Manti Te'o was at the same time one of the most inspirational athletes of his generation and one of the most ridiculed. Te'o, a fantastic football player from a small island in Hawaii, played unbelievably well in his senior year of college at Notre Dame, nearly winning the Heisman Trophy and riding the wave of his unshakable determination to play for his grandmother and girlfriend who passed away on the same day in 2012.

Netflix just released a documentary on this whole situation entitled Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist, because, well, she didn't.

The Short Story

To get the long story, you should absolutely watch the Netflix documentary. It is two parts and includes interviews and comments from all the important players in the story. Here you'll get the short story.

Coming out of high school, Te'o was the most highly sought after linebacker in the country. When he decided to go to Notre Dame, it was a bit of a surprise because the program was nowhere near what it used to be and Te'o was going to be tasked with helping their resurgence. A lot of pressure.

He was performing extremely well and certainly living up to the hype starting early in his freshman year. Fast forward to his junior year in 2011, he gets a friend request from Lennay Kekua on Facebook. Not someone that he knows, but sees that a few people that he knows are friends with this woman so he accepts and they strike up a relationship.

Kekua lived in California and Te'o in Indiana so long distance was the game and it worked. They spoke on the phone all the time but had never actually seen one another in person or on a video call or anything. Te'o had tried but Kekua always had issues with technology or wasn't available, etc.

Their relationship continued all through Te'o's junior and senior year until September 11, 2012 when his grandmother passed away and then later the same day, Kekua lost her battle with cancer.

Or did she? lot's of twists and turns ensued after that point that Kekua's "brother" called Te'o to say that she had died. Te'o was devastated and dedicated his senior season to his grandma and girlfriend and was the inspirational story of the year, a player overcoming tragedy to play football at an extremely high level. Eventually it came out that Te'o had been catfished by a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.

The Aftermath

When it came out that Lennay Kekua wasn't real, the world exploded for Te'o. He was a laughing stock, the punchline for late night tv hosts, suspected to be in on the plot, believed to be trying to hide he was gay.

Te'o was projected to go high in the first round of the NFL Draft before the news broke, then mid to low afterwards. Eventually he was selected 38th by the San Diego Chargers, a precipitous fall.

As he says in the documentary, Te'o was always at home on the field, never feeling any pressure or nervousness when he crossed those painted lines. Once his world turned to chaos at the hands of Tuiasosopo, Te'o went numb on the field and the game moved so fast that he couldn't keep up. He was paralyzed with anxiety and physically could not perform.

A promising NFL career was dead upon arrival because of this and naturally, little success came out of that frame of mind and the last time that Te'o graced a roster was 2020 with the Chicago Bears where he never touched the field in the regular season.

Forgiveness

Someone effectively ruining your life can embitter anyone for years if not forever. Not Manti Te'o. He is a devout Mormon and takes his faith seriously, extending it to the forgiveness of everyone in his life, including Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and those who laughed in his face or chanted about his ill fated relationship.

Forgiveness is one of the tenants of the Christian faith and one that we all so often forget or put aside. Watching someone like Te'o commit himself to forgiving all who have wronged him, literally ruining a professional football career that could have been great, is inspirational. So many of us have much smaller issues in our lives, brought on by someone we know who we refuse to forgive because it is difficult. Because they deserve the blame. That's not what God wants us to do. 

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you," Ephesians 4:32. Those are our marching orders. Now it's time to act accordingly.

Mound Visit

Saints Sports Network is a Christian group that brings you interesting sports coverage. Our name comes from Ephesians 2:18-21 where it notes that all Christians are saints in God's eyes. Therefore we are saints who write about sports but also want to make sure to share the Gospel. That's where Mound Visit comes into play because we all need a visit to the mound from God in good times and bad to recenter our lives and trust in him. We'll do that by highlighting a Bible verse for you to think and pray about in each newsletter that you receive from us.