Former NFL star Esera Tuaolo talks Super Bowl, Carl Nassib, and meeting his fiancé on Grindr
When Esera Tuaolo publicly came out as gay in 2002 after retiring from the NFL, he said he didn’t think there would ever be an out active NFL player.The league just wasn’t ready for it, and neither were the fans.Two decades later, the 6-foot-4, 300 pounds former defensive lineman is happy to say he’s been proven wrong when Carl Nassib came out in 2021.Tuaolo has stayed close to the game since retirement, hosting an annual Super Bowl party sponsored by his anti-bullying organization, Hate Is Wrong, and speaking to rookies about inclusion.While he remains connected to the NFL, his biggest areas of growth have occurred far away from the gridiron: singing on stage, manning the kitchen in Provincetown, falling in love with his fiancé.Ahead of Super Bowl Sunday, we caught up with Tuaolo (a.k.a. “Mr.
Aloha) for our new Time Out interview series, and talked about his reflections on NFL life, his nascent singing career, and his experiences on the apps.Here’s what he had to say… A post shared by Esera Tuaolo (@mraloha98)QUEERTY: You came out publicly in 2002 after your playing career ended.
What’s it been like watching Carl Nassib the last couple of seasons?TUAOLO: Super exciting! For 18 years, after I came out, the number one question was always, “When is the first active NFL player going to come out?” So when Carl came out, we finally got an answer to that.Just looking in the past, going all the way back to the ’70s when David Kopay came out.
After he came out, people thought it was going to be this chain reaction. But a couple of decades later, there was still nobody.
