![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/01km354mchd5y7gwgjn7.jpg\" "\\"A")
<\/p>\nThe boy who had \u201cI will go pro\u201d scrawled in blue marker on a piece of paper taped to his bedroom wall his entire childhood was waking up, seatbelt still secure, feeling a pain in his right side. His Audi Q5 had rolled over, off the side of a highway in rural Oregon, near the small town of Lakeview. When the SUV had skidded to a stop on its side, he unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out through the sunroof, which he\u2019d opened to keep himself awake.<\/p>\n
Ernest Hausmann then saw bright headlights aimed at him. The local sheriff\u2019s department and EMTs were on the scene, responding to the car\u2019s automatic emergency system.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old linebacker, already well below his playing weight, was four weeks removed from the last football game he thought he\u2019d ever play\u2014a 24\u201322 win over Northwestern at Wrigley Field. He was on his way to enlisting in the Air National Guard, less than 100 miles from the base he was planning to report to in Klamath Falls. He had no driver\u2019s license or credit cards on him. His cell phone was thrown out the window 2,000 miles ago.<\/p>\n
He was, in the estimation of most people around him, lost. His disappearance from the Michigan football program at the end of the season was a curiosity for the rest of the Wolverine-watching public, never fully explained after he missed a win over Maryland and a loss to Ohio State to finish the regular season. But in his mind, he was on his way to do bigger things than anyone could imagine\u2014he just had to figure out how to get there.<\/p>\n
Little did he know that day, he was on a winding path that would eventually lead him back to the football field.<\/p>\n
This Friday, a little more than three months after the crash, Hausmann will return to Schembechler Hall, to resume his pursuit of the dream that 8-year-old in Nebraska posted on his bedroom wall. He\u2019ll be on the field in Ann Arbor for Michigan\u2019s pro day with teammates he hasn\u2019t spoken to since leaving the team in November.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, he\u2019ll do it now healthy in mind and body. Hausmann\u2019s tumultuous, chaotic few months ended with a specific conclusion: He suffers from, and has always carried with him, bipolar disorder. He\u2019s one of an estimated 5.7 million adults in the United States, according to the Cleveland Clinic\u2019s website, with the condition. So, yes, Friday is about starting his NFL journey and telling his story to NFL teams. But it\u2019s more than just that. It\u2019s also where he intends to start helping others.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo many to count. Too many to count,\u201d Hausmann said, when asked how many people he thinks are out there who need the help he ultimately found. \u201cI believe that there are so many things that people struggle to talk about. Like when I was in high school\u2014you didn\u2019t even know you\u2019re manic. I didn\u2019t know anything about depression. But if this even helps one person, I\u2019ll be happy with this all.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019d hoped that night, before the crash, the road he was traveling would bring him closer to finding his way to do that. That hope, in the aftermath, may be more alive than ever before, albeit in a very different way.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The note Ernest Hausmann hung in his bedroom at age 8. | Courtesy: Hausmann family<\/p>\n
Bipolar disorder can sit dormant in people for years before it\u2019s diagnosed, often manifesting in manic bouts in a person\u2019s teens or 20s.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople with bipolar disorder will frequently experience depression first,\u201d says Dr. Andrew Nierenberg, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Dauten Family Center for Bipolar Treatment Innovation. \u201cAnd then can have their first manic episode in their 20s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Hausmann did. But the diagnosis he\u2019d wind up getting this past December was hardly the first major challenge he\u2019d faced in his 22 years\u2014those started for the native Ugandan at birth.<\/p>\n
Born to parents diagnosed with AIDS, and one of 23 children, the parts of Ernest\u2019s life from before he can remember were spent in real poverty. When he was 2, the Hausmann family, an American couple located some 7,500 miles away in middle America, was embarking on an admirable quest. Bob and Teresa Hausmann had met Ernest\u2019s biological uncle, who had immigrated to the States on a religious visa and was a minister in their town of Columbus, Neb. The uncle explained the situation to them. Bob and Teresa Hausmann looked at each other: Are you thinking what I\u2019m thinking?\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019d talked about adding more children to their family and this seemed like the perfect way to do it.<\/p>\n
