Packers alumn Tuaolo proud of Carl Nassib, openly gay NFL player

Contents:

• CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: ESERA TUAOLO OUT AS GAY
• A GAY FOOTBALL PLAYER, 'ALONE THE TRENCH'
• 30 MOMENTS OF PRI: ESERA TUAOLO APPEARS THE SUPER BOWL AS A CLOSETED GAY PLAYER
• GAY FORMER NFL PLAYER ESERA TUAOLO SAYS LEAGUE IS READY FOR OPENLY GAY PLAYER
• EX-PACKERS LEMAN AND LGBTQ+ ADVOTE ESERA TUAOLO RELIEVED AND PROUD TO SEE FIRST OPENLY GAY ACTIVE NFL PLAYER
• FORMER NFL PLAYER SPEAKS OUT ON BEG GAY
• IS ESERA TUAOLO MARRIED? RETIRED FOOTBALLER WHO IS GAY DATED CARSON KRSLEY & MCHELL WHERLEY
• THE GAY NFL PLAYER WHO STGGLED TO COME OUT
• GAY NFL PLAYER ESERA TUAOLO OPENS UP ABOUT HEAD TRMA NEW PODST
• ESERA TUAOLO SAYS NFL IS READY FOR OPENLY GAY PLAYER
• MOMENT #16: FORMER NFL PLAYER ESERA TUAOLO OUT AS GAY
• THE GAY NFL PLAYER WHO STGGLED TO COME OUT

CELEBRATG LGBTQ SPORTS HISTORY: ESERA TUAOLO OUT AS GAY

Former NFL player Esera Tuaolo out as gay.

Here was a big (6-3, 300 pounds), tough fensive leman who excelled the trench announcg he was gay.

His public g out occurred on HBOs “Real Sports” and generated a natnal bate about gays sports. He is only the third NFL player to ever publicly say he’s gay, jog David Kopay 1975 and Roy Simmons 1992.

A GAY FOOTBALL PLAYER, 'ALONE THE TRENCH'

While Tuaolo’s story is unique s settg—a pro sports locker room—his feelgs of prsn, lonels and thoughts of suici are universal and will ronate wh many gay people.

Tuaolo’s story sparked loads of stori and lumns, raisg the perennial qutn: Can a player be out and gay?

30 MOMENTS OF PRI: ESERA TUAOLO APPEARS THE SUPER BOWL AS A CLOSETED GAY PLAYER

Some players, notably Sterlg Sharpe, said would be impossible for a gay player to exist a locker room and predicted physil harm.

I played wh Esera on the Outsports Gay Gam flag football team 2006 and he was a h wh all the players the event, honored to have a former NFL player the event.

A Gay Football Player, 'Alone the Trench'. He tells Liane Hansen about his memoir of the experience: Alone the Trench: My Life as a Gay Man the NFL.

GAY FORMER NFL PLAYER ESERA TUAOLO SAYS LEAGUE IS READY FOR OPENLY GAY PLAYER

My Life As a Gay Man the NFL.

TleAlone the TrenchSubtleMy Life As a Gay Man the NFLAuthorEsera Tuaolo and John Rosengren Your purchase helps support NPR programmg. 31, 1999, when Esera Tuaolo played the Super Bowl for the Atlanta Falns, three years before he would e out openly as gay. When Atlanta Falns fensive tackle Esera Tuaolo entered Super Bowl XXXIII Miami as a substute, he was not yet out as a gay man and he did not have a big role what was a 34-19 loss to the Denver Brons.

Nohels, the mere fact that he was playg on such a big game while closeted terrified him, as he reunts his 2007 book “Alone the Trench: My Life as a Gay Man the NFL. In all that time, not one teammate, ach, or sportswrer knew I was gay....

