There was no reason for Manti Te'o to let anyone outside his inner circle in, but he did Saturday back at Notre Dame Stadium, and it was pretty awesome
Notre Dame great Manti Te'o, 2012 Heisman runner-up, tells the story of having his dinner tab picked up by an Irish fan in South Bend on FridaySOUTH BEND — What unfolded on the ninth floor of Corbett Family Hall — the Notre Dame Stadium press box — early Saturday afternoon probably couldn’t have occurred anytime earlier.
On Saturday, Te’o was on campus for the fourth time since he last played his last game, when he last raced out of the north tunnel of the stadium on Senior Day, that November 2012 afternoon. Four years earlier, he wore jean shorts — jorts — and sat in the stands on a brutally cold day that would see Irish players pelted with snowballs thrown from the student body in their home finale against Syracuse in 2008.
Easy. A native of Hawaii, Te’o always will be a Laie boy. That’s home. So is South Bend. So is that campus, where he became a man, where he became a Notre Dame man. Te’o was quick to say it again Saturday – Notre Dame is home because some of the best years of his life unfolded across the campus. Maybe the best.
All of what happened off the field during Te’o’s senior season? There wasn’t enough time to dive deeply into that, at least not Saturday. Go read the stories. Go watch the two-episodeEven before the documentary was pitched — and it needed Te’o’s participation to mean anything — he insisted Saturday he already was at peace with his life. What had happened in his senior year, when finished runner-up for the Heisman Trophy and won a truckload of individual awards. What happened off the field.
It was funny to see a university-issued lanyard and credential hanging off Te’o’s neck. Like, he really needed to be identified. He could go anywhere he wanted in that building, on that campus. Who was going to stop him from going anywhere he wanted to go?One place Te’o really wanted to go at least, one more time was down the stairs from the Irish locker room, out the tunnel and onto the playing surface. Just once more.
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