
I was so happy, man.

788
00:47:07,783 --> 00:47:09,785
[all cheering]

789
00:47:45,112 --> 00:47:48,407
After this whole life as Lennay had ended,

790
00:47:48,490 --> 00:47:50,158
I couldn't give Lennay
any more of my time.

791
00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:55,080
And I remember telling myself,

792
00:47:55,163 --> 00:47:57,791
"You want to be a girl, so be a girl."

793
00:48:00,419 --> 00:48:03,213
I actually moved back home
to American Samoa.

794
00:48:04,298 --> 00:48:07,718
It was there where I got in touch
with the LGBTQ community.

795
00:48:08,343 --> 00:48:13,473
And in Samoa, there really is no terms
that specifically identify transgender.

796
00:48:13,974 --> 00:48:17,060
There's a huge community
known as fa'afafine.

797
00:48:17,561 --> 00:48:19,897
You can dress like a woman
or dress like a man.

798
00:48:22,024 --> 00:48:23,650
It's more widely accepted.

799
00:48:25,569 --> 00:48:28,155
I put myself on the back burner
for all those years,

800
00:48:28,238 --> 00:48:32,451
so moving forward,
I just had to start living my life.

801
00:48:32,534 --> 00:48:34,995
[serene music playing]

802
00:48:35,829 --> 00:48:39,374
And I wanted to be able
to live my life as trans.

803
00:48:45,505 --> 00:48:49,593
I used to think I'm never gonna be able
to show my face in public again.

804
00:48:51,637 --> 00:48:53,931
And then I was like, "Why wouldn't I?"

805
00:48:54,514 --> 00:48:57,017
Someone out there needs to hear my story,

806
00:48:57,100 --> 00:49:01,688
and someone out there needs to know
that there is that light of hope.

807
00:49:08,070 --> 00:49:09,404
I still feel horrible,

808
00:49:09,488 --> 00:49:12,574
and sometimes I wish
that everything had been undone.

809
00:49:13,450 --> 00:49:15,702
But then also another part of me was like,

810
00:49:15,786 --> 00:49:20,082
I learned so much about who I am today

811
00:49:20,165 --> 00:49:22,292
and, you know, who I want to become

812
00:49:22,376 --> 00:49:25,879
because of the lessons
that I learned through the life of Lennay.

813
00:49:30,968 --> 00:49:32,970
[crowd cheering]

814
00:49:39,476 --> 00:49:42,604
[Manti] I never will forget
my first preseason game.

815
00:49:44,356 --> 00:49:46,316
When I stood on that sideline…

816
00:49:48,485 --> 00:49:50,529
and I looked across the field,

817
00:49:52,155 --> 00:49:56,410
my… my feet just started to go numb.

818
00:49:56,910 --> 00:50:00,831
And it slowly went up my legs
till everything was tingling.

819
00:50:01,456 --> 00:50:04,334
And I remember
my… my fingers started to sweat,

820
00:50:04,418 --> 00:50:06,628
and everything just started to go numb.

821
00:50:07,504 --> 00:50:09,756
[commentator] <i>Te'o did</i>
<i>a nice job of reading…</i>

822
00:50:09,840 --> 00:50:10,757
[Manti] Numb.

823
00:50:11,758 --> 00:50:14,553
First three years
with the Chargers were like that.

824
00:50:15,303 --> 00:50:16,221
Three years.

825
00:50:17,097 --> 00:50:18,765
And I remember praying,

826
00:50:18,849 --> 00:50:21,727
"Don't mess up, bro.
Just please make a play today."

827
00:50:21,810 --> 00:50:23,687
"Just make a play. Just make a play."

828
00:50:23,770 --> 00:50:25,605
[commentator] <i>…just misses Andrew Luck.</i>

829
00:50:25,689 --> 00:50:29,526
[Manti] Every time I stepped on that line,
that anxiety would build up again.

830
00:50:29,609 --> 00:50:31,319
[commentator]<i> Players from solid programs…</i>

831
00:50:31,403 --> 00:50:33,405
[Manti]<i> </i>Right, it's just like,
"Don't mess up, bro."

832
00:50:33,488 --> 00:50:34,823
Like, "Don't mess up."

833
00:50:34,906 --> 00:50:38,035
"Don't miss tackles.
Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

834
00:50:38,118 --> 00:50:42,247
And it was such a huge contrast
to that kid at Notre Dame.

835
00:50:42,330 --> 00:50:45,167
The football field,
that was my domain, you know.

836
00:50:45,250 --> 00:50:49,463
Like, when I'm on the football field,
I feel like nobody can beat me.

837
00:50:49,546 --> 00:50:52,799
And I played free, and I played fast,
and I played physical.

838
00:50:54,301 --> 00:50:56,762
And that was what made me great.

