hoaxes Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Dead Letters: All The Hate Mail We've Received Since Publishing Our Manti Te'o Story
Subject: With regards to the Te’o story......
![In ESPN Interview, Manti Te'o Admits To "Tailoring His Stories," Says He Wasn't Convinced Lennay Kekua Was Fake Until Wednesday [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18by27wccpz3tjpg.jpg)
In ESPN Interview, Manti Te'o Admits To "Tailoring His Stories," Says He Wasn't Convinced Lennay Kekua Was Fake Until Wednesday [UPDATE]
Admitting that he deceived his parents and the press about the nature of his relationship with Lennay Kekua, but denying any involvement in the hoax, Manti Te'o spoke with ESPN's Jeremy Schaap Friday night for more than two hours in an off-camera interview. (Most of what little we know about the int...

Newspaper: "Lennay" Called Manti Te'o In December And Said She'd Faked Her Death To Elude Drug Dealers
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, citing a source "close to the Te'o family," has the particulars of a phone conversation between Manti Te'o and "Lennay Kekua" in December, three months after "Lennay" had supposedly died. ...

What Did Manti Te'o Say About His Dead Girlfriend After He'd Learned She Wasn't Real?
Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick said that Manti Te'o was at ESPN's college football awards show, on Dec. 6, when he received a phone call alerting him to the hoax. That was the moment, according to the Notre Dame timeline, that Te'o learned Lennay Kekua wasn't dead, and wasn't real. Here are quotes fro...

ESPN Reports Ronaiah Tuiasosopo Confessed To Te'o Hoax In December. Was Te'o Involved? Evidence Varies
ESPN's Shelley Smith is reporting that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, the apparent creator of the Lennay Kekua hoax, confessed to duping Manti Te'o, according to an interview with a friend of Tuiasosopo. "He told me Manti was not involved at all, he was the victim," the woman told Smith, in an audio recording ...

Another Famous Samoan Football Player Slowly Backs Away From The Manti Te'o Scandal
We told you earlier how Arizona Cardinals fullback Reagan Maui'a told ESPN he had met Lennay Kekua, which is rather odd because she doesn't actually exist. But also buried in that report was Kekua's reference to another famous Samoan football player:...

Here's Everything The Media Screwed Up In Reporting The Story Of Manti Te'o's Fake Dead Girlfriend
In our investigation of Manti Te'o and his nonexistent dead girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, published yesterday, we mentioned the media's role this fall in amplifying the hoax. Here are all the ways they got the story wrong:...

Manti Te'o's Teammates Had Their Doubts About Lennay Kekua
The big question is: What did he know and when did he know it? We may never get a straight answer from Te'o. Nor from his family, who have thrown hissy-fits anytime the media doesn't work as Manti's PR agency. But what about those who spent the most time with Te'o over the last few years. According ...

Cardinals Player Says He Met Manti Te'o's Fake Dead Girlfriend
This is a confusing story; there's no doubt about it. But if there's one thing everyone can agree on—from our original story, to the Notre Dame statement, to Manti Te'o's own statement, it's that Lennay Kekua was a hoax. She didn't exist....

Notre Dame: Manti Te'o Was The Victim Of Mean Internet People
The Notre Dame version of events is that Manti Te'o is still the hero everyone thought he was. He's just not so good at using the internet....

ESPN Reporter On Te'o Story: "Short Of Asking To See A Death Certificate, I'm Not Sure What Most People Would Do Differently"
The other angle to the Manti Te'o drama? The media. More than a dozen news outlets reported about the girlfriend who didn't exist. So, why didn't the likes of CBS News or ESPN or Sports Illustrated find out sooner?...

Former High School Coach Charged With Falsely Accusing Other Coaches Of Molestation
From October 2011 until May of this year, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia received a series anonymous emails from someone who said the longtime football coach at a suburban Catholic high school—a man in his 70s—had solicited sex from a player. Other messages accused the school's lacrosse coach of se...
![How A Teenager With A Fake Escort Service Duped Darren Rovell And CNBC [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/17oy9pv00sq5dpng.png)
How A Teenager With A Fake Escort Service Duped Darren Rovell And CNBC [UPDATE]
An 18-year-old high school senior named Tim was bored one day last November when CNBC's sports biz guy, Darren Rovell, sent out the following tweet:...

The Tongan Olympic Luger Who Turned Out To Be An Underwear Marketing Scam
Imagine if the events surrounding 1988 Jamaican bobsled team that inspired the film Cool Runnings happened today, in the age of the internet and 24-hour sports coverage. Now imagine one of those athletes, by pure chance, had been named Calvin Klein. And after his emergence on the international scene...

That Craigslist Ad Offering People $75 To Attend The Big Ten Championship Game Was A Hoax
Spencer Hall, who had gotten hold of a response from the hoaxster and initially thought it could be legit, ended up getting to the bottom of it: "The funniest thing was all the damn Spartan and Badger fans who crawled out of the woodwork. Can't be bothered to drive 3 / 6 hours for their team and bu...

We've Found The Lass Responsible For The Lone Amstel Light On The Bruins' $156,000 Bar Tab
When the Bruins threw down with an epic body count at their Stanley Cup celebrations at Foxwoods, the world was drawn not to the six-figure bottle of champagne: Armand de Brignac is so played out. Instead it was the solo Amstel Light, a beacon of moderation and taste in a storm of crapulence. ...

Hunt For Beejoli Shah, Fabulist Author Of Viral "Quentin Tarantino Sucked My Toes!" Story Begins (UPDATE)
So, friendsicles: how many of you had the email from "beejoli" forwarded to you this morning and have subsequently sent it along to others? Dozens, I bet. Thousands even. Dozens of thousands probably. Its veracity is still unknown but I know Gawker is dutifully trying to track down "beejoli" to see ...

Deadspin Classic: How Everyone Decided Delonte West Was Boinking LeBron's Mom
Around this time last year, everyone was seeking an explanation for LeBron James's poor playoff performance. They found it, in the form of a bizarre Gloria James/LeBron James/Delonte West love triangle. Happy Mother's Day, everyone....

Letter Chiding Baylor Students For Clogging Plumbing System With Semen Is Too Good To Be True, Alas
According to an anonymous tipster, the residence halls at Baylor were recently clogged with semen, leading to this desperate plea from one residence hall's director. Sadly, it's a fake, as our brief conversation with the hilariously put-upon director confirmed....

Hot Piece Of Ass Who Quit Job Was Probably A Stunt
Today, all The Internet wanted to talk about was Jet Blue Guy's zany escape from employment—or the press's red-faced descriptions of how the police found him—and all of a sudden Dry Erase Board Girl came out of nowhere. She's fake....