Jan. 16, 2013: Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick gives a press conference after the Deadspin story breaks. Swarbrick says that Te’o came to him on Dec. 6 and told him that he had been the victim of a hoax. “It is a scam … that follows the exact arc of this. It’s perpetrated with shocking frequency, and it’s just [like] this one: an initial casual engagement, a developing relationship online, a subsequent trauma—traffic accident, illness—and then, a death. Again, as hard as it is for me to get my arms around this, there’s apparently some sport in doing this, and being able to do it successfully.” So we are all supposed to believe that a smart, talented guy fell for an online hoax like this for a year. Weirder things have happened? But we can’t exactly think of anything right now.