839
00:51:00,891 --> 00:51:02,476
Now I got to the NFL…

840
00:51:04,478 --> 00:51:06,063
and I'm questioning everything.

841
00:51:06,146 --> 00:51:07,814
[commentator]
<i>We're keeping our eye on Te'o.</i>

842
00:51:07,898 --> 00:51:09,399
[Alex] I do remember covering games

843
00:51:09,483 --> 00:51:12,778
where he would come outta the tunnel
and people would heckle him,

844
00:51:12,861 --> 00:51:14,905
and it just became something
he could never escape.

845
00:51:14,988 --> 00:51:18,658
What happened was what happened,
and what I'm here to do is play football,

846
00:51:18,742 --> 00:51:21,036
and, um, hopefully,
you know, guys saw that.

847
00:51:21,119 --> 00:51:22,871
He changed so much.

848
00:51:23,497 --> 00:51:25,248
He withdrew himself.

849
00:51:25,332 --> 00:51:27,125
Then the memes started coming out.

850
00:51:32,589 --> 00:51:34,674
The paper in San Diego came out

851
00:51:34,758 --> 00:51:38,929
with a cartoon of him
with his arm around nobody.

852
00:51:42,057 --> 00:51:48,021
Every day was just trying to figure out
how to get rid of this anxiety,

853
00:51:48,105 --> 00:51:51,024
how to get rid
of this numbness, this tingling, right?

854
00:51:51,108 --> 00:51:56,947
I'm trying to figure out
all these ways to reprogram myself.

855
00:51:57,030 --> 00:52:01,118
Right? [spluttering]
I'm watching inspirational talks,

856
00:52:01,201 --> 00:52:03,453
I'm watching old film of me,

857
00:52:03,537 --> 00:52:06,790
I'm trying to rediscover
who I was before everything.

858
00:52:13,547 --> 00:52:15,715
I started calling my agent up,
and I told my agent,

859
00:52:15,799 --> 00:52:17,759
"Tom, like, I need to see somebody."

860
00:52:17,843 --> 00:52:22,848
I was like, "I don't know what I have,
but it's something new, and I need help."

861
00:52:28,019 --> 00:52:31,648
My agent sent me to see this therapist,
and we're just talking in the lobby,

862
00:52:31,731 --> 00:52:35,735
just getting to know each other,
and I'm… I'm kind of laying down.

863
00:52:35,819 --> 00:52:38,196
"What's going on?"
In the back of my head, I'm like,

864
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:42,284
"Nobody has a cure for this, man.
This guy, he's not gonna help me."

865
00:52:45,078 --> 00:52:48,081
And at the end, he says,
"Let me ask you a question."

866
00:52:48,165 --> 00:52:51,668
"Have you forgiven him?"
I said, "Who are you talking about?"

867
00:52:51,751 --> 00:52:54,838
He said, "Have you forgiven Ronaiah
for what he did to you?"

868
00:52:54,921 --> 00:52:57,632
And I said, "Yeah, I did."
He said, "Okay."

869
00:52:58,466 --> 00:53:00,552
"Let me ask you a second question."

870
00:53:02,470 --> 00:53:04,181
"Have you forgiven yourself?"

871
00:53:05,932 --> 00:53:08,602
I looked at him. I was like,
"What do you mean, forgiven myself?"

872
00:53:08,685 --> 00:53:12,564
He's like, "Have you forgiven yourself?"
I said, "Forgiven myself for what?"

873
00:53:13,690 --> 00:53:17,944
He's like, "Somebody like you
who's always been so confident,

874
00:53:18,695 --> 00:53:20,822
who's never questioned anything he's done,

875
00:53:20,906 --> 00:53:25,660
and all his success has been based
on him trusting in him,

876
00:53:27,245 --> 00:53:29,456
for you to go through
what you went through,

877
00:53:30,916 --> 00:53:33,251
deep down inside,
you're questioning yourself."

878
00:53:35,462 --> 00:53:37,047
"You have to forgive that kid."

879
00:53:39,216 --> 00:53:40,217
"It's okay, uce."

880
00:53:41,509 --> 00:53:43,970
"What happened to you is not your fault."

881
00:53:44,846 --> 00:53:45,680
"It's okay."

882
00:53:46,181 --> 00:53:47,432
"Forgive that kid."

883
00:53:47,515 --> 00:53:49,392
["Waiting" by Alice Boman playing]

884
00:53:51,561 --> 00:53:54,648
The key is this.
There's always gonna be that little kid

885
00:53:54,731 --> 00:53:56,650
that's gonna come up to you
because he loves you.

886
00:53:56,733 --> 00:54:00,654
But if you look at that little kid
like the way this dude just treated you,

887
00:54:00,737 --> 00:54:02,572
you're gonna ruin that little kid.

888
00:54:02,656 --> 00:54:05,367
That is my challenge every day.

