Former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o explained again how he had been duped into an Internet romance he had with girlfriend Lennay Kekua he never met.
He did his best to turn the page on an embarrassing chapter by talking football.
This time, Manti Te’o even got to see it play out on live television 12 yards away – where three muted flat-screen monitors were in direct view of Te’o.
Manti Te’o answered every question with thoughtful deliberation and tried to provide clarity on a hoax that turned one of the nation’s most inspirational college football players into the butt of national jokes.
“I cared for somebody. That’s what I was taught to do ever since I was young. Somebody needs help, you help them out,” he said.
Later Manti Te’o added: “People doubted me because I took a while to come out. From our point of view, we wanted to let everything come out first, and then let my side come out. The way we did it, I thought, worked best for me.”
Manti Te’o’s news conference was the most anticipated event of the NFL’s second-biggest offseason weekend, which brought the makeshift media room inside Lucas Oil Stadium to a virtual standstill – twice.
The story began with Manti Te’o’s incredible performances after learning his grandmother and what he believed was his girlfriend had died within hours of one another in September.
Manti Te’o said it inspired him to play his best football all season, and it was so compelling that it helped turn Te’o into a Heisman Trophy contender as he was leading the Fighting Irish to an undefeated regular season and into the national championship game.
On December 26, Manti Te’o notified Notre Dame officials that he had received a call from his supposedly dead girlfriend’s phone three weeks earlier.
The school investigated and on January 16 – after Deadspin.com broke the story of the fake girlfriend – athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced at a news conference that Manti Te’o had been duped.
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, 22, later said he created the online persona of Lennay Kekua, a nonexistent woman who Manti Te’o said he fell in love with despite never meeting her in person.
Since then, Manti Te’o had only done a few one-on-one interviews.
On Saturday all that changed as many of the 800 credentialed media members surrounded the podium in rows that went eight deep. Manti Te’o wore a tie-died red-and-black workout shirt.
“It’s pretty crazy,” said Manti Te’o, who has played most of his games on national television and was one of the most recognizable college players last season.
“I’ve been in front of a few cameras before, but never as many as this.”
Only two scenes from the combine over the past 15 years could even compare to what Manti Te’o had to contend with Saturday.
The first came in 2004 when former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett was allowed to participate in the combine after a court ruled he should be allowed to enter the draft after finishing high school only two years earlier.
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