Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger discuss Netflix’s new documentary ‘Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist’ which details the story of Manti Te’o’s online girlfriend who turned out to be fake. The team also debates the journalistic integrity of the organization that brought the story to the forefront.

Video transcript

[CHEERING]

[CRACK OF THE BAT]

DAN WETZEL: We want to get to the Netflix documentary "Untold-- the Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist." It's like a Lifetime music-- movie.

[LAUGHS]

PAT FORDE: It is.

DAN WETZEL: A.k.a. the Manti Te'o story.

PAT FORDE: We all-- we all, like, worked through this particular Lifetime story. It was as weird as it gets.

DAN WETZEL: It stars Manti Te'o, former Notre Dame All-American linebacker. Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was who was at the time identified as a man, now identifies as a transgender woman. That was a twist in the movie. And he created Lennay Kekua by cobbling together fake or basically stolen photos of a pretty girl he knew and then played the role of Lennay to catfish and basically draw in all sorts of guys-- there was a lot of guys that got drawn in. Just Manti was the most famous-- including using a female voice to play the role of Lennay Kekua.

And an elaborate scam that was a big play in the 2012 college football season, one decade ago, when Tuiasosopo told-- seeking a way kind out of this life he was living with Lennay Kekua, said Lennay Kekua died due to leukemia. After coming out of a coma for a car accident, Manti Te'o dedicated his season to her and to his grandmother, who died on the same day-- it's a very dramatic story-- and went on to have this incredible season, including leading Notre Dame an average-- an above average, but not a great Notre Dame team to a 12-and-0 season and a spot in the national title game.

And then, of course, it all blows up. Ronaiah tells basically re-emerges as Lennay Kekua back from the dead. I think he told--

[LAUGHTER]

I'm trying to plot this movie.

PAT FORDE: I know! But as you're going through this, it's like it gets more ridiculous.

ROSS DELLENGER: It seems like you're making it up. This can't be real.

DAN WETZEL: Yeah. This is not real. That's the thing. He told-- his hold--

PAT FORDE: It is, in fact, made up.

DAN WETZEL: This is not in the doc. But I remember from reporting it, he told Manti that Lennay Kekua had gotten into some hot water with drug dealers in California and had to fake her death, or she was going to get killed. Like, that was the excuse. And then she was back.

Anyway, Manti was very, very confused, basically told Notre Dame about this whole weird situation. They uncovered that it was a scam. At the same time, "Deadspin," among other organizations were looking into it. As this started to filter away, "Deadspin" broke the story in January 2013. And as Manti was preparing for the NFL draft, all hell broke loose.

Manti Te'o became a punch line, really, the subject of incredible intense online bullying. He's the victim of a very elaborate hoax. But 10 years later, here's the story. And Manti's really laying it out for the first time in this "Untold" segment on Netflix.

I'll just let you say general thoughts here. Ross, why don't we start with you. You watched it before Pat. So you get to go first.

ROSS DELLENGER: Yeah, I thought it was great. It was-- you know, as a journalist-- and I think all of us maybe thought this way too-- the most interesting parts were-- to me were like kind of how "Deadspin" handled the story, how they got the tip, the email, the process they went through. You know, if you guys remember, I mean, the "Deadspin" story-- well, I think it included some lines in it that suggested that Manti was in on this. And if I do recall, that ESPN pulled out a couple of those lines and ran them across the ticker about how-- basically saying, suggesting, he was involved.

And funny how they never mentioned that in the documentary. That was just kind of completely left out. So that was one thing--

DAN WETZEL: Let me bring that up as a point. Absolutely, "Deadspin" wrote, quote, "a friend of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo told us he was, quote, "80% sure," end quote, that Manti Te'o was, quote, "in on it" and the two perpetuate-- or perpetrated Lennay Kekua's death with publicity in mind. So he's 80% sure not only that Manti was in on it, but he's 80% sure of the motive. And it went on to cite, quote-- this one's incredible-- "another relative of Ronaiah's, who, quote, "believed Te'o had to know the truth," end quote. That's straight opinion.

The motive of publicity, that framed everything in this story. Because not only was Manti part of the fraud, he was trying to gain from the fraud by tricking people. And that is a powerful bit that turns the public against you. Go ahead, Ross. Sorry. Just wanted to make sure we had the exact wording.

ROSS DELLENGER: No, yeah, that-- yeah, that was my big observation, that they left out a very important note in the story.

DAN WETZEL: I don't know how that got left out.

ROSS DELLENGER: That story probably needed an editor to comb over a couple of those sentences.

PAT FORDE: Yeah, there was some wildly irresponsible parts of the "Deadspin" story. It was a huge scoop. And credit to them for getting it. Quoting an anonymous source who says they're 80% sure of something? Defamatory as hell. Whoa! No, don't do that.

DAN WETZEL: How about he-- another relative believed Te'o had to know? That's like double neg-- double speculative, double hypothetical.

PAT FORDE: Yeah, my uncle--

DAN WETZEL: I think had to know. He had to have known, right?

- Yeah, my Uncle Slim said he had to know, so OK.

DAN WETZEL: Had to know. Like, he didn't know.

PAT FORDE: What?

DAN WETZEL: Yeah, I don't--