889
00:54:05,450 --> 00:54:09,204
When somebody comes up to me
and says, "Manti, I'm a big fan of you,"

890
00:54:09,287 --> 00:54:11,748
that I don't think of the times
that hundreds of people said,

891
00:54:11,831 --> 00:54:13,458
"I'm a big fan. Let me take a picture,"

892
00:54:13,541 --> 00:54:15,877
and I took a picture with them,
and they made fun of me.

893
00:54:15,961 --> 00:54:19,506
If there's anything that I can do,
that's what I'mma do every day.

894
00:54:20,423 --> 00:54:21,299
You know?

895
00:54:21,800 --> 00:54:23,760
I'mma rise above all of that, bro.

896
00:54:24,803 --> 00:54:26,972
No matter how hard it is for me.

897
00:54:28,682 --> 00:54:31,184
I'mma look at all these people
who made fun of me

898
00:54:31,768 --> 00:54:34,688
and the people
who actually believed in me… [choking up]

899
00:54:35,897 --> 00:54:38,566
<i>♪ Haven't had a dream… ♪</i>

900
00:54:38,650 --> 00:54:42,237
I have to take a second to be like,
"They actually love me, man."

901
00:54:43,446 --> 00:54:46,157
"They love you.
They don't wanna make fun of you, bro."

902
00:54:46,783 --> 00:54:50,537
Treat them nice in a world
that's just spit on you.

903
00:54:51,037 --> 00:54:54,291
Remember all those people
in the stands that had the leis on.

904
00:54:59,045 --> 00:55:01,798
Because you're gonna have hundreds
and thousands and millions of people

905
00:55:01,881 --> 00:55:04,134
that tell you,
"You ain't worth nothing, man."

906
00:55:04,217 --> 00:55:07,053
But there's gonna be one that's gonna say,
"You're worth the world to me."

907
00:55:07,137 --> 00:55:09,014
And I play for that person.

908
00:55:09,097 --> 00:55:12,726
<i>♪ I'm waiting ♪</i>

909
00:55:14,311 --> 00:55:15,353
I'll take all this crap.

910
00:55:15,437 --> 00:55:18,315
I'll take all the jokes.
I'll take all the memes

911
00:55:18,815 --> 00:55:21,901
so that I can be an inspiration
to one who needs me to be.

912
00:55:22,861 --> 00:55:24,654
That's the whole reason
why I'm doing this.

913
00:55:28,908 --> 00:55:30,994
And I want everybody to know…

914
00:55:33,830 --> 00:55:37,500
that if Ronaiah ever watched this,
that I forgive him.

915
00:55:45,175 --> 00:55:49,763
And I hope and pray
that him and his family is cool,

916
00:55:51,598 --> 00:55:53,224
'cause that's all that I can wish for him.

917
00:55:54,642 --> 00:55:57,228
<i>Allegations against one basketball ref</i>

918
00:55:57,312 --> 00:56:00,732
<i>of betting the outcome of games</i>
<i>is rocking the NBA.</i>

919
00:56:01,691 --> 00:56:04,402
[man 1] <i>Man, did I fuck my life up.</i>

920
00:56:04,486 --> 00:56:05,779
[tense music playing]

921
00:56:05,862 --> 00:56:10,784
Just like the feel-good hit of the summer,
the Manti Te'o story isn't real.

922
00:56:11,368 --> 00:56:13,036
[man 2] <i>A cruel, twisted hoax.</i>

923
00:56:14,454 --> 00:56:17,624
It was the longest winning streak
in the history of sport.

924
00:56:18,208 --> 00:56:22,337
[man 3]<i> This is the finest day</i>
<i>in the history of Australian sports.</i>

925
00:56:22,420 --> 00:56:25,590
[man 4]
AND1 was making millions of dollars,

926
00:56:25,673 --> 00:56:27,258
but did they respect us?

927
00:56:27,842 --> 00:56:30,678
[man 5] <i>AND1 basketball, baby!</i>

928
00:56:30,762 --> 00:56:33,598
[man 6] Shut your fucking mouth.
Keep it between us.

929
00:56:34,182 --> 00:56:36,309
Stick to the fucking story.

930
00:56:36,893 --> 00:56:39,020
[woman]
<i>Does not get any stranger than this one.</i>

931
00:56:39,104 --> 00:56:40,897
[reporter<i> </i>1]
<i>Donaghy is under investigation by…</i>

932
00:56:40,980 --> 00:56:43,233
[reporter 2]
<i>It's front-page news all over town.</i>

933
00:56:44,275 --> 00:56:49,197
She physically did not exist outside
of being Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend.

934
00:56:50,949 --> 00:56:55,412
And I was like, "Boy, that would be
fucking crazy if it were true!" [laughs]

935
00:56:56,246 --> 00:56:59,833
[tense music fades out]



