Iceland12
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"P.J. Fleck endured five shoulder surgeries during his playing career as a wide receiver and spent the 2005 season on injured reserve with the 49ers. Besides the bum joint, he was not feeling well.
“I struggled with mental health,” the Gophers head football coach recalled on his KFAN radio show Tuesday. “… I went through a really tough time in San Francisco.”
That story has been something Fleck has shared privately with his players since he came to Minnesota in 2017. And while it occurred nearly two decades ago, Fleck brought it up publicly a few times this week to be an example for how he sought help and spoke to a psychologist about what he was going through.
And that flashback is topical with the Gophers hosting their Mental Heath Awareness Game at 11 a.m. Saturday against Western Illinois at Huntington Bank Stadium.
On Monday in his office, Fleck picked up a pastel-covered paperback book titled “The Anxiety Solution: A Calmer Mind, A Calmer You” by Chloe Brotheridge. He was about 25 pages into it, with five separate pages of notes stuffed in to double as a bookmark.
“It’s really good for me,” Fleck shared with the Pioneer Press. “If you are always saying that somebody else should be better, but you’re not becoming better at the things you tell them they should be better at, then you lose accountability.”
Fleck wants his players to know it’s OK to not be OK and that toughness is not withholding emotions or feelings but finding a way to seek help and strive for self-improvement...
www.twincities.com
“I struggled with mental health,” the Gophers head football coach recalled on his KFAN radio show Tuesday. “… I went through a really tough time in San Francisco.”
That story has been something Fleck has shared privately with his players since he came to Minnesota in 2017. And while it occurred nearly two decades ago, Fleck brought it up publicly a few times this week to be an example for how he sought help and spoke to a psychologist about what he was going through.
And that flashback is topical with the Gophers hosting their Mental Heath Awareness Game at 11 a.m. Saturday against Western Illinois at Huntington Bank Stadium.
On Monday in his office, Fleck picked up a pastel-covered paperback book titled “The Anxiety Solution: A Calmer Mind, A Calmer You” by Chloe Brotheridge. He was about 25 pages into it, with five separate pages of notes stuffed in to double as a bookmark.
“It’s really good for me,” Fleck shared with the Pioneer Press. “If you are always saying that somebody else should be better, but you’re not becoming better at the things you tell them they should be better at, then you lose accountability.”
Fleck wants his players to know it’s OK to not be OK and that toughness is not withholding emotions or feelings but finding a way to seek help and strive for self-improvement...
Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck shares his mental health struggles
The U is hosting its Mental Heath Awareness Game on Saturday against Western Illinois at Huntington Bank Stadium.
www.twincities.com
