Posted on 01/16/2013 2:20:45 PM PST by FlJoePa
Notre Dame's Manti Te'o, the stories said, played this season under a terrible burden. A Mormon linebacker who led his Catholic school's football program back to glory, Te'o was whipsawed between personal tragedies along the way. In the span of six hours in September, as Sports Illustrated told it, Te'o learned first of the death of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, and then of the death of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua.
Kekua, 22 years old, had been in a serious car accident in California, and then had been diagnosed with leukemia. SI's Pete Thamel described how Te'o would phone her in her hospital room and stay on the line with her as he slept through the night. "Her relatives told him that at her lowest points, as she fought to emerge from a coma, her breathing rate would increase at the sound of his voice," Thamel wrote.
Upon receiving the news of the two deaths, Te'o went out and led the Fighting Irish to a 20-3 upset of Michigan State, racking up 12 tackles. It was heartbreaking and inspirational. Te'o would appear on ESPN's College GameDay to talk about the letters Kekua had written him during her illness. He would send a heartfelt letter to the parents of a sick child, discussing his experience with disease and grief. The South Bend Tribune wrote an article describing the young couple's fairytale meeting—she, a Stanford student; he, a Notre Dame star—after a football game outside Palo Alto.
Did you enjoy the uplifiting story, the tale of a man who responded to adversity by becoming one of the top players of the game? If so, stop reading.
(Excerpt) Read more at deadspin.com ...
“Ron Powlus will win the Heisman two times and be the greatest quarterback in the history of Notre Dame.” -- Beano Cook Although not related as such to the Manti Te'o story, ol' Beano was yet another mythmaker for Notre Dame and today's news made me recall his prediction.
Is it really a hoax if you never even heard the story in the first place? LOL.
Bump for a wild story!
Why would he do this? I am sure he was in on it. For sympathy? Wasn’t that an episode of Seinfeld?
bfl
Notre Dame is giving a press conference on this right now.
This has the makings of a Disney movie.
ESPN is replaying the press conference with ND Athletic Director now.
and then a dingo ate his baby and aliens abducted his dead girlfriend’s body and did experments.
he fought the aliens and injured his arm in doing so. but he played any way even though his arm
was connected only by skin and some scotch tape.and then Benji chased a cat.
the end.
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