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Hardcover
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc
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
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| Alone in the Trenches: A Must Read |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Alone in the Trenches is a powerful story about Esera's struggles to be true to himself while also conforming to societal expectations for NFL players.
I can relate to Esera's experiences on a personal level, as I'm sure many will be able to, but what really pushes this book over the top is the blatant honesty and courage of Esera in publishing this material. By sharing his soul, Esera truly becomes a role model for all people.
The book is well-written and a very enjoyable read. Once I began, I could hardly put the book down. The praises of Alone in the Trenches cannot be sung enough. Everyone needs to read this book.
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| Inspiring |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Esera Tuaolo has written an inspiring account of his coming out process as a gay man. Within the formidably macho environs of the NFL he concealed his sexuality for years, at great pains to his own psyche and emotional well-being.
He then(with great courage and dignity)acknowledged to the world that he is a man proud of himself, his family and his sexuality. A complete human being at last.
Good on you Esera. I am sure that many gay people will take heart from your fine example and live their lives as themselves, not what they think society wants them to be.
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| Alone No More |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Esera has been through a long struggle and come out on top. Now he is "Big Daddy" and Mitchell, his life partner, is "Little Daddy," to a pair of Samoan-American twins, Mitchell Junior and Michelle, and the two of them live quite, contented lives and travel frequently on Rosie O'Donnell's family cruises with their brood. Having twins has opened Esera's willingness to talk about his sexual preference, and he insists that he is doing it for them, so they will know how painful his life has been, in all its aspects.
He had it pretty bleak growing up, sort of like a Hawaiian version of Betty Smith's popular novel A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, with a hardworking, sometimes impatient mother, and a charming, weak father who took away all of the fun with him when he died unexpectedly and far too young. And he had a gay older brother who died of AIDS, and a wicked uncle who began molesting little Esera when he was six, and who, in a melodramatic finish, got himself killed in a terrible accident and they had to identify his little pieces by his tattoos and dental work! It made me wonder, is the monster really dead? Or might he have faked his own death to avoid paying the consequences of messing with Esera--molestors, after all, know how to play the game and how to fool the rest of us who aren't sociopaths, and I thought, he's probably living the Gary Glitter lifestyle in Thailand or somewhere by now.
However, Esera seems quite certain he is dead. He has nothing good to say about Garrison Hearst either, which amused me! Don't invite those two to the same dinner party--Hearst would bolt like a scared jackrabbit!
Like other reviewers, I could have used a bit more detail about what sex is like when you're a closeted NFL star, for Esera is one of the view who has been through the neon inside and escaped to tell the story. And although he seems frank about his addictions to alcohol and grass (or whatever), I wonder if there isn't anything he's not telling us. In the meantime, I look forward to Esera's forthcoming CD of modern pop music, for the descriptions he gives of his haunting, majestic voice make him seem like a modern day Perry Como, only with more "ufis" (balls).
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| This is a really thoughtful book... |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Esera's book reads very well. I really appreciate that he shares his life with us, he did not have to. I have met the man at Univ. of Hawaii, he does have a beautiful voice.. and a year later finally read the book. I read this book and Reichen Lehmkuhl's "Here's What We'll Say" at the same time. Each book has it's positive and negatives but this book is much better flowing, seems more genuine, and Esera has such a big heart. It really pains me to see all that he went through to make some money in the game of football. I related much to his story and it really helped me. I live here in Hawaii and I know how disjointed the community is here due to culture and social stigmas. I wish he would have talked more about his relationship, living with a stylist has it's own stories to tell! Hmmm, maybe I will write a book Esera?
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| interesting for many reasons |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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The whole book is great. As a gay parent myself, I love to see more gay people telling their stories. But aside from that, the most interesting part of the book was the influence of religious conservatives on NFL players. As a sports fan, I found those sections alarming. Not because I think players should not express their faith, but because of the strong-arm tactics that may be in use to influence people's careers.
Read the book, it's a quick read.
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