Ernest was the youngest of the 23 siblings. What the Hausmanns didn\u2019t know at the time was how hard the adoption would be to complete. Bob was told they would be just the second American family to adopt a child from Uganda, largely because the adoption laws of the countries don\u2019t mesh. They saw that firsthand over the two years it took to get Ernest\u2014at one point involving members of Congress in their effort\u2014before finally bringing him home to Nebraska when he was 5.<\/p>\n
Football became a bonding experience for Ernest and Bob. Because of a faulty penicillin shot he got to the hip before leaving Uganda, when his birth mother thought he had a cold, Ernest barely had use of one of his legs when he arrived in the United States. So he couldn\u2019t play right away\u2014but he could watch. \u201cThe first question I asked [Bob],\u201d Ernest says, \u201cwas, How do I get on TV?\u201d<\/p>\n
As the leg improved, Bob threw his adopted son, about a decade younger than the Hausmanns\u2019 biological daughters, into everything. Ernest\u2019s determination immediately stuck out. His first year of soccer, playing on the hobbled leg, he scored six goals in a game. By the time he was 7, he was asked to play on a travel soccer team, then started for the team right away. He played club baseball at 8. That\u2019s when the \u201cI will go pro\u201d sign went up in his bedroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had the drive,\u201d says Bob, who played quarterback at Division II Kearney State [now the University of Nebraska Kearney], and coached high school football for 11 years. \u201cOnce he healed up, there was no doubt he\u2019d be good at something. And probably everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
That premonition was prescient. He picked up football at 9, in fourth grade. By middle school, he asked his dad which sport he\u2019d go Division I in. By high school, he was a star in both football and basketball, and driven to make it in something.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s also, as Ernest sees it, when the depressive side of his bipolar disorder started to surface.<\/p>\n
When he was in eighth grade, wanting a bigger bedroom, he moved from the main floor of the Hausmann house to the second floor. Growing into a creature of routine, Ernest would work out in the morning, go to school, go to practice and then sequester himself in his room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realize that isolation really was depression,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t really know that that was really the word for it until I didn\u2019t want to be with people. I just didn\u2019t want to talk to people at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Hausmann](\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_0,h_0\/c_fill,w_16,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/voltaxMediaLibrary\/mmsport\/si\/01km35cehr4kjgbqp33r.png\" "\\"Hausmann")
<\/p>\n
As a team captain, Hausmann represented Michigan at Big Ten Football Media Day. | Courtesy: University of Michigan Athletics<\/p>\n
Hausmann didn\u2019t just make it to Division I football\u2014he was a star almost right away, becoming the fifth true freshman to start a game at linebacker at Nebraska in 30 years, and finishing 2022 with 54 tackles in seven starts. While in Lincoln, he also started to get a handle on his mental health, going to the team psychologist after he\u2019d noticed how much more outgoing his teammates were than the kid who\u2019d spent so much time in that upstairs bedroom.<\/p>\n
Nebraska fired head coach Scott Frost after three games that year, and Hausmann entered the transfer portal after the season, looking for a place that would help him, in his words, \u201cmaximize my potential.\u201d Michigan, on the precipice of its first national title in 26 years, was that fit.<\/p>\n
Hausmann proved himself worthy on the field quickly\u2014building a bond with linebackers coach Chris Partridge, who rotated him in at both inside linebacker positions, behind veterans Junior Colson and Mike Barrett, comfortable that he was smart enough to man multiple spots. Off the field, there weren\u2019t outward signs of trouble, but he\u2019d withdrawn a bit on getting the help he needed, working with a counselor whom he started to use more as a sport psychology resource than for mental health reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a worker. A great teammate. He put the time in and he was always going to help the guys around him\u2014he had a natural ability to coach those around him,\u201d says Partridge, who\u2019s now in the NFL with the Seahawks. \u201cHe just sees things the right way. Understanding what everyone around him is doing is a real strength of his. He could run the defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wolverines won it all, head coach Jim Harbaugh left for the Chargers\u2014as did most of the defensive staff\u2014and in 2024, Hausmann settled in as a starter, leading the team with 89 tackles and making All\u2013Big Ten honorable mention, setting him up for a big final season and the realization of his NFL dream.<\/p>\n
