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.

Manti Te'o did lose his grandmother this past fall. Annette Santiago died on Sept. 11, 2012, at the age of 72, according to Social Security Administration records in Nexis. But there is no SSA record there of the death of Lennay Marie Kekua, that day or any other. Her passing, recounted so many times in the national media, produces no obituary or funeral announcement in Nexis, and no mention in the Stanford student newspaper.

Nor is there any report of a severe auto accident involving a Lennay Kekua. Background checks turn up nothing. The Stanford registrar's office has no record that a Lennay Kekua ever enrolled. There is no record of her birth in the news. Outside of a few Twitter and Instagram accounts, there's no online evidence that Lennay Kekua ever existed.

The photographs identified as Kekua—in online tributes and on TV news reports—are pictures from the social-media accounts of a 22-year-old California woman who is not named Lennay Kekua. She is not a Stanford graduate; she has not been in a severe car accident; and she does not have leukemia. And she has never met Manti Te'o.

killer_ewok;1367366 wrote:I'm so lost on this "catfish" thing...

cats gone wild;1367364 wrote:
Paging Karen about the most decorated player of all time.

Midstate01;1367370 wrote:The f'd up thing will be that he won all those awards, and his life was a HUGE reason he won them. He certainly didnt have the best stats in the country. It'd make some voters really pissed. I've already seen some tweets of people who say they want their heisman vote back.

karen lotz;1367371 wrote:You're very smart.

killer_ewok;1367372 wrote:I'm definitely with the folks who say if he was in on it that I will no longer have respect for him. However, if he was just tricked or catfish'd or whatever it is....he was just naive and foolish, but not a hoax or fraud. I think it's reasonable to see what other details come out of this. JMO

cats gone wild;1367376 wrote:Thanks. I wish I had time to look up the posts where people were dogging the type of person TM7 is compared to T'eo, and the whole Heisman/NFL thing

Pick6;1367377 wrote:How could he have been "catfished" if he said they met, in person, after the ND-Stanford game? Or she visited him in Hawaii?

Pick6;1367377 wrote:How could he have been "catfished" if he said they met, in person, after the ND-Stanford game? Or she visited him in Hawaii?

sherm03;1367380 wrote:Perhaps he was just trying to validate it to people who were asking questions about him having an "online" type relationship. People start ribbing him...he says "no, I've met her." People let it go.

Just a thought.