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Whether Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te’o was Victim or Conspirator, Notre Dame officials have entered uncharted waters
By Brad Wolverton in the Chronicle of Higher Education
During a storybook season that ended in the national-championship game, it turns out that Notre Dame’s star linebacker, Manti Te’o, had a girlfriend who was just a story. The university was forced to react swiftly to news of the hoax, experts said, because of the trajectory of scandal in a social-media age. (Jeff Gross, Getty Images)
Athletics leaders across the country raised questions on Thursday about the University of Notre Dame’s handling of a sensational story about how its star football player was mixed up in a bizarre hoax.
The story centers on Manti Te’o, a Heisman Trophy finalist and the impetus behind Notre Dame’s improbable run to the national-championship game. According to various news-media reports, Mr. Te’o played this past season under a heavy burden. In the span of six hours last September, the stories went, Mr. Te’o learned of the death of two important people in his life: his grandmother and his girlfriend.
The player’s perseverance through those losses, and his inspired play in leading the Fighting Irish to one nail-biting victory after another before losing its final game, made for the perfect fairy-tale script.
It turns out, however, that the girlfriend’s death was a fabrication… and officials from other universities are questioning Notre Dame’s full-throated support…
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See Also:
ABC News Video: Notre Dame: Football Star Manti Te’o Was ‘Catfished’ in Girlfriend Hoax
USA Today timeline of the Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax story
