Manti Te’o was either extremely naive or incredibly manipulative.

If he was an unwitting victim of a fake internet romance, as he and Notre Dame claim, he is much less wise than we thought.

If he wasn’t duped but was part of it, this young man we’ve spent years lauding for his high character is a fraud.

I really hope it’s the former. It’s much easier to grow out of that and regain your footing. He’s still one of ours here in Hawaii and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Either way, it’s a bizarre story and hard to believe. Either way, it’s bad for his immediate future.

NFL decision-makers are going to have a lot more questions for him as draft day approaches than they did before this wild tale of a girlfriend he apparently never met in person, and her death not being a death.

If he wasn’t in on it? We hear lots of people fall for this type of scam, but the Punahou and Notre Dame educated Te’o is supposed to be much smarter than that, and intelligence and leadership is part of what made Te’o attractive as a pro prospect. Everyone makes mistakes, but this is a doozy.

If he was in on it? A huge shot to what was almost universally viewed as off-the-charts great integrity. It’s hard to see what he would gain from such a hoax other than unwarranted widespread public sympathy, so it would also indicate a severe lack of judgment, humility and perspective — the exact opposite of his image before this.

At this point, what Te’o knew and didn’t know and when is up for conjecture, and there’s been plenty of that. His statement that he was fooled and the Notre Dame press conference Wednesday night still leave many unanswered questions. They include why he didn’t tell anyone immediately when the person they say pretended to be Lennay Kekua called him several weeks after leading him to believe she had died.

Embarrassment and just hoping it would all magically go away somehow?

And what about family assertions that Te’o had met Kekua in Hawaii?

Last week’s national championship against Alabama was the first game Te’o played in since he learned that “Lennay” didn’t die, according to Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick. If this is true, maybe it partly explains why he didn’t play well.

If what Te’o said in the brief statement Wednesday is true and he is a victim, he made the mistake so many of us in the media did: He assumed.

It looks like everyone who reported on the girlfriend-dying story except the website Deadspin.com did just that.

Sucked in like Te’o on that play-action TD pass against Alabama.

Everyone. Plenty of reporters, editors and producers from big-time media outlets. There was no research, no fact-checking to determine if there really was a person named Lennay Kekua.

The story was too good. Notre Dame football star plays through death of grandmother AND girlfriend.

Here, we’re guilty of assuming the best about a local product who had done a lot of positive things on and off the football field, and for too much trusting of earlier stories produced by national sports media.

We all forgot that if your mother tells you the sky is blue, you’re supposed to get a second source. Better yet, take a look outside and see for yourself.

Actually, can we even believe that Lennay Kekua never existed? In another strange twist, former University of Hawaii football player Reagan Mauia said late Wednesday that she is a real person. He said he has met her in real life, not just online like Te’o now says he did. Mauia said this was before she knew Te’o, and that he knew her family, too.

When it was suggested to Mauia that Kekua is a fake persona, he said, “No, she is real.”

At this point, what can anyone believe?

“At the end of the day this is Manti’s story to tell,” Swarbrick said.

It always has been. Hopefully everything somehow adds up when he chooses to tell it again, and hopefully he does that soon.

———

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.