NFL football player and Laie native Manti Te'o said years of hard work and practice allowed him to reach the point he is at now: on the roster of the San Diego Chargers.
“I think it was great for me,” said Te'o, “because my dad instilled in me at a young age the importance of hard work and then preparing yourself for something that you really wanted to do.”
When making the jump from Punahou to Notre Dame and then to professional football, Te'o said adjusting takes time. “It’s all about me getting comfortable because I knew myself, that I was going to work hard and I was going to try and outwork everybody,” he told. “I was never the strongest, I was never the fastest, but I was always the one that worked the hardest. I knew that with that quality, in time things would start to click.”
He said he has received his fair share of bumps and bruises as he continued in his career. “For me, it was just about getting my reps, taking my bumps and I think that’s what a lot of people don’t understand.”
Even Te'o has bad days, but he said that remembering why he plays the game helps him to beat what he calls “slow days.”
“If your ‘why’ is strong, if your ‘why’ is pure, you’re going to find a way. You’ll find a way to get it done.”
Te'o grew up as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and said he does his best to live his faith. There are three other Latter-day Saint players on the Chargers roster and Te'o shared the four of them help to keep each other in check.
“It’s not the chapel in the locker room, you know. It’s quite the opposite, but the four of us always remind each other of who we are,” he said. Because game day is on Sunday, Te'o said it can be hard for him to make it to church. But he also shared if there is a sacrament meeting he can make it to, he does his best to get there.
Making it to Family Home Evening activities in his singles ward in San Diego is something Te'o said he has committed to weekly. “Whatever comes up in life, it’s the gospel that always gives you hope that everything’s going to be alright,” said Te'o. “And in the NFL it sucks sometimes because you don’t know if you’re going to have a job the next day. One day you may be there, one day you may not be there.”
He said having the gospel has helped him, especially when he received some injuries that could have threatened his career. “I honestly feel that the Lord puts certain things in our lives, whether it be blessings or whether it be hurdles, to teach us that He loves us enough to always make us and force us and push us to be the best versions of us we can be.”
His advice to the students of BYU–Hawaii: get to church on Sunday. “Go to church!” said Te'o. “It feels so much better to know you’re in an environment where there’s so many people who believe in the same things as you.”
He shared that his week goes by so much better every time he makes the effort to attend church on Sunday. “If anything happens in your life that you feel like, “man, this sucks,” go to church, say a prayer,” he said. “I mean, ask for help, then everything is going to be alright. Life’s difficult, but it’s good, man.”
For Te'o, football started at an early age and quickly became a large part of his life. “I started playing football when I was 5 years old,” he said. “I kind of just fell right in line. My whole family played football. My dad played football, uncles, grandfather played football.”
He also shared how involved his father and uncles were in his development as a young football player. “My dad was my coach and all my uncles, his brothers, were the assistant coaches. My cousins played on the team. Just that whole dynamic was real special to me, you know.”
Whenever Te'o came home from school, he said his father would help him run plays and do other things to support his football career. However, it was not until the end of middle school that Te'o really began to drive himself.
“For me, it was always my dad just pushing me when I was little,” he said. “And it wasn’t until I got ... into I’d say 7th or 8th grade, where I took it over. But, before that it was like my dad was pushing me and I just wanted to make him proud.”
The hard-working attitude given to him from his father is what Te'o said helps him to continue improving. “You didn’t just ‘show up’. You busted your butt to make sure that when it was time to play that it came easier.”
Now playing at a professional level, Te'o shared having that confidence in himself is key. “[In the NFL], people are bigger, people are stronger, people are faster. At the same time you got to try and keep your confidence about you to make sure that you’re confident in your ability to do what you have to do.”