Manti Te’o's dead girlfriend may not have ever existed. Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey of Deadspin published a long look at the supposed relationship between Notre Dame’s Heisman-candidate linebacker, Manti Te’o and his deceased girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. This is the craziest, most amazing, unbelievable, insane story you will read today. You have to go read the entire thing for yourself, but the gist of it is that Kekua never existed and all the details of her car accident, sickness, death and relationship with Te’o were fabricated. Te’o's family never met Kekua and some people insist Te’o was involved in the hoax. If this is true … Wow. Catfish…

[Deadspin]

Update: Notre Dame’s official statement.

On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.