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NEW YORK » Tonight Brian Te’o will sit down and watch the Heisman Trophy presentation with his son, Manti, once again.
Only this time they will do it with the nation watching them on TV.
They will do it from exclusive seats in the Best Buy Theater in Times Square, some 5,000 miles and seemingly worlds away from the crowded Laie living room where they once viewed it.
This time it will be Manti, the Heisman finalist and heart of the unbeaten Notre Dame defense, not the wide-eyed high school kid who never dared to dream of being this close to the bronze statue that symbolizes the nation’s most outstanding college football player.
Yet there he was Friday afternoon holding the Heisman for a media photo opportunity, sizing it up as cameras snapped and speculation about its 2012 owner hummed. It is the last stop on his highly successful if dizzying postseason awards tour, one that has already seen him bag six major awards.
"I could never have imagined this happening," Manti said. "I can’t imagine how I’d feel if my name is called to win the Heisman. (But) I definitely would be humbled and speechless, to be honest with you. But it would be a great ending to this (portion) of my career at Notre Dame."
Manti, along with Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel and Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein, was invited to New York as a finalist.
Manti said he recalls watching the Heisman presentation because he was a fan of then-Southern California star Reggie Bush, who won the award in 2005 before forfeiting it in 2010, and hardly imagined himself being in New York one day.
Brian said, "We used to watch the Heisman show, but it was never because we though we’d be there. It was because it was something cool to watch with your son. It was never something like, ‘Manti, one day you’re going to be there.’ It was always thought of as an offensive award and it was just cool to see who won it."
It is still largely viewed as an offensive award, which is why Manti, despite leading the Fighting Irish to the No. 1 spot in the polls, is the presumed underdog to "Johnny Football" for the trophy.
Truth be told, even after two months of having his name linked with the Heisman sweepstakes, Manti said, "I still haven’t gotten used to it. I still haven’t grasped that I’m in New York for the Heisman. It really hasn’t hit me yet. I’m just … I think it hasn’t hit me because I take it day by day. I’m just enjoying this day. I’ll start to get nervous (today). But it really hasn’t hit me yet."
Brian said for the longest time every time somebody mentioned Manti in conjunction with the Heisman he would catch himself wondering, "Are they really talking about my son? Is that him? It is still hard to get used to."
You might think that for all the fame Manti has garnered from his Punahou days through four seasons at Notre Dame it might be different.
Brian recalls, for instance, the conclusion of Manti’s senior year at Punahou School when word circulated that Manti was a finalist for the Butkus Award that went to the top high school linebacker, one akin to the college Butkus Award he won Monday.
"We didn’t even know there was such a high school award (it was the first one)," Brian said. "It wasn’t until Dick Butkus came, himself, to present it that we believed it."
Manti has, in so many ways, made seeing believing.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
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