Alone in the Trenches: My Life as a Gay Man in the NFL - Softcover

Tuaolo, Esera

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1402209231 ISBN 13: 9781402209239

Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc, 2007

Synopsis

This is Esera Tuaolo's own searing story of terror and hope. A Samoan raised on a Hawaiian banana plantation, he had a natural talent, football. He went on to play for five NFL teams: the Green Bay Packers, the Minnesota Vikings, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Carolina Panthers, and the Atlanta Falcons in the 1999 Super Bowl. But for the nine years he played professional football he lived in terror that when his face flashed upon the TV screen, someone would divulge his darkest secret. Esera Tuaolo is gay.

Alone in the Trenches takes you inside the homophobic world of professional football and describes fears that almost drove him to suicide. He evokes heartbreak--how his older brother, Tua, died of AIDS--and hope when, Esera, a deeply devout Christian fell in love and started a family.

"Tuaolo emerges in these pages as a complex, intellectually curious and fascinating individual defined neither by his choice of career nor by his sexual orientation." --Booklist

"Tough, tender and brutally honest." --Robert Lipsyte, former New York Times sports columnist

"Even I was not prepared for his amazing life story." --Billy Bean, author of Going the Other Way

About this title

From the Back Cover:

?It's rough down in the trenches, where linemen weighing more than three hundred pounds hurl themselves at one another in brutal hand-to-hand combat, but it is nothing compared to the pain I kept buried inside so I could play out my dream-not only surviving professional football, but living openly for who I am. A gay man.?
-Esera Tuaolo
Praise for Alone in the Trenches:
?Even I was not prepared for his amazing life story. He spares no one when recounting the difficulties of his childhood, sexual abuse and being a gay man in the NFL.?
-Billy Bean, author of Going the Other Way: Lessons from a Life in and out of Major League Baseball
?I was truly moved to read Esera's story told in his own words. While the rest of us
were living out our dreams of playing in the NFL, Esera was fighting this internal battle
every day of his life in solitude.?
-Don Davey, former NFL player with the Green Bay Packers and the Jacksonville Jaguars
?Honesty is always the best policy and Esera is exceptionally honest and revealing in his struggle with his sexual identity. His sincerity is clearly evident and his words
will continue to be a great help to so many others.?
-David Kopay, former NFL player and author of The David Kopay Story
?His story is both painful and hopeful, as Tuaolo emerges in these pages as a complex,
intellectually curious and fascinating individual defined neither by his choice of career
nor by his sexual orientation.?
-Booklist
?Tough, tender and brutally honest, this spiritual yet muscular read is only for people interested in football, love, manhood and the human condition.?
-Robert Lipsyte, former New York Times sportscolumnist
?[An] absorbing, first-person account ... Pages filled with the kind of football lore
that only an NFL insider could know are punctuated with Tuaolo's painful dread
of discovery ... His book communicates a warmth and openness that will appeal
to both football fans and the gay community.?
-Publishers Weekly

Synopsis:

An honest, moving, astonishing in-depth first-person account, Esera Tuaolo's story is rife with heartbreak and, ultimately, hope. A deeply moving and inspirational story by a Samoan immigrant who won an American football scholarship to Oregon State, was drafted by the Green Bay Packers, and played for the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl. Yet Esera carried with him an agonizing secret: he was gay. The more his football dream came true, the greater nightmare he endured. His beloved brother and idol, Tua, died of AIDS, having never told his friends or loved ones that he was gay. Esera himself would find love with a man totally different culturally, a native of Minnesota, with whom he would adopt Samoan twins and begin a new life. As Esera puts it: "I am just your typical gay Samoan ex-nose tackle who would like to break into show business.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1402209231
• ISBN 13: 9781402209239
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296