Tuaolo says he contemplated suicide -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ESPN.com news services Esera Tuaolo, who played nine years in the NFL as a defensive lineman, will reveal he is gay in an interview to be shown Tuesday on HBO's "Real Sports" and in the upcoming issue of ESPN The Magazine. Tuaolo, who played for five NFL teams, said a major reason for his early retirement in 1999 was the difficulty and frustration that came with keeping his sexual orientation a secret. "They didn't know who Esera Tuaolo is," he said in the interview with HBO. "What they saw was an actor." Tuaolo, 34, said players routinely told gay jokes in the locker room. "They made me go further and further into depression, further and further into shame," he said. In a transcript and tape of the HBO show obtained by The New York Post, Tuaolo discusses the depth of his depression, saying it reached a point to where he thought about suicide. "When I'm driving like over a 100 (mph), maybe I could just like turn that wheel, just turn that wheel so I could just end it all," Tuaolo said in the interview. Tuaolo, a native of Hawaii, played at Oregon State before being drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 1991 (35th pick overall). He also played for the Panthers, Vikings and Jaguars, and for the Falcons, the team he was with in Super Bowl XXXIII. The "Real Sports" segment also features ESPN's Sterling Sharpe, a former teammate of Tuaolo's with the Packers. When Sharpe was asked what would have happened if Tuaolo came out while he was still playing in the NFL, Sharpe said: "He would have been eaten alive and he would have been hated for it." link: Okay, I know that in the past that I have not been one that was in favor of rights for homosexuals and homosexuality is something that I do not understand. However, I am trying really hard to open my mind, and I do feel really bad for this guy. But, I don't see what else he could have done other than what he did - keep quiet (this is while he was playing).
I am replying just to tell you to stay out of the Hangout, you're strictly a Rockets forum poster, and I feel sorry for you because this will get no other replies.
I went to a seminar on quality when I was in highschool. Homosexuality was one of the conference rooms. I saw homosexuals speak their life experiences of living a lifestyle that was a complete lie to what they really felt. They were depressed and suicidal even though some of them even married. My guess is that it is like fitting a square peg into a triangle slot. I also take neuroscience classes, and sometimes the subject of homosexuality comes along every now and then. There's evidence in certain areas of the brain has masses that are different in homosexuals, sometimes juxtaposed as if they were the opposite sex. Some members probably know all this or this has been discussed before on another topic, but I'm convinced that it's not a "choice" for the majority of homosexuals out there. What does this mean for the topic? Just that he was forced to live the lie. Or he'd be a marked man for it, maybe even blackballed from the league.
I envy him. Can you imagine being in a girl's college locker room every day? That was similar, for heterosexual men, to his experience at Oregon State. That was my two cents, and I fulfilled the promise of value with this post. That is all.
That's pretty sick if you think about it because you forgot the part where you'd have to be hiding the locker room. I don't think Tuaolo thought like that, but I bet some players would **** him up just for that reason.
Tuaolo, 34, said players routinely told gay jokes in the locker room. And where aren't gay jokes told?
