just quietly going away — he orchestrated a documentary episode in an effort to play the victim and gain public sympathy.
Look, most college athletes have real, verifiable girlfriends and yet they don’t bring them up in interviews or discuss them in the media. Manti knew good and well that telling the media how much of an inspiration Lenay was to him and how she was “the love of his life” that it led to not just more media coverage but a significant amount of coverage and public inspiration and sympathy.
He never met her and told the world that he did and when it was all uncovered he doubled-down as the victim instead of taking his loss and moving on.