'Love at First Chat' for U-M Alums in Crude Corner of Internet

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Internet comment sections aren’t known for their romantic, heartstring-tugging banter.

Indeed, online forums are often distinctive for their nastiness in general, but on sports blogs, the tenor is often flush with language suitable for the toilet. You probably wouldn’t take your preschooler there.

So when University of Michigan alums Kate Queram and Brandon Wagoner started flirting in 2013 as they defended the Wolverines on ESPN’s Big Ten blog — she was posting as bleu_girl_04 and his handle was AAWolv — other fans took notice, calling them “the blog couple” and suggesting that he “blog propose.”

That was in 2013 when the fiasco involving Manti Te’0’s fake dead girlfriend was revealed. Wagoner wondered if Queram was really who she said she was.

They continued their relationship offline and, satisfied that she was real, Wagoner later traveled from Ann Arbor to North Carolina, where Queram lived.

They eventually sealed the deal.

It was sweet, and more shocking than any of the sophomoric one upsmanship that takes place in online forums, according to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg and Brian Bennett, who wrote:

“The thought that true love could sprout from this crass corner of the Internet seemed implausible, like Michigan hiring Jim Harbaugh. We were shocked at Kate’s story when she told us back in April, much like most of the blog regulars who assumed she was simply catfishing Brandon. ....”

They were married last weekend, when Michigan had a bye.

Best man Tom Brady — no, not the Tom Brady of deflategate notoriety — said this:

“It was love at first chat.”

» Screenshot and video via ESPN