MANKATO – A football cradled under his left arm and a smile radiating behind his facemask, Philip Nelson pumped his fist and picked his way through a swarming, jubilant crowd on a crisp sun-kissed, autumn Saturday.
One of Minnesota's most prolific prep passers ever, Nelson had just quarterbacked the Gophers past a football powerhouse, Nebraska no less, for the second of four straight victories last fall — their longest Big Ten winning streak in 40 years. His father and girlfriend, decked out in maroon and gold, elbowed through the throng to share the euphoria.
Less than seven months later, on a rainy spring Monday in Mankato, Nelson bowed his head and avoided eye contact with his parents, who sat behind him in a Blue Earth County courtroom in their hometown. His ankles and wrists shackled, he faced assault charges in orange jail garb for allegedly kicking Isaac Kolstad, a defenseless and unconscious young father, in the head when a scuffle erupted into violence at closing time in a downtown area known as the Bar-muda Triangle.
Nelson, 20, was promptly cut from his new college team, Rutgers, as people in Mankato spent a stunned week trying to make sense of a senseless twist of events that left Kolstad, 24, struggling to survive brain injuries and Nelson's once-storybook career in shambles.
A story of a nasty fight outside a bar, which might have attracted scant attention, mushroomed into a national story with a well-known quarterback thrust into the glare of a different kind of spotlight. All for decisions, clouded by alcohol, made in a span of seconds.
"These are the last two guys you'd ever expect to get involved in anything like this," said Casey Lloyd, a football announcer on Radio Mankato for decades. "Both families are just top-notch, good people."
Lloyd said bartenders insist "they just never saw Isaac downtown any time at night, let alone at that hour." Kolstad earned a business degree from Minnesota State, Mankato, and landed a sales job at Fastenal, an industrial supplier. He and his wife, Molly, have a 3-year-old daughter and are expecting a second daughter by month's end. He's been in critical condition all week with a fractured skull and brain swelling.
Kolstad has undergone a series of surgeries, including one on Friday, and procedures that have gone well, according to family members.