That same day, Deadspin blew the lid off the online sham, said the girlfriend did not exist, had never lived, or had died from leukemia.

Transcription

1 ESPN knew it was a hoax, the story about Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te o s online girlfriend. But ESPN held onto the story until its reporters could talk to Te o. That delay cost ESPN. A sports website, Deadspin, beat it to the draw. That same day, Deadspin blew the lid off the online sham, said the girlfriend did not exist, had never lived, or had died from leukemia. 1 / 5

2 The whole thing was in Te o s head. Some of his detractors said he exploited the tale to bolster his claim for acclaim, such as garnering the Heisman Trophy. Or to be a top contender in the National Football League draft, which is coming soon. For the uninitiated, here s how it all began. For months, Te o thought he was in contact with an ill Stanford alumna Lennay Kekua, according to an account in The New York Times sports page last Wednesday. Te o relied on her existence through a photograph in Facebook, which was lifted from an FB account of a California woman who had never spoken to Te o. The hoax subsequently acquired a life of its own, well before Deadspin scooped ESPN. On Thursday, Te o will go on-camera with Katie Couric in a taped interview to a non-sports audience. But there s not much excitement about the televised interview after the din over the tale died down. Look what happened to Lance Armstrong, who finally agreed to go to Oprah Winfrey after many years of denying taking drug-enhancing pills and injections. 2 / 5

3 Nobody gave a hoot even after admitting he lied all this time. Te o also drew punchlines at Tuesday s night Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. But the Te o make-believe took another tack, in a most unexpected occasion. Megastar Beyoncé s soulful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at Monday s inaugural ceremonies at the nation s capital had tens of thousands of fans exulting with her mastery. Even President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama gazed adoringly at her while doing the number. But the glee turned to fury when the No. 1 performer was revealed to have lip-synched the National Anthem. How could you, Beyoncé? Were you vocally challenged? You could have blamed the biting cold for resorting to pre-recording the performance. This was done by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma (our Michael Dadap s brod-in-law) who hand-synched his instrument due to the 19-degree weather when he performed in the first inauguration. At least, American Idol star Kelly Clarkson bravely belted her version of My Country Tis of Thee. 3 / 5

4 Nobody would have been any wiser had not a spokeswoman of the U.S. Marine Band blew the whistle. She said the band faked it through the pre-recording but added that the band played live for every song except Beyoncé s. Now everybody will be watching her when she performs on Feb. 3 at the Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens. If only for the memory of Baltimore s star-crossed poet Edgar Allan Poe, go Ravens! On the serious side, we quote an excerpt from the moving poem One Today written and recited by Richard Blanco: One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores, peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth across the Great Plains, then changing across the Rockies. One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story 4 / 5

5 told by our silent gestures moving behind windows. 5 / 5