Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel beat out the inspirational story of Manti Te'o to win the Heisman trophy in December. He just didn't know that inspirational story was a fake.
Like everyone else in the sports world, the record-setting freshman was completely taken aback by the revelation that Te'o's dead girlfriend was an internet hoax. Manziel and Te'o spent a lot of time together during the college football awards season, with Manziel taking home the Heisman as well as the Davey O'Brien award and the Associated Press Player of the Year Award.
Manziel spoke to the Associated Press and said his "mind was blown" at the Te'o situation. The pair also spent time together this weekend at the Walter Camp Awards dinner.
Speaking about the situation, Manziel said: ''Nobody could believe that. It was a shock for the entire sports world ... and I'm just as shocked as anybody else.''
Manziel has been around the internet himself lately, with pictures of him surfacing of him at a club with a buxom blonde, as well as a photo of him holding cash at a casino the day after the Aggies beat Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. He said no one at the school has told him to tone things down, but that he may start being more cautious on Twitter.
Manziel sent out some tweets about the situation, writing on Wednesday: "Just so people know the media doesn't always paint the correct picture.. They just care about getting a good story and nothing else matters."
Later on after the Deadpsin story was starting to make the rounds, he wrote: "Will be just as shocked as everyone else if it's true." An hour after that, "#MindBlown" was added to his account.
Te'o finished second in the Heisman voting behind Manziel, who broke Cam Newton's Southeastern Conference-record for total offense with 4,600 and threw for 3,419 yards 24 touchdowns with just eight interceptions. He completed over 68 percent of his passes and had a rating of 155.9.
Notre Dame's defense was totally dominated by Alabama in the national title game and finished the year ranked second in the nation in points with 12.8 per game. The Irish were rated number one for the majority of the regular season, finishing with 10.3 points per game.
Te'o finished the season with 113 tackles, 1.5 sacks, four passes defended and a nation-high seven interceptions. He had interceptions in back-to-back games against Brigham Young and Oklahoma and made a season-high 12 tackles against Michigan State on Sept. 15. Te'o made at least five tackles in every game during the 2012 season and had 5.5 tackles for loss.
In the final game against USC, Te'o had five tackles and one interception in Notre Dame's 22-13 win. He registered double-digit tackles in six games this season and had two interceptions in Notre Dame's 13-6 win on Sept. 22.
The story of Te'o's girlfriend started to break after Deadspin.com reported that it could find no record of Lennay Kekua existing. Notre Dame issued a news release following the report, saying that "the proper authorities" are investigating a "very cruel deception."
According to Deadspin.com, the inspirational story about Te'o using his girlfriend's death from leukemia as an inspiration was found out to be a hoax. The report says that the girl Te'o claimed was his girlfriend was a made up identity and that the woman, Lennay Kekua, did not exist.
Te'o issued a statement Wednesday afternoon:
"This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her."
The school is supporting Te'o, but there still is a lot of information to learn before the whole thing is over and done with.
