Inside Giovanni Manu’s call to the NFL

Giovanni Manu was not expecting the phone call that would change his life. 

Surrounded by friends and family at his home outside of Vancouver, Manu didn’t think much of the call. He was sitting in front of a television, watching dozens of names flash on the screen. 

Maybe it’s a coach, Manu thought, checking in on him as the National Football League (NFL) draft entered the middle of the fourth round on its third and final day last Saturday. 

Manu, 23, was born in Tonga but moved to Pitt Meadows at the age of 10 to live with his aunt and attend high school. He assumed he would be selected in the fourth or fifth round after vaulting up draft boards in the weeks leading up to selection day. 

The 6 foot 8, 350-pound offensive lineman from the University of British Columbia dazzled scouts by running 40 yards in less than five seconds and recording 23 reps of 225 pounds on the bench press at a pre-draft workout in March.

The strong metrics led almost a dozen teams to schedule private workouts with Manu last month — including the Detroit Lions, who asked to meet with Manu on a rare weekend visit.

“NFL [teams] don’t normally do visits on Sundays, it’s a day to just go home with families and rest,” Manu said. “So for them to want me to come in on a Sunday spoke a lot about how much they wanted me.” 

Manu noticed that it was a Detroit area code buzzing on his phone. 

But when he glanced back up at his television broadcasting the draft live, the Lions were not on the clock to make a pick.

Manu wasn’t emotional when he picked up the phone. However, as he heard the voice of Dan Campbell, Detroit’s head coach who once famously said that anyone on his team would “bite a kneecap off,” his excitement rose. 

“He was like, ‘Are you ready to be a Lion, Giovanni?’ And I’m like, ‘let’s freaking do it,’” said Manu, adding that the Lions traded a third round pick in 2025 to move up and select him with the 126th pick in the fourth round of this year’s draft. 

“It shows a lot about how much they care for me and how much they want me.” 

‘I just like hitting people’

Growing up in Tonga, Manu’s first love was rugby. As someone who was always a big kid, he loved bashing into people and the physicality of the sport. 

“I just like hitting people,” Manus said. “On the island, when I played rugby, I played with a lot of older kids… They always hit hard and it just motivated me to hit 10 times harder back.” 

Manu and his two older siblings moved to Pitt Meadows for a better life and more opportunities for education, however, he quickly found out that rugby wasn’t as popular in Canada as it was in the South Pacific. 

When he started at Pitt Meadows Secondary, Manu was told by the athletic director that they didn’t have a rugby team, which forced him to try out a new sport. 

“That’s when I asked him, ‘So what contact sport do you guys have?’” Manu said. “The director told me if I’ve ever heard of the sport, American football, and the rest was history.” 

Throughout high school, Manu played both football and basketball and experienced a growth spurt, growing seven inches in three years. By the time he was in Grade 12, Manu was receiving more interest from universities for football and figured that his size would be more conducive to that sport. 

“My first sack in high school, I tackled the quarterback and dislocated his elbow,” Manu said when he played on defence at the time. 

“My teammates were all hyped and jumping around me, that’s when I knew, I love this and I’d love to do this forever.” 

Transitioning to the pros

While he was at UBC, Manu became a fixture for the Thunderbirds offence.

He started every game since his rookie season in 2019 on his way to becoming a two-time All-Canadian for a team that reached the Vanier Cup and had the Canada West conference’s highest scoring offence last season. 

With his selection, Manu became the first Thunderbird to ever be drafted into the NFL and only the 15th U SPORTS player to be selected. He was also the highest player to be picked from U SPORTS since 2009, when a defensive lineman from Western University was taken 113th overall. 

Manu credits the coaches at UBC for honing his game and getting him into shape ahead of the draft.

“My strength coach, Coach Joe McCullum, I would say he’s the best strength coach in Canada at the university level,” Manu said. “The athleticism I have doesn’t come without him.” 

Despite the accolades and honours, Manu knows that his work is not done, as he will be competing for a spot and playing time with other rookies and established veterans. 

“Ultimately, you know, I want to be contributing to the team’s success,” he said. 

Manu is scheduled to fly out to Detroit for rookie minicamp next week, before the team’s training camp later in the summer. 

Last weekend’s phone call might have caught him out of the blue. But after a few days of reflecting, Manu says his fit into a blue collar town like Detroit — the Motor City — could not have been any better considering his family ties to mechanics.

“My dad’s a mechanic himself,” Manu said. “I can’t wait to be a part of that culture.”