The new Netflix documentary “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist” tells the story of how Manti Te’o was a victim of an elaborate and cruel catfishing scandal that left him prone to a vicious social media culture, not to mention football’s (and America’s) own entrenched homophobia.
Te’o, of course, was the great Notre Dame linebacker who in 2012 dedicated his Heisman finalist season to his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, who he said died of leukemia before an early season game.
The problem was simple: Kekua didn’t exist. She was a collection of stolen photos and a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who now identifies as a transgender woman named Naya.