10 Unbelievable Sports Stories Hollywood Should Turn Into Movies

2. Manti Te'o And His Fake Girlfriend

Pitch: Lars and the Real Girl meets Rudy One of the big stars of the 2012 American college football season was University of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, who was not only playing at an exceptional level but received vast media attention when he spoke out about his grandmother and his girlfriend both dying on September 11, 2012. His girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, had supposedly succumbed to leukaemia. Te€™o was praised throughout the season for the fortitude he displayed despite these personal tragedies. However, in January 2013 the sports blog Deadspin investigated the story and discovered that Kekua wasn't a real person. In reality, a male named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo had carried on an online relationship with Te'o, who claimed he didn't realise it was a hoax. Questions arose when people pointed out that Te'o had previously spoken about meeting Kekua and that Te€™o still spoke about Kekua in interviews after the date he claimed the hoax was revealed to him. The scandal made international headlines and unintentionally served as a huge promotional push for the MTV reality show Catfish, which is about hoax online relationships. To this day there remains many questions about what exactly went on between Te'o and "Kekua"... and a dramatic movie could probably answer all of them.