EX-PACKERS LEMAN AND LGBTQ+ ADVOTE ESERA TUAOLO RELIEVED AND PROUD TO SEE FIRST OPENLY GAY ACTIVE NFL PLAYER

What if one of those billn people watchg regnized me as the stranger he had picked up a gay bar? All he had to do was out me to the prs and the story would be all over the headl: “Gay Man Mak Fal Tackle Super Bowl. He might not have a Super Bowl trophy, but he do have a gold medal he won playg on the champnship flag football team sponsored by Outsports at the 2006 Gay Gam (Cyd and I also played on that team).

Never his wilst dreams that January night 1999 would Tuaolo have believed he would be so fortable to one day play a sportg event wh gay the tle. When Esera Tuaolo publicly me out as gay 2002, the veteran NFL leman said he didn't thk profsnal football was ready for an openly gay player.

They are an extensn of the od “guy talk” — homophobic slurs, boastg about sexual nquts — that ma Tuaolo miserable. As we’ve chronicled on Outsports, 39 active NFL players have played wh an out gay teammate.

FORMER NFL PLAYER SPEAKS OUT ON BEG GAY

Rob Gronkowski, who ught two touchdowns Super Bowl LV, told our Cyd Zeigler eight years ago he would be ol wh a gay teammate. Casual homophobia remas too prevalent locker rooms, and the NFL don’t clu LGBTQ people s diversy handbook.

"Twenty years of speakg and gog out there and tg people on homophobia sports and the LGBTQ muny, the big qutn has been, 'When will the first active NFL player e out? "That's when Las Vegas Rairs fensive end Carl Nassib told the world that he was gay, a revelatn that will make him the first openly gay active player the NFL when he sus up 2021. He revealed he was gay 2002 an terview wh HBO's Real Sports, makg him the third former NFL player to e out.

IS ESERA TUAOLO MARRIED? RETIRED FOOTBALLER WHO IS GAY DATED CARSON KRSLEY & MCHELL WHERLEY

Tuaolo has been part of the shiftg tis as an advote, givg speech, appearg ernment heargs, appearg on TV shows and wrg his tobgraphy 2006, "Alone the Trench: My Life As a Gay Man the NFL. He's gog to be bombard by so many thgs, by so many people, and now he's the 'gay player, ' they're gog to be npickg everythg he do, like they did wh Michael Sam, " Tuaolo said, referrg to the openly gay Universy of Missouri star who was drafted the seventh round and never played an NFL game.

THE GAY NFL PLAYER WHO STGGLED TO COME OUT

"A Lonely FeelgIt took many paful years for Tuaolo to talk about what he's thrilled to say his first terview about beg gay, which aired Tuday night on the HBO show Real Sports, the former player was asked if he ever wanted to say to his teammat "Hey guys, I'm gay. ""Oh, many tim, " said he knew very well that there are no openly gay men the gladiator culture of the Natnal Football League. "Many tim, when drivg 100 per hour, I felt as if I uld turn that wheel and end all, " Tuaolo former fensive leman said thoughts of his mother, who raised two children by herself, and a book by former profsnal football player Dave Kopay stopped him om makg a fal, who revealed he was gay three years after he retired 1972, wrote a book about his stggle lled the The David Kopay Tuaolo read Kopay's book at the urgg of his iends, he no longer felt alone.

For stance, when Tuaolo was wh his partner, Mchell, the supermarket and spotted a reporter or someone he knew om his NFL past, Mchell would hang a quick right to avoid lookg like they were years of lghg at gay jok his teammat ma, and keepg his pa private, Tuaolo cid to go public wh his story.

He hop kids will read about him and realize that gay people e om all walks of life — even the NFL.

GAY NFL PLAYER ESERA TUAOLO OPENS UP ABOUT HEAD TRMA NEW PODST

The former pro football player Esera Tuaolo ma headl when he revealed he was gay 2003 after hidg his secret for more than a . Esera Tuaolo - Came Out As Gay In 2002. The former NFL player surprisgly opened up about his sexualy and stated himself as gay 2002.

