Gay Super Bowl player: The NFL has to step up & help players come out

Gay former NFL player Esera Tuaolo
Photo: YouTube screenshot

Former NFL player Esera Tuaolo says that a gay man has played in the Super Bowl before. He should know — he himself played for the Atlanta Falcons in the 1999 Super Bowl XXXIII while being closeted.

The Falcons lost that game, and when their team bus returned to the hotel, Tuaolo saw all his team members hugging their wives and girlfriends in the parking lot. His boyfriend was there, but he didn’t feel he could embrace him in public. Instead, Tuaolo waited until they were alone in their hotel room. The need to hide angered him so much that he put his fist through a wall in his room. He retired from the NFL that same year.

But Tuaolo came out in 2002 and he has fought for greater acceptance of gay athletes ever since. He shared the pain of being a closeted pro-footballer in his 2007 memoir..

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