Alone in the Trenches: My Life as a Gay Man in the NFL

A memoir by the ex-NFL football player offers a portrait of his life as a gay man, recounting his painful childhood, his fear of exposure while playing in the NFL, the strength he found in Christianity, and his decision to come out publicly.

?It's rough down in the trenches, where linemen weighing more than three hundred pounds hurl themselves at one another in brutal hand-to-hand combat, but it is nothing compared to the pain I kept buried inside so I could play out my dream-not only surviving professional football, but living openly for who I am. A gay man.?
-Esera Tuaolo
Praise for Alone in the Trenches:
?Even I was not prepared for his amazing life story. He spares no one when recounting the difficulties of his childhood, sexual abuse and being a gay man in the NFL.?
-Billy Bean, author of Going the Other Way: Lessons from a Life in and out of Major League Baseball
?I was truly moved to read Esera's story told in his own words. While the rest of us
were living out our dreams of playing in the NFL, Esera was fighting this internal battle
every day of his life in solitude.?
-Don Davey, former NFL player with the Green Bay Packers and the Jacksonville Jaguars
?Honesty is always the best policy and Esera is exceptionally honest and revealing in his struggle with his sexual identity. His sincerity is clearly evident and his words
will continue to be a great help to so many others.?
-David Kopay, former NFL player and author of The David Kopay Story
?His story is both painful and hopeful, as 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, this spiritual yet muscular read is only for people interested in football, love, manhood and the human condition.?
-Robert Lipsyte, former New York Times sportscolumnist
?[An] absorbing, first-person account ... Pages filled with the kind of football lore
that only an NFL insider could know are punctuated with Tuaolo's painful dread
of discovery ... His book communicates a warmth and openness that will appeal
to both football fans and the gay community.?
-Publishers Weekly