I hope I'm right here, rather than another sucker. Honestly I'm not sure if I care if I am the sucker, but this needs to be said.

I feel nothing but sympathy for Manti at this point.

I feel terrible for this kid. He had to spend time grieving for not one, but two deaths in the same week. It had to be the worst week in his life. It doesn't matter how close he really was to the girl, if he thought he knew her, thought he loved, or even that he might grow to love her, and then to have her disappear from his life on probably the very day he needed her the most. That is a shame, and no matter what he found out about it afterward, he had to live through that, and it hurt.

Just when he was probably starting to have a chance to put his life back together after a whirlwind of a season, he got to find out that it was all some stupid prank, that all the grieving had been for naught, and all of the things he believed about her were lies.

He had to sit through what should have been one of the most exciting days of his life, playing for the National Championship of college football, a goal that he had previously given up millions of dollars to pursue, thinking "She wasn't even real, my inspiration wasn't even real, and if anybody finds this out I will be hated."

Now he has to try and figure out how to deal with this story, deal with NFL scouts who are asking questions, and deal with people that worshiped him now hating on him. He has to live with the burden of being branded untrustworthy and deceitful by the media and former fans.

He played his ass off for US his fans, his family, and a girl he wanted to impress.

Thanks Manti, we still love you, and we hope only for the best.