Football, dangerous as it is, has us, in Minnesota and everywhere else: We keep watching, keep playing

Brainerd had opened the Class 5A football playoffs with a 30-8 victory over Elk River and now it was hosting Alexandria in a second-round game on Oct. 27, 2007.

"We needed a drive late in the game and we had Tyler Jensen blocking for Colby Ring,'' Ron Stolski said. "Jensen weighed 145 and Ring was a big, strong kid who became a two-time All-American linebacker at [Minnesota] Duluth.

"Jensen, though … he was a wrestler, just a tough, determined kid who could make the block. He did that on the last touchdown that gave us a 27-21 win.''

Stolski coached high school football for 58 years, with the last 45 at Brainerd before retiring after the 2019 season.

And in a conversation Tuesday, he still could see Jensen running excitedly toward the sideline with hands raised in a touchdown signal.

"Everybody's jumping around, back-slapping,'' Stolski said. "And then one of our coaches came over and said, 'Tyler's down.' I said, 'What do you mean, Tyler's down?'

"Our sideline people got on it. The doctor came out of the stands. The ambulance showed up. And then he was helicoptered to North Memorial in the Twin Cities."

The diagnosis came soon: subdural hematoma, bleeding from an injury near the brain that needs emergency care.

"I was told, 'There's a 10 percent chance Tyler's going to make it.' He made it through surgery overnight," Stolski said. "We drove down the next day, walked into his room … and Tyler was sitting up in his bed.

"A week later, he was in the press box, watching us beat St. Cloud Tech and win the section.''

Tyler Jensen is now a dentist, with offices in downtown St. Paul and Oakdale. Between patients Tuesday, he was asked about that night in 2007 and said:

"There was no big hit; I felt a little bit of a stinger, and my legs were feeling numb. I thought, 'There's something going on,' but a stronger thought was, 'We have to score this touchdown.' "

Ring did that behind Jensen's block, and then Tyler ran happily toward the sideline.

"I made it there, and then was on the ground, and the trainer was with me, and I had this terrible feeling of impending doom,'' Jensen said.

Then, he lost consciousness. And 18 hours later he woke up in a hospital in Robbinsdale.

"Except for headache syndrome, I was just about back to normal in a few days,'' Jensen said. "No more football, of course … and no wrestling.''

He had been to the state tournament three times and had 131 career wins — 15 shy of the school record owned by all-time Brainerd great Andy Pickar, a two-time state champion.

Jensen and Stolski had this in common on Monday night. Both were watching the Bills-Bengals game when Buffalo's Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest after suffering a blow to the chest. He was taken by ambulance to a Cincinnati hospital in critical condition.

"That was frightening,'' Jensen said. "I still love the game of football … but it reminded us again there will always be an inherent risk in playing this sport.''

Stolski said: "It doesn't happen often. Fifty-eight years of coaching, and Tyler was our only case of having a player in a dire situation. But when you see it, like last night … it shakes you.''

Pause.

"And, of course, it has shaken us here in Brainerd again with Conner Erickson.''

Another scare

Brainerd was playing its second game of the 2022 season at Moorhead on Sept. 9. The Warriors were late in a 27-10 victory when Conner Erickson, a senior linebacker and captain, came jogging to the sideline.

Jason Freed, in his third year as Brainerd's head coach, said: "Conner took a knee, and then the situation got much more urgent. Medical support came rushing across the field.''

There was no obvious hit to be found in later reviews of game tapes, but Erickson was dealing with a traumatic head injury.

The location of the game was fortunate, since the Sanford Brain and Spine Center — highly regarded in treating such trauma — was a quick ambulance trip to Fargo.

There was surgery to stop a brain bleed. Erickson spent a month recovering in Fargo, then two months rehabbing at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

On Dec. 9, three months to the day of the trauma on the football field, Conner returned to the family home in Brainerd proper. To his surprise, there were neighbors, coaches, teachers, football and hockey teammates lined up on nearby streets and in front of his house to welcome him.

Nick and Trina Erickson, Conner's parents, have had Nick's brother Jared handle media inquiries. Jared was a junior tackle for Stolski in 2007 when Tyler Jensen suffered his brain injury.

"I remember we were hearing all these troubling things about what was going on with Tyler,'' Jared said. "And then the next week, I said: 'Holy smokes, he's here watching the game.' "

Conner's in for a tougher haul in his recovery. "It's a long road, but he's doing pretty good,'' Jared said. "He's missing hockey. He was a captain and a very good hockey player for the Warriors.''

Stolski had a chance to coach Erickson's older brother, Hunter, in the mid-2010s. "He was a tremendous player for us,'' the retired coach said. "Tough as nails.''

There's also a younger brother — Beau, a sophomore on the 2022 football team. Jared Erickson said this:

"After Conner was injured, Nick and Trina left it up to Beau what he wanted to do. And Beau said, 'I want to keep playing football.' "