In 1995, Browns Head Coach Bill Belichick had his eye on a bruising defensive end, Ta\u2019u Pupu\u2019a, from Weber State. The Browns liked him so much that they made him their fifth-round draft selection.<\/p>\n
But his time with the sport was short-lived, as injuries sidelined Pupu\u2019a, and his football dream came to an end. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen one door closes\u201d, he said, \u201canother one will open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another talent made that next door open. <\/p>\n
He had always loved music. Pupu\u2019a went to New York City and studied to become an opera singer. From football to opera! <\/p>\n
\u201cOne wears a helmet and shoulder pads,\u201d he said, jokingly, \u201cand the other wears wigs and make-up!\u201d<\/p>\n
His story reads like a movie script. So it shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise that it caught the eye of filmmaker Mark Harris. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe all face challenges in life,\u201d Harris said. \u201cChallenges, unexpected things that can break you or re-make you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Platform\u201d\u00a0is a 9-minute short film based on the life of Pupu\u2019a that premiered at the\u00a0Cleveland International Film Festival\u00a0on April 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last time I was here was about 30-years ago\u201d, Pupu\u2019a said. \u201cAnd then here I am again\u2026it\u2019s amazing!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harris added, \u201cYa know, Tau\u2019s story began in Cleveland\u2026 It\u2019s a story of re-invention, perseverance, and it\u2019s a story that is Cleveland, it embodies Cleveland.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A football career and a movie premiere, 30 years apart, in the city where a man started living two dreams. <\/p>\n
Pupu\u2019a said, reminding us, “The film is to inspire people to go after their dreams.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
We Follow Through<\/p>\n
Want us to continue to follow through on a story? Let us know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1995, Browns Head Coach Bill Belichick had his eye on a bruising defensive end, Ta\u2019u Pupu\u2019a, from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,7,9526,6,9527,117654,117653],"class_list":{"0":"post-867365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-clevelandbrowns","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-news5cleveland","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-northeast-ohio-news","16":"tag-opera","17":"tag-tau-pupua"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116411600972053744","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}