It Can Happen To You

The Manti Te'o Story

Manti Te’o was an established public figure when it was revealed that his dead girlfriend was actually alive. This is important because it was a much-reported sports story that year, both that his girlfriend had died and later, that she didn’t die. In fact, it was someone pretending to be a woman online and he had never met her.

Manti Te’o, a truly impressive young man

The term “catfishing” came into popular consciousness all at once. People thought it was ridiculous that a leading athlete from a prestigious school would be tricked by someone online. Now, we know better. At the time, no one had heard of something like that.

Manti Te’o was roundly mocked. That must have been tough. He kept his positive, constructive attitude in the aftermath of the exposure, and it was really impressive to watch in Netflix’s UNTOLD: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist, a documentary on the incident. Te’o told of…