Manti Te’o Attends ‘Maxim Hot 100’ Party Honoring His Fake Girlfriend

One of the biggest stories to hit college football last season involved Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o and his fake girlfriend. The controversy surrounding how much Te’o actually knew about the existence of Lennay Kekua has died down, but the fact that a Heisman Trophy candidate went an entire season with a fake girlfriend is something that still hasn’t gotten totally old.

Maxim Magazine rehashed the story when the created this year’s Hot 100 list, which is a list of the hottest women in sports, business and entertainment in 2012. Te’o’s fake girlfriend may not actually exist, but she made the list and to take things a step further, Te’o actually showed up at the Hot 100 party that was pretty much making fun of him.

Dan Bova, Maxim’s Editor-In-Chief, spoke about the incident and said that Te’o showing up was a pleasant surprise and he was glad the young man knows how to take a joke.

“It seems like he has a good sense of humor about the whole thing,” Bova said via Yahoo! Sports, “which i think is the best way to handle a situation like that.”

You have to hand it to Te’o for owning up to the incident and showing his face at the party. I’m sure the scores of real women there had a little something to do with his motivation, and any positive publicity he can spin from the situation is a really great thing for his image.

So far it’s looking like most of the fun being had at Te’o’s expense is in good nature and enough time has passed so that the more sensitive section of the population can laugh along with Te’o over what happened. Obviously the fringe nuts who are still convinced Te’o was in on the hoax will see this as the Chargers’ rookie cashing in on the publicity of the situation, but at the end of the day this is a just a kid who attended a Maxim party.

Most of the razzing will come from the crowd this year, and those creative AFC West fans will be sure to never let us or Manti Te’o forget about his fake girlfriend.