When Netflix announced Tuesday their Untold Vol. 2 sports documentary series will start with an Aug. 16 premiere of a two-part documentary on former Notre Dame and NFL player Manti Te’o, titled The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist, the response from social media was mixed.
Everyone knows the tale of how Te’o was catfished into believing that his online girlfriend had died during his senior season.
What we all didn’t know is that there was no girlfriend and that a friend tricked him. This documentary (a still of Te’o in it is seen above) dives into that story and the aftermath of the hoax.
Until now, Te’o has never really talked about what happened since then. So when this premiere date was announced, fans’ reaction was mostly positive.
I am so excited to watch the manti teo girlfriend documentary
— sherronemooredustymayburner (1573 days) (@tootstakes) July 19, 2022
Things I have to watch on Netflix (so far)
Tekken: Bloodline
Manti Teo‘s documentary
— Discounted Jason Statham (@JasTheFace715) July 19, 2022
Some, however, weren’t as excited about watching a documentary on the Te’o catfishing scandal. And some even used this to make fun of Te’o.
The upcoming Manti Teo documentary is REAL, unlike his girlfriend. pic.twitter.com/MaogoUUZ2m
— Frank J. Dyevoich⚖️🏈 (@Fantasy_Giant) July 19, 2022
https://twitter.com/__ItsYaBoy/status/1549484842718564352
While Netflix has done some sports documentaries in the past, ESPN has been the more prominent player in that space. But some fans are saying that ESPN haven’t done their own documentary because they played a large part in promoting Te’o during his Heisman campaign and they also fell hard for the hoax.
I can’t wait for the ESPN Manti Teo catfishing documentary to just completely gloss over the fact that ESPN fell for the dead girlfriend bit hook, line and sinker, just as much as Manti did. They’ll completely ignore that they were fooled too, because Disney can do no wrong.
— Nathan Deal (@NattyD13) December 31, 2020
The Te’o story is a sad reminder how much of an impact one lie can have on one player.
[Top image supplied by Netflix]
