I regret that the nation is captivated with the thoroughly ridiculous story of Notre Dame University All-American football star Manti T’eo and his imaginary romance with a “woman” whom we have learned was a fabrication.

T’eo garnered the sympathy of many when he went public with the assertion that his grandmother and his “girlfriend” had passed away within close proximity to each other, but there was much more to the story than that which immediately met the eye.

His girlfriend, we learn, was an Internet creation, someone with whom he exchanged messages and to whom he had professed his love, but had never met despite having “known her” for a period of years.

Those that are following the story with rapt attention are attempting to determine whether T’eo was an active or passive participant in a hoax. Whatever the outcome, my armchair psychologist view would be that he is in need of therapy.

Someone that would perpetrate a fraud of this nature or would consider themselves to be not only in a “relationship,” but in love with someone that they had not met but could have met if the person truly existed, is an individual with  emotional challenges.