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Dead girl hoax: an NFL player says he met Manti Te'o's friend, and she's real

The plot thickens…

ALTHOUGH DEADSPIN, NOTRE Dame, and Manti Te’o himself are saying Lennay Kekua never existed and was a fabrication in an elaborate hoax, one NFL player claims to have met her.

Reagan Maui’a, a fullback for the Arizona Cardinalstold ESPN that he met Kekua doing charity work in American Samoa in 2011. Here’s what he said:

“This was before her and Manti. I don’t think Manti was even in the picture, but she and I became good friends. We would talk off and on, just checking up on each other kind of thing. I am close to her family. When she was going through the loss of her father, I was — I offered a comforting shoulder and just someone to bounce her emotions off. That was just from meeting her in Samoa.”

Maui’a said it was Ronaiah Tuiasosopo — the person who Deadspin reports invented Kekua on the Internet — who introduced the two. Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers was allegedly there as well.

From ESPN:

He said it is his understanding that Kekua’s mother is operating her Twitter account. He said he’d never met her mother. When told by a reporter that she apparently might not have existed, Mauia said: “No, she is real.”

Deadspin reports that the evidence is overwhelming that Kekua — at least the person we taught Kekua was — did not exist. There is no death certificate, or record of her having graduating from Stanford.

So perhaps Maui’a's claim is just proof that there is a whole lot that we just don’t know right now.

Catfish? Notre Dame backs Manti Te’o in ‘sophisticated’ fake girlfriend hoax

Notre Dame: Manti Te’o was a victim of the dead girlfriend hoax

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    Mute Colin Murphy
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    Jan 17th 2013, 1:00 PM

    Aaaaaaaargh my head hurts. Three articles Today and I still don’t understand what is going on.

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    Mute Eoin O' Donovan
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    Jan 17th 2013, 2:22 PM
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    Mute Eoin O' Donovan
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    Jan 17th 2013, 2:28 PM

    The link is a very good article, it’ll take a few minutes to read but it should take you up to speed.

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    Mute Stephen Cashman
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    Jan 17th 2013, 2:37 PM

    There was surely an easier way to keep the closet door shut..

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    Mute terayon100
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    Jan 17th 2013, 1:09 PM

    Gee, and Americans wonder why they have a reputation for being dumb, they really don’t do themselves any favours, do they!?

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    Mute Jillian Milam
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    Jan 17th 2013, 1:33 PM

    Ignorant comment there matey….

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    Mute Ken Corcoran
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    Jan 17th 2013, 3:16 PM

    That an idiotic comment

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    Mute Paul
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    Jan 17th 2013, 1:00 PM

    Someone needs to change their medication

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    Mute Paddy Moran
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    Jan 17th 2013, 3:27 PM

    I reckon he was using the whole thing as a way of getting sympathy votes for the Heisman and the story got way out of hand and they kept it going,,,either way it’s incredulous to think that they invented this person in the first place,College Football star has Fake girlfriend,,maybe the previous comment was right,,hes trying to keep the closet door shut,no need in this day you would think!!

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    Mute Darrell Cushion
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    Jan 17th 2013, 2:32 PM

    Incredible story. So he’s either complicit in the entire fabrication, or he’s really really stupid. Either way, he’s not gonna be a 1st round draft pick any more. This will end up costing him millions of dollars, and possibly his future career.

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