Act I

In Which Manti Te’o Is a Golden God

The story is a classic of the genre. It opens on February 4, 2009—with an event that is, in the world of college football, the biggest day of the year that doesn’t involve tackling. This is National Signing Day, when the nation’s top high-school players officially commit to their chosen colleges. Among the most publicized and coveted recruits of 2009 is our protagonist, Manti Te’o, an explosive linebacker from the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

That Te’o happens to be of Hawaiian-Samoan descent—and Mormon, to boot—burnishes his star appeal. One of the N.F.L.’s biggest stars, Troy Polamalu, of the Pittsburgh Steelers, comes from a long line of Samoans. Pacific Islanders routinely play at the University of Southern California (because of its proximity) and Utah’s Brigham Young University (because it’s Mormon). And one extended family of Samoans with a large presence in Hawaii—the Tuiasosopos—has produced a steady stream of collegiate and professional stars.

Te’o, being the country’s top linebacker recruit, is primed to sign with U.S.C., the country’s top program. Everyone agrees they’re the ideal match—right up until the minute Te’o faxes in his commitment letter.

To Notre Dame.

This reversal rocks the college-football universe, which can’t fathom why a devoutly Mormon kid from Hawaii would select a devoutly Catholic university in frigid, landlocked South Bend, Indiana. “A matter of faith,” Te’o explained. “I closed my eyes and said a prayer. And after I said that prayer, everything just lined up.”

This divine intervention plays rather well at Notre Dame, a school with 105 winning seasons in 124 years that marries piety and public relationship better than any other. Inevitably our soul warrior makes 63 tackles and wins Freshman All-American honors. Over the next two seasons, he leads the Irish in tackles and becomes, in addition to an All-American and an Academic All-American, the most famous player on the most famous team in America’s second-most-popular spectator team sport (after professional football). Although Te’o is sure to be selected in the first round of the 2012 N.F.L. Draft, he surprises everyone by eschewing seven-figure riches in favor of one last season in the warm embrace of his school. There he determines to reverse three years of his team’s recent mediocrity, underscored by its 1–6 record against its storied rivals—U.S.C. and Michigan. Heading into the 2012 senior season, the Irish are unranked, facing the toughest schedule in America.

And guess what?

The team scraps its way to an undefeated regular season in which it combines several truly impressive wins with a few lucky escapes born of the fortuitous bounces and cowed officiating that can be endemic to Notre Dame Stadium.

But the driving force, in every win, is Manti Te’o, whose legend reaches full flower on September 15, in the aftermath of Notre Dame’s upset victory over the Michigan State Spartans. On national TV, an awestruck sideline reporter asks Te’o how he managed to play such inspired football—12 tackles—given that he was just a few days removed from a six-hour period in which he lost both his grandmother Annette Santiago, to complications stemming from diabetes, and his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, to leukemia. “They were with me,” Te’o replied. “I’m just so happy that I had a chance to honor my grandmother and my girlfriend and my family.”

One week later, Te’o records two interceptions and eight tackles during a big win over the Michigan Wolverines. Afterward, he explains why he spent the day at Notre Dame Stadium rather than at his girlfriend’s funeral in California: Kekua, he says, made him promise he wouldn’t miss a game. “All she wanted was some white roses,” Te’o adds. “So I sent her roses and sent her two picks [interceptions] along with that.”