Scaled on the heights of NRL greatness one minute, and the next, plummeting further than almost anyone before him.
What followed was something far stranger than redemption: gratitude.
Manu Vatuvei would eventually trade the roar of the crowd for the silence of a prison cell, yet Vatuvei insists the handcuffs may have saved him, despite feeling a heavy amount of regret.
The former New Zealand Warriors winger scored 152 tries in 226 games, with rich Pacific folklore and was a player so physically imposing when he played.
Then in March 2022, it all unravelled. Vatuvei was arrested for importing 500 grams of methamphetamine and amphetamine from India, with his front door splintering under a police raid, with his parents watching on in horror.
A sentence of three years and seven months followed, serving 15 months before parole set him loose in 2023.
Vatuvei sat down with Fox League's Jake Duke for Face-to-Face, which aired on Tuesday night, and what emerged wasn't a story of shame, but of hard-won clarity.
"To have that fall from grace was something that I kind of needed, that wake-up call to overcome a lot of demons inside of me and move forward with my life,” Vatuvei expressed.
"Going through everything that I went through and the changes that I have done now, I don't think it would have happened if I did not go inside (prison).
"You are in the cells 24/7 by yourself, looking at the walls, thinking about a lot of things.
"It made me reflect on my life. It made me reflect on the trauma or whatever you call it, that I was going through, the depression, the hardest times.”
Vatuvei also found out his partner had the baby multiple days after his arrest, and he found a different perspective.
"I didn't know she had the baby until I think a week later when I got my first letter,” he said.
“That's what changed my mind. I wanted to get out, and I wanted to do well for my son and guide him the right way.”
The raid itself remains seared into his memory.
A controlled delivery, the police had already intercepted the parcel.
By the time it was opened, the house was surrounded.
"They are busting the door down, and we walked out with them,” he said.
"The hardest part was seeing my parents there, and that is the one thing that I will regret my whole life, and still to this day.
"They only told me once what happened and what they saw, and I think that was the end of it. I never asked again; it hurt a lot.”
Family and football had always been his anchors.
His father drove him to every training session, kept him disciplined, and kept him fed.
"My dad used to feed me a lot of pies. Pies for tries,” he continued, laughing.
In his playing career, Vatuvei was motivated by not only his dreams of the NRL but also playing at a high level to provide for his family, even with a declaration to his father that he did not need to work anymore.
"That's what fuelled the fire for myself to go as hard as I can and try to make a living out of it and provide for them,” he said.
The former winger revealed that even with the wholesome vision for his family, his achievements were "lost in the wash."
"I was more focused on all the negative stuff rather than all the stuff I have done," he reflected.
In 2016, he, among five other Warriors players, was stood down from international games for prescription drugs on a night out.
Vatuvei revealed he had a lot of sleeping pills and energy drinks.
"When that happened, I think we were playing poker and ended up going out. The club said they would keep it in-house, and when it came out in public, I felt betrayed,” he said.
“I think after the games were the hardest times because I can't fall asleep, things will be running in my head about how the game went, and I can't sleep.
"We were just taking it here and there.”
Vatuvei would also continue to struggle mentally, rupturing his Achilles and ending his career in the 2017 season, pursuing boxing for a short period of time after he was diagnosed with a brain cyst following his first fight
"I got a phone call from the doctor saying I shouldn't be fighting, but I didn't care at that time. I was already going through some hard times,” he said.
"Just retiring and all that, and I didn't care what would happen to me.
"I didn't want to tell my family about it because I wanted to keep on fighting.”
Vatuvei would eventually tell his family and end his boxing career as quickly as it had begun.
The very quick ending to his sporting dreams left an awful taste in his mouth, pushing him down a dark path towards substance abuse.
“Things weren't working at home. Things weren't working with me and my career, and yeah, I just went on a rampage,” he added.
Now, he spends his time working at Brownn Buttabeean Motivation Program for David Letele.
Vatuvei and Letele met in 2018 when the former player went into boxing professionally, which has allowed him to focus on helping others through their difficult times.
"Me opening up and sharing my stories just shows that there are a lot of people out there who need help and need people to share a little bit about themselves, and that it is okay to open up and talk about it,” he said positively.
