Two officials, each with a different team, said their clubs passed on Te'o in the first round partly because of his off-field issues.
According to Swarbrick, Te'o in early December received a call from a woman claiming to be his girlfriend and telling him she was not dead.
On that evening, in front of a prime time audience that learned of his heart-wrenching story, Te'o also hauled in an ill-advised Spartan lateral that helped ice the game.
Just a few simple questions in the Te'o story could have sniffed out the falsehoods.
Te'o struggled in Notre Dame's blowout loss in the national championship game to Alabama and its offense full of future NFL draft picks.
Mr Tuiasosopo said he killed Kekua's character after an argument with Te'o, in which the football player had told her he did not need her.
Te Kura A Rito O Newton sent in more entries than any other school - their students also submitted all their biodiversity statements in te reo Maori as well as in English.
UNESCO: Te Kura A Rito O Newton students win UN Photo Awards
Some wondered whether Te'o had been in on the fake girlfriend scheme to gain positive publicity and attention.
Te'o denied reveling in the attention he received for playing so outstandingly on the gridiron after suffering such devastating personal losses.
As he and his team excelled, Te'o told interviewers in September and October that his grandmother and girlfriend, whom he described as a 22-year-old Stanford University student, had died within hours of each other.
As he and his team excelled, Te'o told interviewers in September and October that his grandmother and girlfriend -- whom he described as a 22-year-old Stanford University student -- had died within hours of each other.
The most famous person in this draft, Notre Dame linebacker Mani Te'o, most notable for having a fake girlfriend, couldn't even cash in his star power for anything more than being the 38th overall selection with San Diego.
WSJ: Once-Hyped Quarterback Matt Barkley Picked in Fourth Round of NFL Draft
Unconcerned about a hoax involving a fake girlfriend and a flop in the national championship game that have dogged Te'o for four months, San Diego Chargers rookie general manager Tom Telesco moved up seven spots in the second round to draft the Notre Dame linebacker on Friday night.
In an off-camera interview Friday with ESPN, Te'o said Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, a 22-year-old acquaintance who lives in California, contacted him two days ago and confessed to the prank.
Te'o has denied involvement in the hoax, and his family has not commented on Mr Tuiasosopo's story.
In the fall, Te'o received widespread publicity about his on-field resilience following the September deaths of his grandmother and girlfriend.
The pair had set up several meetings, including in Hawaii, where Te'o grew up -- but Kekua never showed, Swarbrick said.
Te'o, who graduated in December, couldn't be reached for comment.
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, 22, later said he created the online persona of Lennay Kekua, a nonexistent woman whom Te'o said he fell in love with despite never meeting her in person.
Questions have also been raised about Te'o telling Sports Illustrated in October that Kekua had attended one of his games, when he issued a statement last week saying he'd never met her.
After he was told Kekua had died of leukemia in early September, Te'o admitted he misled the public about the nature of the "relationship" because he was uncomfortable saying it was purely an electronic romance.
In a statement, Te'o said he had been the victim of a "sick joke", but he did not say whether he had ever met Kekua in person, nor did he correct media reports that he had met her.
In a news conference Wednesday, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Mr. Te'o told the school that he learned of the hoax in the first week of December, when he received a phone call from the number he had associated with Lennay Kekua.
In the ESPN interview, Te'o said he wasn't fully convinced it was a hoax until Wednesday, Schaap said.
In September and October, Te'o told interviewers that his girlfriend and his grandmother had died within hours of each other.
Deadspin said it had traced the hoax to a former classmate of the woman whose face appears in the Twitter profile of Te'o's alleged girlfriend.
Te'o's grandmother did in fact die in September, Deadspin said.
Te'o's grandmother did in fact die in September, according to Deadspin, but there is no Social Security Administration record of the death of the athlete's supposed girlfriend, described as a Stanford University student.
"As Lennay struggled to survive, Te'o developed a nightly ritual in which he would go to sleep while on the phone with her, " said an Oct. 1 Sports Illustrated cover story, in a line that wasn't attributed.
应用推荐