I don't blame the media for all this. I mean, if someone says their girlfriend died, why would you have to check that out? Not going to the funeral was a bit odd, but he said she didn't want him to miss a game for it and given the distance to Hawaii, that seems plausible he wouldn't go.
I can also see a football player inventing a girlfriend to cover up being gay (especially a Mormon at a Catholic school), but saying she died is juts bizarre. Nobody outside the team and his circle of friends cared if he had a girlfriend. If people start getting nosy about her, just say they broke up and having a long distance relationship wasn't working out.
Raymond Burr, best known for playing Perry Mason, was gay but remained deeply in the closet for professional reasons. He had a brief marriage as a young man, but then went to great lengths to cover up his homosexuality. He claimed to have been wounded while serving in the Navy during WWII. He said he was married a couple other times and even said he had a son who had died at the age of ten.
I remember when Teo's girlfriend died. I had never heard of him before this season and didn't pay much attention to it since Notre Dame wasn't highly ranked early in the year. so I really wasn't aware of any of the back story of their relationship that was given at the time. He didn't play for us, so I really didn't care. I did not know until yesterday his grandmother had died. I really didn't pay much attention to him during the run up to our game. I was glad Manzeil won the Heisman over him, but that was mainly because I was rooting for the SEC guy.