In addn, Esera was so aaid of people fdg out about him beg homosexual that he never went to gay clubs.

He terviewed wh ESPN The Magaze soon after, explag the tras of beg a gay athlete and never tryg to meet men on the road. Not to mentn, Esera's relatnship wh his gay lover, Mchell, appeared for the first time the early 2000s. Each of the last three Super Bowls has had cln nversatns and celebratns brought to the host cy by gay former NFL Player Esera Tuaolo and his Hate Is Wrong anizatn.

ESERA TUAOLO SAYS NFL IS READY FOR OPENLY GAY PLAYER

Former pro football player Esera Tuaolo ma headl more than the sports pag, when he revealed he was gay. Las Vegas Rairs fensive end Carl Nassib sent shockwav throughout the NFL world on Monday by beg the first active NFL player to e out as a gay man. Hopefully his cisn will not only enurage and support others the league who are ncerned about g out but also young gay men who are aaid to play the game they love out of fear of beg exclud, judged, or ostracized simply bee of their sexual orientatn.

Back 2014, Michael Sam beme the first openly gay man drafted by an NFL anchise when the then-St. Sam was released by the Rams and also spent some time on the Dallas Cowboys practice squad before he beme the first openly gay player the Canadian Football League when he joed the Montreal Alouett 2015. However, there was one player before Sam who tly shattered stereotyp and started blazg a trail for gay men football and that player was drafted by none other than the Green Bay Packers.

MOMENT #16: FORMER NFL PLAYER ESERA TUAOLO OUT AS GAY

The big difference between Sam and Tuaolo was that when Tuaolo was selected by the Packers the send round of the 1991 draft, no one knew he was gay. Let’s take a moment to remember how homosexualy was perceived Ameri 30 years ago. Still, homosexualy was still owned upon largely by society.

In other words, g out as gay 1991 often would put a target on your back as an average person, let alone a celebry like a profsnal football player. In 2002, three years after his fal NFL appearance, Tuaolo me out as gay. Tuaolo’s g out sparked a bate that has yet to be settled almost 20 years later: How will a gay player be accepted the NFL?

Shortly after Tuaolo’s announcement, his former Packers teammate Sterlg Sharpe said that gay men would have trouble fdg acceptance the locker room. ” He heard all the locker room banter both llege and the NFL that was anti-gay, and he knew what revealg his te self would mean to those players. As Tuaolo outl his book Alone the Trench: My Life as Gay Man the NFL, his biggt fear was that while his was still playg, someone would expose his secret to the world before he was ready to share .

THE GAY NFL PLAYER WHO STGGLED TO COME OUT

That fear of beg exposed is a vlatn of privacy that terrifi many members of the LGBTQ+ muny even today and Tuaolo was livg through this, as were others, when many Amerins still would not accept homosexualy as legimate. He’s worked wh the NFL to bat homophobia their ranks (somethg that we will see how far they have e wh Nassib’s g out) and is a motivatnal speaker spreadg a msage of love, cln, and makg sure sexual orientatn do not hold children or anyone else back om achievg their hight dreams. Although Esera Tuaolo me out 2002 after retirg om a succsful NFL reer, he has fought homophobic bullyg ever sce, providg a great example of how athlet n advote for fairns and equaly off the field.

In his 2006 memoir, “Alone the Trench: My Life As a Gay Man the NFL”, Tuaolo spoke beg molted by his uncle as a child and then nng to a banana patch afterward and askg God to take him away. After retirg, Tuaolo me out as gay a 2002 terview wh HBO’s Real Sports makg him the third former NFL player to e out, after David Kopay and Roy Simmons. Sce then, he has publicly fought homophobia both wh the NFL and other realms.

He began tg rporatns, lleg and high schools across Ameri on the importance of clivy, served as a board member of the Gay and Lbian Athletics Foundatn and has discsed homophobia and bullyg on talk shows like Good Morng Ameri and The Oprah Wey Show.