Dead Girlfriend Hoax

This story is so weird you couldn't make it up.

Go to deadspin.com/5976517/manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-the-most-heartbreaking-and-inspirational-story-of-the-college-football-season-is-a-hoax

Now that I have read about this a bit, I have to say I find it awfully hard to believe that he really didn't know. And if he did then why did he refer to it at that one event after he had been told?
I have online friends who are good, good friends and while we have never met we have talked on the phone and done other things that assures me we are all who we say we are. I just have such difficulty believing him.

Some recent reports make it look as though this T'eo character was actually stupid enough to fall for the hoax. The guy who pulled it off has done similar stuff in the past.

Then why did he mention it at that one event after he was told? Still in that mind set I guess? And how can you be so broken up over loosing a girlfriend you never met? Sad yes, but a major life event? Hardly.