Esera Tuaolo

Esera Tuaolo born 11 July 1968

Esera Tavai Tuaolo, born in Honolulu, Hawaii played professional football in the National Football League for nine years, including participation in the Super Bowl.

He is of Samoan ancestry, and was raised in poverty in a banana farming family. His father died when Esera was ten years of age.

He played for Oregon State University and was selected in the 1991 NFL Draft. Nicknamed 'Mr. Aloha', Tuaolo played nose tackle for several teams in his career, reaching the Super Bowl in 1998 while playing with the Atlanta Falcons. He also played for the Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers during his career.

In 2002, having retired from sports, he announced publicly that he was gay and was living with his partner, Mitchell Wherley, and their children - twins, son and daughter Mitchell Jr. and Michelle, who were adopted from Tuaolo's native Samoa. This made him the third former NFL player to come out, after David Kopay and Roy Simmons. He has since worked with the NFL to attempt to combat homophobia in the league and is a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.

Tuaolo and Wherley separated in July 2007.

In April, 2006, he testified at the State Legislature Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in opposition to an anti-gay-marriage bill.

In 2006, Tuaolo sang the national anthem at the opening ceremony of the Gay Games, a quadrennial Olympics-style event. Kopay administered the official's oath during the opening ceremony.

Tuaolo's autobiography, Alone In The Trenches: My Life As A Gay Man In The NFL, was released in Spring, 2006.