Two great sports stories landed on my lap in the past 24 hours. One had to do with the bizarre "hoax" surrounding Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o and his alleged girlfriend who had allegedly died of leukemia. The other has to do with Tiger Woods, who, depending on which news agency you want to believe, has either proposed to ex-wife Elin Nordegren, or is banging superstar skier Lindsey Vonn. Or both. Hey, it's not out of the realm of possibility with Tiger.
Let's begin with Manti Te'o, who, up until last September, was a very good linebacker at Notre Dame and that's about it. The Fighting Irish weren't expected to be very good this year, but the heartwarming story of Te'o seemed to inspire the Irish and turn their season around. They went undefeated this year and, led by Te'o, who finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting, captured the attention of an entire nation. Te'o had told the media the story of his girlfriend Lennay Kekua, who had been in a terrible auto accident and then was diagnosed with leukemia. Or was it the other way around? Anyway, she was in the hospital in California and in a coma and he talked with her every night on the phone, sometimes falling asleep to the sound of her breathing. But wait, the story gets even better. After the "real" death of his grandmother in Hawaii, Te'o claims Lennay passed away just a couple of hours later, turning a single tragedy into an unfathomable series of events which would be told, in detail to Sports Illustrated and then several other noted media outlets. The outpouring of sympathy from football fans around the country was incredible. Notre Dame went on to an undefeated season and was ranked #1 before losing the BCS Championship to Alabama a couple of weeks ago.
Yesterday, Te'o claimed he was the victim of an elaborate hoax. I, and many others believe he was the perpetrator of this hoax. He lied about having a girlfriend and then continued to lie. The website www.deadspin.com broke the story by doing what's called "research". What they discovered was that Te'o chose the wrong profession. He should've been a screenwriter because he concocted one of the greatest stories ever. To have an imaginary girlfriend is one thing. To have her contract leukemia and then be involved in a serious car accident and die just hours before (or after) his "real" grandmother passed away is difficult to get one's head wrapped around. The kid is projected to be a first round draft pick in the NFL, but how do you go after a guy who pulled off such an elaborate hoax? I guess if he's a good enough player, teams will look the other way. Me? I wouldn't want to have this guy as a teammate. What a creep.
Along the same lines, the great Tiger Woods doesn't need to invent girlfriends. He has (or had) plenty of them. Real live women, not a figment of someone's imagination. Back in November, there was speculation that Tiger and recently retired skier Lindsey Vonn had something going after meeting in Vail, Colorado, where Vonn's brother taught Tiger's kids how to ski. Now, according to sources in Salzberg, Austria, Tiger's private plane made a stop there on Sunday, and then left for Abu Dhabi the next day. Vonn happened to be in Salzberg for a TV interview at the same time. Coincidence? Not likely. Then, the next day, it was reported by the National Enquirer that Woods had proposed to ex-wife Elin Nordegren during Christmas, and even gave her a ring. No word as to whether she accepted or not, but the Enquirer reports that she is considering the proposal ONLY if Tiger agrees to a 350 million dollar anti-cheating clause. Now, say what you will about the Enquirer, but they broke the story that Tiger was cheating well before Elin attacked Tiger with a golf club in November, 2009. Speculation is that Elin read or heard about that article, confronted Tiger about it, and then when she had text-message evidence of his dalliances, she grabbed the 60 degree wedge and proceeded to demonstrate the full swing "cut shot" on him while he tried to escape in his Escalade.
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