Manti Te'o had an absolutely
astounding senior year.
His grandmother and girlfriend,
Lennay Kekua, had died the same night.
He dedicated his season to them.
It was an amazing story.
I mean, they were with me, you know?
I miss 'em.
One problem. His girlfriend did not exist.
I don't think anyone can appreciate
how big a story it became.
This was a very sophisticated hoax,
perpetrated for reasons we can't understand.
At this point, I'm at the Heisman Ceremony.
I don't know what to think,
and I can't tell anybody what's going on.
He'll never say it affected his play,
but you could see something was up.
We thought, "What sick joke is someone trying to put on us?"
My uncle immediately said, "I think you're getting catfished."
All right. Ready to roll, Naya?
Yeah.
I created this fictional character, Lennay.
I totally felt fear.
I didn't have courage to just be like,
"This is who I am."
It became evident that we had a major story.
I was afraid this was gonna affect my NFL future.
I don't think he had any concept
of how much the media will build you up
and then tear you down.
I didn't expect it to blow up so quickly.
This is about to hit the fan.
That's when everything went chaotic.
-I love you. -There are two people.
It was crazy.
My whole world changed, and I'm questioning everything.