Getting Open with Tyler Conklin

fiance Ali Cortnall. Over the next several weeks, you will continue to hear personal player stories, organizational initiatives, and also more about foundations that support this area of mental health. Today, we're sitting down with Vikings tight end Tyler Conklin. The twenty twenty season marked Tyler's third with Minnesota, and there's no denying the impact that he had on the field.

But what fans might not know is the difference he also makes off the field with an organization called No Resolve. For Tyler and his family, mental health and suicide awareness are topics close to their heart. In twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen, you know, for the Vikings might cause my cleats game, you wrapped No Resolve. Can you just tell us a little bit about that organization and its mission. Yeah, so No Resolve was created by Dennis Leggio. He started

because his dad committed suicide. So No Resolve is a nonprofit as dedicated to promoting mental health, preventing you, and preventing youth suicide throughout through reaching, advocacy and education. So can you tell us a little bit about the personal connection that your family has with No Resolve. I know that you've had some involvement with them and as well as your mom. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, so I had an involvement with them through because they

came and they did an event at our school. Well, my mom has no DNIS for a long time. They met at a conference in the nineties and they realized they had similar plans, and because of their experiences with suicide, my mom got Dennis to come and do his first ever event at middle school Central where she worked at and he did that in nineteen ninety nine, which was two years after my mom's brother committed suicide. And since then, my mom and Dennis had done a ton of the

community together. No Resolve is not nationwide and they travel the country. I'm telling his story and helping raise awareness and he does it in a pretty neat way with his musician, so he does it like singing songs and with his guitar and stuff. So their events are usually awesome.

And they recently just opened a teen center and Shelby Township and the Team centers kind of a place where youth and people who can just go kind of like a safe place where they have people that you can talk to, or just a video game room and all these different things where you can just go. And it TOLDO just be a safe place for kids in the areas, you know, for having a hard time or really dealing with some stuff where they can kind of go and get away and either get help or kind of just

get away and have some time to theirselves. You mentioned that your mom's brother committed suicide. How old were you when that happened and what impact has that had on you. I was too year old when he committed suicide. Um, and obviously I don't really remember too much about it. But I've got to watch my mom and see how

it's affecting my mom throughout her life. And you don't have a little brother and a little sister, so to think about losing two of the most important people in my life, and I can't even fathom the pain that that that would bring. And I've really watched my mom kind of take that pain and the struggle and turn into something really positive for her community and and herself.

You know, I didn't really get to see her or I don't remember like how she was when, you know, when it just happened or whatnot, but you know the thing that she's done with creating. Uh. So, there's a community Action Coalition in our community. It was just called what's called something different before, but it's like ten people on a panel and they it just came in and they did stel to prevent you know, George, substance abuse, suicide, prevention,

bullying and prevention. And they come together every month and they you know, Matt and talked about the community and different things going on and how could they could prevent some of these things. So my mom took over and became the chair in nineteen ninety nine with David Brown, and like I said, there's only ten people in the committee, and by the time she retired, it was there's eleven coalitions in our in our county and MCCO and ours

was top three. The coalition was top three and they did just a ton of work, you know, every year and every monthly. Man, I was a part of it from seventh grade to my senior year high school. And um, something just like the fire and the motivation that created and the way my mom kind of turned that pain in a hard time into something positive for other people

was you know, huge for me to see. Have you ever had any experiences where people approach you or your mom who have been able to share how her efforts have made a difference in their life or in a loved one's life. I guess have you been able to see those personal those personal stories of change. I've seen it a little bit. Um. You know, my mom, she's a private counselor on the side too, and she works

with all types of people. But I see a lot of it because I mean sometimes I'll stop in on maybe one of her clients as a younger kid or a middle school creator Derek Kay wants to see me, or I'll stop in and you know, sign something for him or hang out, and you know, I can just you know, I'll talk to them for a little bit and I can obviously see you no when I sit there and talk to them, how much you know it helps them, and how much it means to them that

she's there for him. So, like I've seen in a different, you know, spots like that, whether I'm kind of just or like that coalition where you know, just hearing kids talk about her, whether it's previous or present, and it's definitely a good feeling to all to see how much she's helping too. So you've talked a little bit about how mental health obviously has impacted your family. Have you personally been impacted by any mental health challenges? If so,

what does that look like in your daily life. This is a hard thing for me to talk about, it feel like because I'm something I haven't really talked about a lot, and I feel like that's kind of kind of a sta stigma of men is. You know, we don't we bottle stuff up, we don't talk about things. So it kind of took me a while to ever realize if I did deal with mental health battles, you know. And I think the main thing that I really deal with that I've really kind of been going to acknowledge

