Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

Manti Te’o, I Know Exactly How You Feel

Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o on the sidelines during a game against the USC Trojans in Los Angeles in 2010 (PHOTO: NEON TOMMY/FLICKR CC)

Myella, my love, my mystery, my every little thing she does is magic. My-el-la: a hop, a skip, a jump in the pulse. Who played jazz bass and studied Buddhism, who walked her bulldog down the streets of Seattle, who was redheaded and pale and a little shy, but possessed of an effortlessly sexy erotic imagination. Myella, who I loved deeply, and who did not exist. I follow football little, and college football not at all, so I first heard Manti Te'o’s name just a few days ago. But I knew precisely what “Catfish scam,” the phrase next to his name in the headlines, meant. I saw the ... Read More