he may not have orchestrated the hoax, but he lied consistently and repeatedly about his relationship with "lennay" from day one, to his friends, to his family, to his teammates, to his coaches, and mostly to the media. and not small lies either. he was spinning stories like this girl was his lifelong soulmate who he'd been with for years and couldn't go on without. meanwhile, he'd never met her, he'd only been chatting with for a few months, he didn't bother visiting her on her deathbed ("It never really crossed my mind"), and he didn't bother showing up to her funeral. he milked this thing hard for all the media attention and heisman votes it was worth.

portraying this guy as the victim is a joke. going along with his excuse that he was lying out of embarrassment is a joke. he was soaking up the attention like a sponge and lying right along with ronaiah, whether he was in on the actual hoax or not. he was a willing accomplice in all this-- almost the ringleader when you consider that ronaiah had absolutely nothing to do with putting the story in the media or blowing it up to the levels it got to. that was all 100% te'o. and he's still milking it (now blaming the hoax for his BCS title game play). he's still the accomplice. portraying him as anything else is a lie.