There are a lot of these "Catfish" stories out there and they're pretty much the same, because it's the same pathology.
On the other hand.......
.....assuming he was taken in by a hoax -- and not a willful participant -- Manti would still be selling an impossibly poignant love story to the world and not admitting he'd never actually met the girl, because that would be weird. So our pillar of Morman integrity has actually lied at this point, regardless.
And the article connects too many dots for Manti to be even this embarrassingly clueless, so it probably gets worse. I lept to the gay relationship conclusion. It's gonna sting either way.
Not to get lost in all this: that was some serious journalism by Deadspin.
And it doesn't look so good that the national media did not follow up on this inspirational story in the meaningful kind of way that would ultimately expose it.