Manti Te'o documentary set to air on Netflix

Netflix has announced a new documentary on Manti Te’o and the hoax that his name became synonymous with. It’s called “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist.”

“From Notre Dame to the NFL, Manti Te’o’s future in football showed promise until a secret online relationship sent his life and career spiraling,” is how Netflix describes the show online.

The documentary is going to focus on the scandal that gripped the college football world in 2012. That season, Notre Dame was making an undefeated run to the BCS National Championship Game. They were led by Manti Te’o, who was having one of the best seasons for a linebacker in modern college football history. Te’o, ultimately, would be named a Heisman finalist.

During what was seen as a magical run for Notre Dame, Manti Te’o was going through personal struggles. His grandmother and girlfriend died on the same day in September of his senior season. It was for them that he played the 2012 season. The problem was that, as it was revealed in January of 2013, his girlfriend didn’t exist.

Manti Te’o didn’t realize that his girlfriend didn’t exist. He’d been catfished. He really thought that he was in a relationship with a woman, and he really thought she died. His grandmother really had died. Te’o went through the mourning that someone who lost both a grandparent and a girlfriend would go through.

Immediately, the story overshadowed Manti Te’o the football player and person. It became the thing that people knew about him.

Manti Te’o will appear in the documentary. Also involved is Ronaiah ‘Naya’ Tuiasosopo, who catfished Te’o, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, and the writers who broke the initial story. Now, the documentary is set to air on August 16, 2022.