Many people felt for Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o when he lost both his grandmother, and his girlfriend in a span of just a few hours. As it turns out, the whole girlfriend thing was totally made up.

The story is easily one of the most bizarre that we have seen in a long time. Te'o has now released a statement claiming to be a victim of a hoax. He says that he found out about the whole thing days before Notre Dame's national championship game against Alabama.

Even more confusing is that it didn't seem to be just Te'o who fell for this hoax. His whole family was on board with it as well. So was it a sensationalized story generated to move him into the public spotlight, or was Te'o really the victim of someone's cruel prank?

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