Manti Te'o: Mormon Athlete
The Polynesian Football Hall of Fame announced in November 2022 that Manti Te'o will be one of three inductees in January 2023. “These men represent the very best of our Polynesian people and we look forward to celebrating this recognition with them and their families in January!” said Jesse Sapolu, co-founder and chairman of the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame, in a press release.[1]
He played in the NFL for seven years: with the San Diego Chargers from 2013 to 2016 (drafted in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft), the New Orleans Saints from 2017 to 2019, and the Chicago Bears in 2020–2021. He announced his retirement in June 2023.
Te'o had a standout career at the University of Notre Dame. As a linebacker for the Fighting Irish, he tallied 437 tackles over four years, a figure that put him at third on the school’s all-time list. He was the only Latter-day Saint on the Catholic University Notre Dame's football team, which went undefeated during 2012 season. Finishing the regular season, Te'o had 113 tackles and seven interceptions, in large part thrusting Notre Dame into championship bowl competition. Narrowly missing the Heisman Trophy, Te'o won the Lombardi Award as college football's best linebacker or defensive lineman. Referring to the upcoming bowl game against Alabama, Te'o said,
- It's the big dance. It is something that you dream about when you are little and for me to be in that game and playing against a real good Alabama team, it will be a perfect end to this chapter in my life.[2]
- When you look at the company I am with — Jarvis, JC, Barrett — all guys that have proven themselves many, many times. For me to walk away with it, I am just very, very grateful. All of those guys are deserving of the trophy as well, so it is just a great experience and great opportunity for me.
Te'o also won the Dick Butkus Award as the best linebacker, and the Bronko Nagurski Award as the nation's top defensive player. He was up against Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel and Kansas State's Collin Klein, both quarterbacks (a defensive player never wins) for the Heisman Trophy. He was in New York for the final decision, which went to Manziel. Many in sports were rooting for Te'o, and the press commented on how gracious he was leading up to the decision. [3]
FoxSports.com said the following:
- Te’o is the most important, best player on the most important, best (for now) team. Notre Dame wasn’t even expected to do much this year because it doesn’t have a quarterback. Now, a defensive front seven has led a team to the national championship game. ... Notre Dame went undefeated by stopping offenses, allowing just 10.33 points a game.
- Te’o was an Eagle scout. He graduated early from Notre Dame. He is selfless: Shortly after his grandmother died, Te’o was told of a family in Michigan whose young daughter was dying. He selflessly surprised them by writing a touching letter about knowing their pain.
- Maybe those things don’t exactly translate into a great football player, but they do make him stand out as someone who is selfless and cares about education. He has plenty of flaws; everyone does. And when he goes on to an NFL career, we’ll find out about them.
- But for now, he represents something college football truly needs. [4]
The press often comments on Te'o's shining character. These are the standards he was raised with as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the Mormon Church. In high school, Te'o had a 3.5 grade-point average and did volunteer work with the Shriners Hospital, Head Start preschool program, Hawai'i Food Bank and Special Olympics.
Manti Te'o is of Samoan descent. He was born on January 26, 1991, and grew up on the island of Oahu in Hawai'i. He was one of the most decorated high school athletes in Hawaii's history. In 2008, Te'o won the inaugural high school Butkus Award, while also being named Sporting News High School Athlete of the Year. [5] He is 6'2" and 255 lbs. Manti is one of six children born to Brian and Ottilia Te'o.
Te'o made to a number of national top ten recruiting lists before the start of the season. Te'o received offers from over 30 college programs. He is regarded as one of the most highly recruited athletes, both in football and for any sport, in the history of the state of Hawaii. Te'o is the first USA Today Defensive Player of the Year to commit to the Irish since Kory Minor in 1995.
Notre Dame met Alabama for the BCS Championship in 2013, and Notre Dame was crushed, its first loss of the season. Going into the game, the Philadelphia Inquirer had this to say:
- Fact is, there has never been anyone like Te'o, who forged a path from Oahu to Notre Dame; a Mormon among Catholics; a Samoan among Hoosiers; and, here at the golden end of his Irish career, a linebacker among Heisman Trophy finalists.
- Alabama would never go looking for a guy like this, a talent so far outside the usual SEC recruiting trails and norms that he might as well be from Mars, but Crimson Tide quarterback AJ McCarron surely will be searching for Te'o prior to every snap in Monday night's BCS championship game. [6]
Manti Te'o married Jovi Nicole Engbino in 2020. Their daughter was born one year later.[7] Their second child, a son, was born in 2023.
The Girlfriend Hoax
When Te'o's grandmother died, the press widely reported that Manti Te'o's girlfriend had died of leukemia around the same time. According to Fox Sports reports in mid-January of 2013, Te'o had, with perfect trust typical of his guile-less personality, developed a deeply affectionate and compelling relationship online with a Stanford student. He learned she had cancer and then was informed of her death, receiving the news as a great tragedy, but deciding to play on according to her deathbed request. This was exposed as a cruel hoax perpetrated on Manti. The athletic director at Notre Dame, Jack Swarbrick, spoke to the press about the situation with much sympathy and fatherly love for Manti. He said the following:
- "The grief was real. The affection was real. That's the nature of this sad, cruel game. This was a very elaborate, sophisticated hoax. In many ways, Manti was the perfect victim of a hoax."
- ”He was not a person who had a second thought in offering his assistance,” Swarbrick said. ”Nothing about what I learned has shaken my faith in Manti Te’o one iota.”
- "There is a lot of sorrow, a lot of tragedy here. The single-most trusting human being I’ve ever met will never be able to trust in the same way again. That’s an incredible tragedy.”
Swarbrick added that at this time there is no way to determine the number of people involved in the hoax. He also stated that, in the era of social media, this should serve as a "cautionary tale for young people," [8]
Te'o was in the spotlight in 2022 over this due to the release of a Netflix documentary on his catfishing scandal. “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist” explores how being deceived by someone he thought he knew and loved derailed Te’o’s professional career. (See Deseret News, "Manti Te’o was ready to tell his story. This Utah filmmaker helped him do it")
In the wake of the catfishing scandal, there were times when Te'o felt like staying in a dark room all day. But he tried to focus on taking just one step forward—even half a step—with God’s help.
“Because I’ve experienced that full spectrum [of experiences], I can relate to a lot of people in different times of their lives,” Manti says. “I’ve seen the summit of what this world can offer, . . . but then I’ve also experienced the fall. . . . I know what depression feels like. I know what it feels like to have those thoughts in your head of like, ‘Man, why am I even here?’”[9]
- “In a society where a lot of people feel alone, . . . I’ve been there. I know how that feels. And because I know how that feels, I also know that there is one person who understands exactly how I feel.
- “And it was the Savior Himself when He went to that garden, and He took upon Himself, not only the sins of the world, … [but also] felt every depression, every pain—whether it be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual—He felt it all.”[10]
Te'o is now helping people know they're not alone in their struggles. “Sometimes all you have is a step. When you're going through those dark days where you’re battling those demons inside, sometimes the best thing to do is just sitting up and getting up.”
“My life has benefited tremendously from being able to forgive—and to forgive not only the person that did it to me but to also forgive myself,” he says. “I really followed what the Savior would have done, and I know what the Savior has done.”[11]
