Yeah for us the only confirmation we need that it was a hoax is a google search to find that she didn't exist. For a blog like deadspin they need to confirm by trying to find out a little bit more. But a mainstream source like ESPN can risk their rep by putting this out without complete confirmation by a primary source (I don't think they put an article up today until Notre Dame released a statement), because of the slight, slight chance that this WASN'T a hoax situation and he really did have a girlfriend that died? Before ESPN releases a story like that they gotta make sure that she wasn't a real person under a different name. Maybe "Lennay" was a shortened name for something else? Or maybe there's a different last name? Either way, they aren't gonna risk running something like that unless they REALLY confirm everything.