The Way I See It
IT was exactly what Patrick Kesi hoped wouldn't happen before Mark Tuinei was even laid to rest. Tuinei went
out of his way
for KesiBut there's no way to suppress news -- especially bad news -- about a pro sports celebrity. Especially one connected to a team like the Dallas Cowboys.
Kesi choked back tears last week on the phone from his home in Las Vegas as he recalled how Tuinei acted like the "big brother" he never had while he spent an exhibition season with the Dallas Cowboys two years ago.
Tuinei embraced the former USA Today Prep All-American from Farrington and made sure he had whatever he needed.
"I don't want the autopsy to go public because I don't want to find out whatever caused his death," said Kesi.
But reports preceding today's toxicology report that Tuinei used the hallucinogenic ecstasy and shot up heroin the night before he died, circulated throughout the nation yesterday.
The hero has been tarnished.
BUT it was clear to me that no matter what shortcomings Tuinei had, friends like Kesi who were touched by his generosity loved the guy. Loved him fiercely.
Someone who can evoke that kind of loyalty must have had some pretty hefty redeeming qualities. The positive descriptions were uttered with unmistakable passion.
Kesi, a virtually penniless free agent, remembers needing running shoes during training camp. He went out and spent what he could afford on them: $30.
Tuinei found out, pulled him aside, shoved a Nike catalog at him and said, "Order."
"I picked out a pair, and he said, 'Don't just order one, order four,' and I was saying, 'Are you sure?' I couldn't believe it when he handed me this big old UPS box with the shoes inside. I never had four pairs of shoes in my life -- and these were like $100 a pair. He really just wanted to take care of me."
Kesi said Tuinei, who never had any children, looked after not only him but the other Samoans on the Dallas roster: Ewa native Mike Ulufale, a defensive lineman no longer with the team, and reserve running back Nicky Sualua.
"The other players called us the Smurfs because if you saw one, you saw the others," said Kesi. "Mark was Papa Smurf."
THE drug revelations pose questions for Tuinei's many admirers and the school athletic program which was about to hire him as a coach.
Had this information about Tuinei's lifestyle been available, would Punahou still have considered him a role model for its football players?
But maybe someone should have pointed out last week that Mark Tuinei was not perfect.
Certainly Tuinei would have reminded everyone of that had he been here. His legacy of trouble is in itself a guidepost for youngsters. Don't do what I did, is what he told kids.
It was no secret that Tuinei had problems with alcohol, drugs and brawling throughout his early years.
The Dallas Morning News has posted on its website this week a profile written in 1993. It mentions Tuinei's problems with the law, from his days in Nanakuli, through Punahou, UCLA and Hawaii. He spent three months in OCCC in 1982.
It's all there, and in his own words, too.
But, listening to Kesi struggling to keep his composure last week on the phone, I began to understand how much even an imperfect friend can mean to somebody.
I keep hearing Kesi's desperate wish that the cause of Tuinei's demise never be known: "I just want to remember Mark the way I remember Mark."
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.