 Linebacker Manti Te'o (5) could have been in the NFL by now but opted to return to Notre Dame — and the Fighting Irish are glad of it. (Reuters) |
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. - If he had yielded to temptation, Manti Te’o might have been preparing for an NFL playoff game this weekend rather than the opportunity to bring a national collegiate championship to his storied university.
He’d be a richer man to be sure, though not in the way he vows matters most.
You see, from the time he left Hawaii for South Bend, Indiana, as a teenager, Te’o has been enamoured by the romanticized spell of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
And because he was captured by the storied Irish past, he has played a huge role in resurrecting its future.
When Te’o takes to the Sun Life Stadium field for Monday night’s BCS championship against the Alabama Crimson Tide, it will cap a four-year college career that has brought the Irish to a much different place than where it has been in the recent past.
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