is anxiety. Anxiety is something I feel like I did with a lot um sometimes obviously worse than others, and it could be you know, sometimes it's just the fact that, um, and I'm always thinking about what I have to do, no matter how big or little the task is. You I gotta do this, I got to do that, And to do that kind of can take away take away a lot of joy and fun and doing things sometimes

they're just living life because you can't. I can't just you know, sit down and relax, and I'm always think, Okay, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, I gotta do this, and it can just be overwhelming, you know it to never really let your brain rest or never you know, you get that feeling in your stomach, and the longest time, I never really understood, like I just know my stomach feels funny here, you know, when you kind of learn about it and you realize, like that

pin in your stomach is you know a little bit of anxiety. And so I feel like I've done to kind of cope with that. Is you know, I'm really big, I really got big into you know, making lists, and it makes me really task oriented. But it really helps me a lot to just you know, I'm constantly making a list on my phone, or writing it down to just you know, make my after I get it down on paper, right down, it kind of makes me build to relax a little bits. And now I know where said.

I know when I got to do it. Instead of just constantly thinking about, Okay, I gotta do this, I gotta do this, I'll just start repeating stuff in my head, you know, until it gets done. So writing stuff down has really helped me. And you know, obviously working out and doing different things always is always beneficial for me to kind of get my mind off of things and being clean, you know, whether it's cleaning my car, my locker,

or the house. You know, whenever I'm if I have anxiety, because I don't have anxiety, don't have nothing to do, you know, and I don't know what to do with myself, so I'll just you know, clean up. And accomplishing a productive task or something always kind of seems to benefit me. Are there any people in your life specifically that have been like a great support system or just kind of understanding, you know, when you do go through these times that

are maybe a higher anxiety moments. I'm not blessed. I have a really good family and we're extremely open. We talked about everything, and I mean, that's that's beneficial. And I think the biggest person that probably gets to see it now with my girlfriend because she lives with me, so she's a lot probably she's a lot more carefree and kind of just goes with the flow. And then I'm pretty you know, because of my anxiety, I'm really task boring it and you know, get this done, get

this done, get that done. So I know for a fact she can tell, you know, when I have anxiety or or whatnot, because I'm always turning to help repeating the list of things I need to do, or I'm asking her how can you do this and do that and um, And she does a really good job, you know, helping me or either accomplish a task so I can kind of relax a little bit or um, you know, not get annoyed with me because I'm over here trying to ask her to get stuff done and for me

to get stuff done and whatnot. So she's probably the person that sees it the most, and she has a great job helping me kind of navigate it. So a lot of Vikings fans this past season read about your two pups, Alaska and Luna. Does having pets help at all with anxiety? Yeah, I think it does. I think it helps a lot, whether it's just you know, laying around cuddling them, talking to them even though they can't

understand what the heck you're saying. But I think it helps a little bit, a little bit of pet therapy. We're in the up right now and market and actually Laska got out and ran away for a little bit the other day, so that didn't help my anxiety very much, but we got him back, So I think it definitely has his benefits, unless they just had to run away for a little a little bit. In the NFL in general, there are so many ups and downs, right and then

this past season twenty twenty has just been crazy. Whether it's the pandemic, whether it's racial injustices going on. So much to think about and so much to kind of be concerned about. When you're in the middle of a football season, which is obviously extra busy for you, how do you prioritize your mental health as well as your physical health, you know, obviously with the pandemic and COVID or what now. We had an off season last year and no, I think that was really beneficial to me.

I mean, the physical part of things, I've always really been pretty good about and it's always been such a release for me. And so we're somewhere and get my mind off of that. That's always kind of been the first thing I've always gone to. So, you know, before I even realized I had anxiety or you know, dealing with some stuff that you know, working, I was always

that made me feel better. So I think during the pandemic this year, you know, being able to have the time to sit back and reflect and not be able to do anything you're stuck in the house with your family, and you know, just finding different outlets that way. And you know, like greeting has been really big for me

before March and everything kind of happened. I haven't read a book since Magic Treehouse when I was a little kid, and you know, I started reading during UH when the pandemic and everything got shut down, And that's helped me a lot, no matter what it was, whether it was just reading for luxure or you know, for fun, or

if it was reading to try to learn something. I think that's been beneficial and some different things, trying to become a little more you know, and tuling myself and spiritual and trying to just you know, think a little more about you know the world and other people and doing yoga and just cleflic as men were so used to just bottling everything up or a thought comes. Especially

