Giovanni Manu had worked toward this moment for years and now here he was, running onto the field for his first game as a pro, an offensive lineman for the Detroit Lions, number 59.
Here he was in front of everyone — his coaches, his teammates, the fans gathered in front of their television sets at home and all the others in the stands, including his mother and father, who’d never seen him play in person.
His nerves!
He felt as if he was having an out of body experience, floating above his 6-foot-7, 350-ish pound frame.
He felt like he might throw up.
Twenty-three year-old Manu wanted to do right by the Lions, of course. “I want to be a starter on this team. I want to win championships. I want to win important games,” the rookie declared in an interview.
He also wanted to do right by his folks, John and Alvina Manu, who’d traveled from their home in Tonga to this Aug. 8 preseason confrontation between the Lions and the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. They are the reason he’s worked so hard. And he is the reason they’ve done the same.
Gio Manu was 11 when his parents sent him alone on a plane to suburban Vancouver, Canada, to live with his aunt and older brother and sister. The kids would have more opportunity and get a better education in North America than they would in the Polynesian kingdom, his parents reasoned; they stayed back on the island to earn money to support their children abroad, the family reuniting once a year or so for visits.
The change in environment was incredible. “You go from a small little world to an even bigger one,” Manu said. “When I arrived to Vancouver, things, culturally, just shocked. Small things such as seeing a highway. I remember that blew my mind away, just seeing lanes, roads with more than one lane and cars going super fast. I saw tall apartment buildings as well. I thought I was in a ‘Star Trek’ futuristic movie. It was insane.”
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