The value of the Unspoken: She Didn’t Exist, released on Netflix in August, can be found at Access. There is a pattern of documentaries on streaming services that tend to be hastily removed, either because of timeliness or competition from other platforms, because they rehash existing reports and add little else. .of this edition unspoken Two principals, Manti Teo and Naya Tuiasosopo, haven’t talked enough about what happened since they left the news cycle.
For those unfamiliar: Te’o was a highly touted linebacker at Notre Dame and the NFL’s top prospect going into his senior season. Then, on September 12, 2012, he received horrifying news. His grandmother Annette Santiago and girlfriend Renee Kekua died within hours. Faced with this two tragedies of his, Theo chose not to miss the match to fulfill his promise to Kekua. His resilience transcends the sports world and has become a story of national interest. Those who knew nothing about college football that year still knew who Manti Teo was because of what he went through: Notre Dame went 12-0 in 2013 with 1 They made it to the U.S. Championships in May, but lost to Alabama. (These wins were later annulled because of Notre Dame’s use of ineligible players due to NCAA sanctions, but no one but the NCAA cares about that.) Fighting Irish Champion About a week after the ship’s defeat, Deadspin’s Jack Dickey and Tim Burke reported that Lennay Kekua does not exist. There was no record of her death or existence other than Teo’s girlfriend.
(Also, for those unfamiliar, disclosure: I interned at Deadspin in the fall of 2012 and started working there from the summer of 2013 until the end of 2019. I worked with Burke and Dickey Separately, in 2014, I spoke with Ryan Duffy. unspoken, about joining Vice Sports, but it didn’t work out. We haven’t been in touch since, so this disclosure is less relevant, but I figured all the cards should be on the table.)
A lot has changed since Renai Kekua ceased to exist. Theo said he will play in the NFL until 2021 and is currently a free agent.He He is married to fitness instructor Jovi Nicole Teo and has a child. Second one on the way. After Tuiasosopo was revealed to be a catfish and went around on her television, she took a trip to American Samoa and found a catfish. The Faafafine community is a group of Samoans who identify as the third gender. Documentary reveals she is a trans woman live in washington, I work at a home center. Both Theo and Tuiasosopo have returned to some sort of normality over the years for various reasons.
Players Tribune has had a lot of influence on this project, so it makes sense. unspoken series. Tying together every line Theo speaks matches one of his in essays written for athletes that reads: Or Jamarcus Russell Dion Waiters. However, for documentaries, it helps to have other participants fill out the story and provide another perspective. Besides Te’o and his Tuiasosopo, there are interviews with Te’o’s family and friends, his director of Notre Dame Athletic his Jack Swarbrick, Dickey and Burke, and a brief appearance by Dr. Phil. , his presence does little to enhance his archival footage. show.
The Player’s Tribune’s influence is also limited. Admittedly, it took a lot of patience and persuasion to get Theo and Tuisa Sosopo on board for this one. It delivers. The few minutes devoted to Dr. Phil should have been spent getting more answers from Swarbrick. What did Notre Dame do between the day Theo informed the school of catfish fishing on December 26, 2012 and the day of the deadspin report on January 16, 2013? Swarbrick says the school’s “outside consultant” advised “you don’t have to say anything publicly right now, but you need to look into what happened and be very careful.” When asked about the date Swarbrick said: What’s your plan? ‘ Manti was working on uncovering the story. ”
Swarbrick, who is Theo’s advisor and not the athletic director of one of the most famous schools in the country, presents a convenient narrative without specifying anything specific. A sympathetic person is Manti Teo (football player, more hesitant about attending Notre Dame than his favorite USC, obedient college student far from home, trying to adapt to new surroundings). We can accept why someone who struggles with and is a victim of repeated emotional manipulation) struggles to explain. Why did he keep saying his girlfriend was dead, even though he received a call from Tuiasosopo a few days before the Heisman ceremony claiming Renai Kekua was alive? I don’t know what to do,” says Theo. “‘What’s true? What’s not true? And I can’t tell anyone what’s going on. I mean, what do you think? So I just stuck with the script.’ ”
Many times in the documentary, Theo can’t offer more answers Everything went crazy in that moment, I was just following the adviceCatfish fishing was considered a novel phenomenon at the time, but Swarbrick and Manti’s father, Brian Theo, said that throughout the season I knew enough in early January to identify that the repeated Renee Kekua facts were bunk beds. Somehow I couldn’t find a connection between Tuiasosopo and Renai Kekua, even though it was supposed to be like. unspoken indicatesSure, the school knew that ESPN was working on its own investigation and was trying to get Manti for an exclusive interview on very specific terms from the linebackers’ camp. new york times report January 22, 2013:
Despite these interviews, questions remained and the mystery seemed to double. ESPN still wanted his Te’o on-camera interview with him, and one of his veteran reporters, Jeremy Schaap, asked for it.
But Te’o’s public affairs advisor, Matthew Hiltzik, was adamant and set serious conditions for Schaap. ESPN was able to interview Te’o only last Friday night, in an intimate setting with no cameras or groups of techs. [News chief Vince] ESPN was also limited to two minutes of audio usage, according to Doria.
[…]
After a two-and-a-half-hour interview at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, Sharp began delivering his report early Saturday morning after an NBA game’s overtime. Instead of the video, Schaap quoted and paraphrased his Te’o comments. He described Theo’s body language and expressed his view that he believed Theo’s sometimes barely comprehensible stories. He had an exclusive online and phone relationship with Kekua. He was misleading his own family about the nature of their relationship. And he had adjusted his statements in news media interviews to suggest that the relationship was more substantial than it really was.
The desire to control every detail of the narrative turns out to explode in the face of multiple parties. Deadspin was the first to tell him what he knew at the time. Given his status in sports media, the site never did a roundtable discussion with his Manti Te’o. He, Tuiasosopo and Brian Teo said: unspoken They received calls for comments and ignored them. Swarbrick called Presser hours after Deadspin’s report and shared the school’s findings so they could hand over responsibility to the expulsing student. Theo’s advisors got Theo to make a statement and appear on Katie Couric’s show to talk about him not being gay. Tuiasosopo appeared on his Dr. Phil show where he gave the voice of Lennay Kekua to what seemed to be an expert. Many media outlets that wrote about the Renai Kekua tragedy Go back and see where you went wrong. The feel-good story that swept the country became so again as a farce, leading to Theo’s humiliation and insecurity, and Tuia Sosopo’s expulsion.
unspoken It concludes with a moving speech from Theo about how he forgave not only Tuiasosopo but himself. Beyond that, the ending felt abrupt and deliberately vague: Part 2 of the documentary played slides from his NFL draft day midway through the first round to the first half of his second round. , leading viewers to believe his career was a tragic failure. In fact, it was perfectly fine. He was on his NFL roster over his eight seasons.The Chargers A more significant setback in his professional career was the torn Achilles tendon he suffered that season, which prevented him from playing thereafter.
I can understand why the director did this. The story is a story of tragedy, born out of a tragedy that didn’t happen. But even after all these years, Theo’s life is no tragedy. Anyway, he certainly doesn’t see it as one. unspoken And the Players’ Tribune allowed Theo to regain some dignity by presenting it in its light. This was only possible with his participation. The version of Deadspin without Access was obviously limited in what it could do. They overlap and a new story is born. After the death of his deceased girlfriend, Manti his Theo, after serving as an inspiration to survive, became. Inspiration For persevering in the wake of his fictional dead girlfriend.