in this world, we're desensitized to everything. You know, we got constant from nation and constant news, and you know, you go on Twitter and you learn about this, and you just five seconds later you see something else, So you kind of become desensitized the stuff. So, you know, trying to stay off my phone and digest information more. And you know, when we get desensitized the stuff, I kind of it takes away our ability to you know, be empathetic about situations. So, you know, really trying to

slow myself down and feel more. I guess it's probably the easiest way to put it into words. It's just feel more for yourself and for others. I really like that point about empathy and just how helpful that can be, whether it's with yourself or with other people. And something that you mentioned earlier was kind of this stigma around mental illness, and I think that that permeates throughout society

as a whole. But you even mentioned as well, specifically with men, and maybe even more so within athletics or within professional athletics. I guess why, just personally, why do you think that is that there's such a stigma around this topic with men within athletics. I mean, it all starts, obviously. I think that's just that's the way I was, right. I mean not that I was my mental well being was neglected, but just you know, you know, my dad

was looked Dad. I looked at my dad is you know, some big tough guy that you know, I've never seen him cry, and um, you know, handled everything I needed to be handled, and you know, to be able to see that. You know, I grew up wanting to be, you know, the person. I never wanted to put my problems on anybody or um, you know, something bad is going on or something's happening. I always want to be the person that's like, you know, I can I can take it, I can put it on my shoulders. And

a lot of men grew up like that. A lot of people just grow up like that man or a woman. And I think it's just something that society's kind of created. But I do think it's something that we've kind of as a society. I've got better at talking about a little bit. Obviously we're doing it now, but I think

it's improved over the years. The main thing that I think is acknowledging that there is stuff going on, because I've got so good at just handling stuff and internalizing things, or you know, I'll be all right kind of idea. You know, I've got so good at that that you don't.

You forget to acknowledge when stuff is going on, and that can be a rabbit hole, and that could be can be bad because then it affects you in your daily life, whether it's just talking to you know, a significant other family member or a friend and you take it out on them without even noticing it. Why did you want to be a part of this series then and share your story with more people? Kind of going

back on the pandemic and everything. I think it was a great time for everybody kind of work on getting better as a person. I think there's always stuff you can get better on, and you know, whether it's mentally, physically, spiritually,

you know, anything that you want to get better. It was a good time to get better at it, and it's hard to get better at stuff when you're not in a good place mentally or when you're struggling with things, and the only way to kind of get better, to improve your your mental well being, or to get through a tough time, I really think is to not just get healthier physically. I think that helps, but to open

up and talk to people. And whether you get a counselor you talk to a family member, however, you got to do everybody's different, you know, that's the first step is acknowledging it and then find it and find something to talk to to get better so that you can't improve all the things you want to improve it. You know, I just wanted to kind of be that. I want to be one of people where it's like, you know, he's deal with mych oldest shoes, he's in the NFL,

he's done thinks. I want to build me on the forefront of that, just like I know some of other people that are talking to want to be on because it's important to show kids younger than us, or show people that are you know, our age or older, that know, no matter how big and bad you think you are, or no matter what you do for a living, that

you know you can deal with mental health. In an earlier segment of this series, we talked to Jalen Holmes and he mentioned that if he helps just one person with sharing his story, that he finds that to be worth it. You know, So if there's if there's one thing that even one person could take out of your story and listening to this interview, what would you hope that to be. Jane was one of my good friends, and uh, you know, I've talked to him about a lot of this stuff and he's he's I think he's

exactly right. Like, if I could help one person or you know, help one person get through a really tough time that they might not think they're going to get through, and this is definitely worth it. If there's any if there's any advice I could I could give, And it's it's hard for me to give it sometimes because I'm not that good at, you know, listening to my own advice. You know, I'm not great at opening up and talking to people yet or you know, going and finding help.

But um, you know, I just I just want everybody that hears this or that's listening to know that it's okay to struggle with things, no matter how big or small you think they are, and you know to to never give up and to attack that problem and you know, find help if they needed. And um, you know, talking to talk. I think I really believe that, you know, whether it's writing something down or just talking finding someone to talk to, it can be the you know, the

change that that someone needs. I just want to extend a huge thank you to Tyler, not only for sharing more about a great organization like No Resolve, but for also being willing to delve into his personal experiences around anxiety and how that has impacted him. Thanks again for tuning in, and we invite you to keep an eye on all of Vikings digital platforms for upcoming features and are getting open series is the mbavab