SOUTH BEND, Ind. — There were no signs — either in support for or condemnation of Manti Te’o — inside the Joyce Center at the start of the men’s basketball game between Notre Dame and Rutgers last night. There were no chants or jeers for the star linebacker who appears to have been duped into believing his Internet relationship with Lennay Kekua was genuine.
Te’o is more than 1,000 miles away from here, training for the NFL Draft in Florida, leaving many to wonder how this could have happened to their star linebacker and where he will go from here.
All agree in one sad truth:
Te’o’s legacy as the emotional bellwether for the 2012 Fighting Irish team that put Notre Dame football back on the national map has been tainted.
“If you’re just kind of desperate for company or just interested in being friends with somebody new — especially if you’re on the Notre Dame campus, he’s a big figure,’’ said Teagan Lawson, a 2010 Notre Dame graduate. “You can’t go anywhere without people knowing you. So maybe if you want something more normal, reaching out online might be a way to try that.’’
Not everyone was as understanding. Some wonder why the star football player at America’s College Football Team had to resort to the Internet to find love. Lawson is a manager at O’Rourke’s Public House, a South Bend bar and restaurant where, ironically, there is a message on the chalk board that reads, “Find love at O’Rourke’s.”
Kyle Carpenter, 25, of South Bend, another worker at O’Rourke’s, stood with Te’o. Carpenter said he, too, had been the victim of an Internet love scam while a member of a band that played clubs in the area.
“It was a fan that happened to come out over Facebook and instant messenger services, stuff like that and phone calls,’’ he said. “I understand people think this is crazy. How could you fall for someone on the Internet?’’
Te’o did: The fictitious Kekaua, who understood Te’o’s Hawaiian background and his strong religious faith was too good to be true, because she wasn’t true. She was an avatar-like being, conjured up allegedly by one Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.
According to published reports Te’o was not Tuiasosopo’s first victim. Te’o said in his interview late Friday night with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap that Tuiasosopo confessed his guilt and apologized. Te’o said he forgave Tuiasosopo and bore him no ill will. It speaks to Te’o’s naivete, which baffles some.
“You don’t think that two people could have a relationship as intense as the one he described just on the Internet,’’ said John Wetzel a Notre Dame sophomore from Dallas. “Society may have changed for a lot of people. There’s still something that seems unrealistic about it, but I guess it happens.’’
It did to Te’o. A source told The Post that Te’o was holding up remarkably well given the ordeal he has lived since Dec. 6, when the woman pretending to be Lennay called him, two months after her supposed death.
“If you know Manti, you understand how this could happen,’’ said the source. “He’s more worried about this affecting his friends and family. That’s Manti.’’
Te’o finished his college career as the most decorated linebacker in Notre Dame history, but his place in that history always will bear a footnote. He will be remembered as the player who was duped, not the one who led the Fighting Irish to a 12-0 record and a place in the BCS National Championship game.
“I’m a senior. He’s in my class,’’ said Nevin Peeples, a senior chemical energy major from St. Louis. “He’s a Notre Dame student just like us. He never pretended to be anything else.’’
How ironic: The kid who never pretended to by anything else got taken by those claiming to be something they weren’t.