Posted on 04/19/2005 1:27:46 PM PDT by real saxophonist
Gay football player talks about his life
Jesse Fanciulli
April 19, 2005
Esera Tuaolo isn't the man you might expect.
He weighs 310 pounds, and says he feels light as a feather.
He spent nine years as a defensive lineman in the manly-man world of the National Football League. And he's gay.
Tuaolo spent most of his life trying to be the man everyone expected: The man who laughed at fag jokes in the locker room and bedded women he met at bars.
"I made sure my teammates saw me kissing women and going home with them," Tuaolo told an audience of about 40 people who gathered to hear him speak Monday night at the University of Northern Colorado.
Tuaolo was apparently as good at acting as he was on the field.
None of his teammates with the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers or Atlanta Falcons knew Tuaolo was gay until he came out of the closet in 2002 after retirement.
The revelation cost him friendships with many of his former teammates, but being honest about his sexuality lifted a huge burden from Tuaolo's broad shoulders.
Tuaolo learned early in life that being openly gay was dangerous. He remembers seeing one of his childhood acquaintances throwing rocks at another boy, calling him a fag, queer and homosexual.
That was the day Tuaolo decided to keep his sexuality a secret.
"That's when I started to be an actor," he said at UNC. The decision to hide who he is might have been a wise one from an educational and professional standpoint.
As the youngest child in a poor family of banana farmers in Hawaii, Tuaolo was the first in his family to attend college, thanks to a football scholarship. Later, he would find success as a professional football player.
Tuaolo is convinced that his NFL teammates would have shunned him if he revealed his sexual identity -- so he took great pains to live a secret life.
He said numbed the fear of being discovered as gay with alcohol and was deeply depressed. It was not until after he retired that Tuaolo made the decision to come out. He had adopted two children with his partner Mitchell and wanted his children to know that families came in many combinations, and that it's OK to have two daddies.
"My life now is just beautiful," he said.
Tuaolo is an inspiration for UNC Noah Slauson, 22, who saw the former NFL player on the cover of a gay magazine: "I grew up in an era when I never imagined I could look up to a professional athlete."
Tuaolo spoke at UNC on behalf of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender organization.
He sucked off the field too?
A man this big is NOT a bisexual. He's a bisexual-built-for-two.
That's one huddle I'd rather not be a part of. Aacckk.
First Churchill at CU.
Now this at UNC.
Are there no schools in Colorado that I can send my children to where they won't be exposed to this sort or agenda driven garbage?
sign me,
Colorado State Grad.
I dunno...everytime I see the quarterback come up to the center, raise that little flap thingy, and shove his hands in his crotch, well, I gotta wonder...
Poor kids.
Not mine.
My worst nightmare is a 310 pound DT that runs the 40 in under 5 seconds, is a flaming fag, and who winks at you.
He enjoyed going deep into the end zone a little too much!
LOL Laz!
You are some kind of genius.
Would these people just SHUT UP??
The equipment room was wondering where all of the knee pads were going. I guess now they know.
Well, that kinda explains everything.
I think Im gonna vomit.
Or as they say in Hawaii ~ "a banana farmer"
I second that. :)
I knew who he was when he played with the Vikings, he was a bit of an underachiever mostly.
He had good speed, and quickness, but he wasn't good (I know there is going be jokes here about this) at overpowering guys, or getting around them to create pressure in the backfield.
He was a scrub who had potential to be good, but bummed out of the league.
The week before, some group, don't know or care who, gave UNC an 'F' for 'diversity'. Of course, in reality, 'diversity' these days is another word for 'racism'....
Gives new meanng to the "down and out" pattern.
His (semi) version is that he did it as an act.....But, in other stories I've read about him, he also pretended to be a born again christian, going to prayer meetings and such, there would have been no reason for him to going sleeping around.
To bad the christianity didn't rub off on him.
he played for the Vikings.we all knew he was gay here in MN.
the rest of the team , they just play like women.
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