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  Gay football player talks about his life
Greeley Tribune ^ | April 19, 2005 | Jesse Fanciulli

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: asscowboy; barebackbuckaroo; blueoyster; gay; homosexual; homosexualagenda; homosexuality; nfl; widereceiver
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To: BenLurkin; trisham
Actually, he’s a saint!
41 posted on 04/19/2005 1:51:18 PM PDT by mollynme (cogito, ergo freepum)
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To: real saxophonist

Psst...Ray Lewis is on da Down Low...pass it on.


42 posted on 04/19/2005 1:52:22 PM PDT by Clemenza (Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms: The Other Holy Trinity)
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To: Kryptonite

There were actually big posters all over campus advertising his visit. I'd never heard of him. Then I saw this story. Funny only 40 people showed up.


43 posted on 04/19/2005 1:52:55 PM PDT by real saxophonist (Jane Fonda might as well make her gravestone a urinal. Semper Fi)
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To: GunnyHartman

So was a Packer when Reggie White was there?


44 posted on 04/19/2005 1:53:35 PM PDT by Sybeck1
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To: AppyPappy
A man who beds women is NOT gay. He's bisexual.

You're right, Pappy.

He's a miserable excuse for a human being....he's a homosexual and certainly not gay.

Bedding is one thing (no doubt means he tucks them in at night) and having intercourse with them is quite another.

He's a butt-ranger through and through and a miserable excuse for a human being.

45 posted on 04/19/2005 1:54:29 PM PDT by JesseHousman (Execute Mumia Abu-Jamal Today)
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To: Lazamataz
"A man this big is NOT a bisexual. He's a bisexual-built-for-two."

That has funny. Thanks for the laugh.
46 posted on 04/19/2005 1:54:38 PM PDT by j_k_l
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To: Billthedrill
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...

In an interview once, after his starting center was injured Bret Farve was asked which center her preffered. The rookie playing then or the vet who was the regular starter. He said the younger guy because he had a firmer ass. If he was going to have his hands on an ass all day, it may as well be a firm one.
47 posted on 04/19/2005 1:55:06 PM PDT by speed_addiction (Ninja's last words, "Hey guys. Watch me just flip out on that big dude over there!")
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To: real saxophonist
What's gay football?

Never mind, I don't want to know.

Shalom.

48 posted on 04/19/2005 1:57:18 PM PDT by ArGee (Why do we let the abnormal tell us what's normal?)
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To: real saxophonist

It's kind of ironic that he was an Oregon State Beaver.


49 posted on 04/19/2005 1:58:42 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: Sybeck1
So was a Packer when Reggie White was there?"

Another LOL!
50 posted on 04/19/2005 1:59:41 PM PDT by GunnyHartman (Allah is allah outta virgins.)
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To: ArGee
What's gay football?

Soccer.

Sorry, someone had to say it...

51 posted on 04/19/2005 1:59:46 PM PDT by real saxophonist (Jane Fonda might as well make her gravestone a urinal. Semper Fi)
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To: real saxophonist
I swear it's the leftists dream for an NFL star to bat for the wrong team.
52 posted on 04/19/2005 1:59:57 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan ("Cause if it's goods on the left, than I'm sticking to the right." - "Hell's Bells")
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To: JesseHousman

""He's a butt-ranger through and through and a miserable excuse for a human being.""

And he and his partner have adopted 2 children also, that is the truly sick part I think.


53 posted on 04/19/2005 2:03:06 PM PDT by Abathar (Proudly catching hell for not reading the whole article since 1999)
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To: mollynme; BenLurkin
Actually, he’s a saint!

*************

Hmmmm. I googled "laz" and found this:

Now I'm beginning to wonder..

54 posted on 04/19/2005 2:03:17 PM PDT by trisham ("Live Free or Die," General John Stark, July 31, 1809)
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To: expatguy


55 posted on 04/19/2005 2:04:49 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP (There is only one GOOD 'RAT: one that has been voted OUT of POWER !! Straight ticket GOP!)
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To: MeekOneGOP

poor guy


56 posted on 04/19/2005 2:07:09 PM PDT by expatguy (http://laotze.blogspot.com/)
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To: The_Victor
I didn't want to know this.

We're supposed to think he's all heroic for coming out of the closet instead of getting treatment.

We're also supposed to feel ashamed that this 300lb. wall of meat felt intimidated by the heterosexuals among us.

Shalom.

57 posted on 04/19/2005 2:07:33 PM PDT by ArGee (Why do we let the abnormal tell us what's normal?)
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To: mad puppy

Nope ... CSU hosted Janet Reno a few weeks ago. It never ends.


58 posted on 04/19/2005 2:08:17 PM PDT by kemathen7
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To: Lazamataz
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.

I'll see your nightmare and rais you "after he's downed a pitcher of margaritas."

Shalom.

59 posted on 04/19/2005 2:09:21 PM PDT by ArGee (Why do we let the abnormal tell us what's normal?)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

But why? Being gay is SO cool. We should all be gay.

/sarcasm


60 posted on 04/19/2005 2:09:56 PM PDT by kemathen7
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