Do You Believe Manti Te'o After Interview With Katie Couric?

Do You Believe Manti Te'o?
In this photo taken on Jan. 22, 2013 and released by ABC Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, second from left, and his parents Brian and Ottilia, right, listen to host Katie Couric during an interview for "Katie," in New York. Te'o told Couric that he briefly lied about his online girlfriend after discovering she didn't exist, while maintaining that he had no part in creating the hoax. The interview will air on Thursday, Jan. 24. (AP Photo/Disney-ABC, Lorenzo Bevilaqua)
In this photo taken on Jan. 22, 2013 and released by ABC Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, second from left, and his parents Brian and Ottilia, right, listen to host Katie Couric during an interview for "Katie," in New York. Te'o told Couric that he briefly lied about his online girlfriend after discovering she didn't exist, while maintaining that he had no part in creating the hoax. The interview will air on Thursday, Jan. 24. (AP Photo/Disney-ABC, Lorenzo Bevilaqua)

In his first on-camera interview since Deadspin revealed that Manti Te'o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, never actually existed (or died of leukemia), the Heisman Trophy finalist maintained that he was a victim of a hoax rather than a co-conspirator.

"I think what people don't realize is that the same day everyone found out about this situation, I found out," said Te'o.

Couric peppered the Notre Dame linebacker with many of the questions -- and several pointed follow-ups -- that have been widely asked since this bizarre hoax was uncovered, including whether he is "technologically challenged," gay (to which he replied that he is "faaaaar from it") or "the most naive person on the planet."

With his parents joining him for a portion of the interview, Te'o repeated much of what he had already stated in his own text statement and during his off-camera interview with Jeremy Schaap of ESPN. He admitted that he lied to his father about meeting Kekua in person and that he had briefly lied to the media after learning that Kekua was not dead and not what she seemed.

Do you believe Te'o's account of this confounding situation more after his interview with Couric? Or do you still need more answers?

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