SI’s Pete Thamel Released the Transcript of His Interview with Manti Te’o About His Dead Fake Girlfriend
College Football, Death, Manti Te'o, Media Gossip/Musings Stephen Douglas January 17th. 2013, 5:11pm
Sports Illustrated has released the full trascript of Pete Thamel’s interview with Manti Te’o. You can read Thamel’s interview, along with some more notes at Sports Illustrated.com. I have picked out a few select portions that I found interesting. From Sports Illustrated:
SI: How did you meet her?
TE’O: We met just, ummmm, just she knew my cousin. And kind of saw me there so. Just kind of regular.
SI: How long were you dating? I know that can be a complicated question.
TE’O: Oct. 15 was the official date. Of last year. I’ve known her for four years. So we’ve been friends.
SI: So you dated for about a year.
TE’O: Yeah.
—–
SI: She has a Hawaiian sounding name. Is she from there?
TE’O: Her real name is actually Melelengei, but her friends couldn’t say that so they just called her Lennay.
SI: What did she do?
TE’O: She actually just graduated from Stanford. She worked at Clark’s Construction Company, I think. She replaced her dad after her dad passed.
SI: When did her dad pass?
TE’O: In October. She took that mantle for him.
SI: Does the family own a construction business?
TE’O: No. But they’re part of the whole administration, the higher-ups. Their family worked really hard and worked their way up. She’s very smart, very smart and very intellectual. She worked there but her main dream was to work with kids. She traveled all around. She taught at elementary schools. She flew to New Zealand to just work with kids. That’s what she loved to do, work with children.
—–
SI: What did she study?
TE’O: She graduated in 2011 or 2010. 2011.
SI: What was her major?
TE’O: Her major was in English and something. I’ll double check.
SI: I can call Stanford and check. They have to have some record or note that she passed.
SI: So long distance relationship?
TE’O: She was supposed to come [to visit me at Notre Dame]. She was just cleared to come to the Wake Forest game, my senior game. It was mainly just on the phone, every day.
—–
SI: Where did you meet her in California?
TE’O: She actually came to one of the games. She saw me at one of the games.
SI: October 15, I assume is USC?
TE’O: That was in November. But she saw me at the USC game of my sophomore year. We were still just friends, we were acquaintances.
There you go. Te’o told Thamel that he would talk to his girlfriend while she was in her coma and her breathing would increase. She was given a job at a construction company that her father had held. He didn’t know when she graduated or what she majored in despite the fact that they talked on the phone nonstop? Of course, if he was in on it, he would have an answer for every question. Right? This is still really weird.
