If This Was A Hoax Then, Wow, Just Wow

Even if you don't care about college football, this is amazing.  It was hard to turn on a TV this fall without being told of the heart wrenching story of Notre Dame linebacker and ultimate Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te'o battling through a double tragedy: In a span of six hours in September, his grandmother died as well as his girlfriend. The latter from leukemia.  He fought on with the season and magazines and sports stations swooned.

Now Deadspin.com, in a rather lengthy post, delves into the story and concludes: There was no girlfriend.   If this was a hoax either he or Notre Dame created for the purposes of media attention in order to build up his Heisman chances, this may be one of the craziest stories I've ever heard.

And when you hear about "Twitter blowing up", it is stories like this that do it.

Edit: Notre Dame issues a statement saying Te'o was the victim of the hoax girlfriend.  That would be even more unbelievable.

Edit: And if you're into this story and you've seen The Usual Suspects, this photoshop is genius: