Manti Te’o admitted to Katie Couric that he briefly lied about his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. In an exclusive interview airing tomorrow, Te’o says he had no choice as the overwhelming embarrassment of the situation began to unfold.
“Katie, put yourself in my situation. I, my whole world told me that she died on Sept. 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on Sept. 12,” Te’o said.
Te’o said he received a phone call Dec. 6 from a woman claiming she was Kekua, even though Kekua had allegedly passed away three months earlier.
“Now I get a phone call on Dec. 6, saying that she’s alive and then I’m going be put on national TV two days later. And to ask me about the same question. You know, what would you do?” Te’o said.
What would I do? Well, let me see here Manti. I probably wouldn’t call someone my girlfriend despite never seeing her and I probably wouldn’t believe the horrible set of circumstances that led to her death. You know, without asking a few questions. But that’s just me.
His parents were also interviewed and his dad defended his son saying, “”People can speculate about what they think he is. I’ve known him 21 years of his life. And he’s not a liar. He’s a kid.”
Okey-dokey. Not a liar but that whole, “I saw my girlfriend in person” thing was just stretching the truth. Gotcha.
As you can probably tell, I don’t feel sorry for Te’o. If that makes me a bad person, well, so be it. Stupidity of this magnitude isn’t deserving of sympathy.