Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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MURPHY'S LAW DAN MURPHY home. The scene was a stark contrast to earlier that day when he stepped away from the team's final walk- through inside the stadium while his girlfriends' family closed her casket three time zones away. "That has to be the hardest thing that I've had to do so far," Te'o said. "To be able to operate, and to be able to try to continue with my daily rou- tine, but know- ing that I just lost a woman that I truly loved. That was the hardest thing." He pl ayed it," said teammate and family friend Robby Toma, who made the trip back home at Te'o's request. "When he got home he was able to just chill with his family and just remember his grand- mother and get to smile about it." The Heisman hubbub was waiting only because his girlfriend, who had been fighting leu- kemia, made him promise to do so if anything happened to her during football season. Te'o sent a bouquet of white roses and a pair of interceptions, and stayed on the field. The seas continued to swirl around Te'o when requests to tell his story started pouring in from national me- dia outlets. He landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated and in preliminary talks about the Heisman Trophy. Notre Dame had a week away from the field for the buzz around Te'o and the Irish defense to build, and he had a chance to escape it and return home for his grandmother's funeral. He flew back to Oahu midweek and spent a couple days setting up tents and decorations for the memorial service. "His phone was blowing up, and the media was talking about it every second. He couldn't get away from ROUTINE, BUT KNOWING THAT I JUST LOST A WOMAN THAT I TRULY LOVED. THAT WAS THE HARDEST THING." MANTI TE'O AND TO BE ABLE TO TRY TO CONTINUE WITH MY DAILY "TO BE ABLE TO OPERATE, for Te'o when he returned to South Bend last week. In reality, there is very little chance Te'o will make it to the Downtown Athletic Club in New York at the end of the season. Nonetheless, the strange territory for a middle line- backer is another leg of his legend unfolding in front of us this fall. Strange territory is familiar to the North Shore native who came to snowy South Bend four years ago for reasons he didn't quite understand at the time. His reasons for deciding to return for his senior season were only slightly less foggy last December. Te'o first visited Notre Dame's cam- pus as a senior in high school during one of the area's earliest snowstorms in recent history. South Bend has been his storm ever since, never more so than this past month. And as the quote pre- dicted, it has revealed what lies at the core of the man. "I've never felt so strong," he said. ✦ Dan Murphy has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2011. He can be reached at dmurphy@blueandgold.com