Can love bloom on a comments section?

They're not the first couple brought together by college football. But their love story is unlike any other. When Rihanna belts out, We found love in a hopeless place, she's singing about Kate and Brandon. When they first crossed paths in 2012, they weren't Kate and Brandon to each other. They were bleu_girl_04 and AAWolv, regulars in the comment section of ESPN's Big Ten blog.

For those who forget, the blog's pre-Facebook comments section allowed users to post anonymously, identified only by handles of their choosing. Like most online forums, it was humanity's digital septic tank, a playground for the obnoxious, the juvenile and the fakest of tough guys (and, occasionally, gals). Insults flew like paper airplanes in detention. If commenters weren't putting down rival schools, they were trolling one another. Intelligent football discussions would occasionally initiate, but most threads turned ugly in a hurry.

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. But Kate and Brandon are not only both real, but after spending time with them during their wedding weekend, we can report that they seem quite normal.

Their story, however, is anything but normal. So we're not going to tell it in a normal way. Kate and Brandon and some of their closest family and friends recently joined us in an online forum – with usernames, of course – to recap their unlikely journey from message board to marital bliss. Or, as the less-famous Tom Brady put it in his best-man speech, "It was love at first chat."