Manti Te'o admits to lying in interview with Katie Couric
The latest page turned in the soap opera that is Manti Te'o's life is his admission to Katie Couric that he lied in December by carrying on the myth of Lennay Kekua's death, but again reaffirmed that he played no role in the hoax. The December timeline quickly emerged as the biggest problem in Te'o's story. AA first unearthed Te'o's Heisman Trophy night quote on ESPN talking about the emotion of Kekua's death two days after first learning of the hoax. The AP also found two more instances of Te'o carrying on the lie after December 6th. But in his two interviews with Couric and ESPN, the Notre Dame linebacker has seemingly patched up that hole in his story in hopes that all other suspicions fade away.
Manti Te'o's TV interview with Katie Couric will be airing on Thursday, and from the preview clips we've seen so far, it's going to answer few questions. In the first clip, Te'o doesn't even make eye contact with Couric for half of the interview, and his defense is essentially, "well, what would YOU do if you found out that this happened to you?" while admitting to lying about Kekua's supposed death after finding out she was not dead on December 6th.
In another part of the interview, with Te'o joined by his parents Brian and Ottilia, his father tearfully says that Te'o isn't a liar... he's just a kid.
That's funny, considering that earlier in the interview, your son admitted to being a liar and keeping the charade going after finding about Kekua wasn't real and/or dead. I don't think this story is going to go away after this interview, and there will probably be more questions than answers that arise out of Te'o's first on camera interview with Katie Couric.
It's going to be really interesting to hear what Tuiasosopo has to say about all of this. Somehow, I suspect he isn't going to be willing to just take the fall for his buddy.
He has serious mental and emotional problems. That makes him a perfect fit at Notre Dame.