But the real turning point came in early November of that year.<\/p>\n
Local philanthropist Mike Owens first got in touch with Bob and Teresa Hausmann as they were navigating the arduous adoption process, hearing they were working to take in a Ugandan boy. Owens knew how difficult that would be and asked if he could meet with them, intrigued and touched by what the Hausmanns were doing. They grew close, and Owens wound up becoming Ernest\u2019s godfather\u2014and now sits on the board of the One Million Wells charity, which works to provide clean water for some of the most impoverished communities in the world.<\/p>\n
Owens accompanied them to the Oregon-Michigan game on Nov. 2, and on that trip told Bob and Teresa that he was planning a trip to Uganda for March 2025. He suggested they come, and that it could be Ernest\u2019s first trip back to his native land.<\/p>\n
Ernest had warmed to the idea over the years, but it took time. When he was 8, Teresa wanted to celebrate Ernest\u2019s third \u201cGotcha Day\u201d (the anniversary of a family taking in an adopted kid) by showing him a video of their first meeting in Uganda. Ernest burst into tears, unprepared to deal with the visual. By high school, though, he\u2019d started to grow curious about going back. The opportunity Owens presented was appealing.<\/p>\n
Teresa approached Ernest about the idea days later. He balked, saying he wasn\u2019t ready. His older sister, Molly, the older of the two Hausmann girls, pushed him to go. \u201cThis is really something you should do,\u201d she said. Hausmann then started talking to Owens about going, with Owens having his trip planned for the week that Michigan was on spring break.<\/p>\n
![\"Ernest](\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_0,h_0\/c_fill,w_16,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/voltaxMediaLibrary\/mmsport\/si\/01km35m163ywy64fgsjp.jpg\" "\\"Ernest")
<\/p>\n
Returning to Uganada has become an important part of Ernest Hausmann\u2019s life. Here, he and his grandma pump clean water after the completion of a well. | Courtesy: Ernest Hausmann<\/p>\n
Part of the reason for Hausmann\u2019s arrival in America in the first place was the belief that his birth parents, in the throes of AIDS, wouldn\u2019t make it, leaving their youngest kids in the most dire straits. But as Hausmann became a star at Columbus High, Bob and Teresa got updates from Africa that his father and mother, Paul and Olive, were still alive, and had taken the AIDS vaccine.<\/p>\n
It made Ernest ask a million obvious questions of himself, and them, before he could talk to or meet them\u2014and added complexity to the idea of traveling back to Uganda.<\/p>\n
Part of the trip would be to dig wells with Owens\u2019s nonprofit. Another part would be to, finally, meet his family. And then, there were things he\u2019d see that almost immediately he knew he\u2019d never be able to unsee, poverty simply on a different level than what anyone experiences in the United States. Guilt set in.<\/p>\n
Why was he the one who got to escape all this, as his mother, father and siblings suffered?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hear about the guilt aspect, but to feel it, it\u2019s two different things,\u201d Hausmann says. \u201cAnd, unfortunately, when I felt it, I didn\u2019t understand what it was going to do to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his first week there, last March, he built a well 20 feet away from his parents\u2019 home. It wasn\u2019t easy. When one method for digging didn\u2019t work, because of the terrain, they had to adjust. He had to personally make sure the crew they hired did what they were paid to do, with terms changing as they went\u2014giving Hausmann insight into corruption in Uganda.<\/p>\n
He was shaken. He was also consumed by what he was experiencing. He kept asking himself, Why is it so difficult for a simple resource to be created? And so it began.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe obsession with helping people back home,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m not saying that it\u2019s a bad thing\u2014but it\u2019s what got me into trouble with my mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next chance he got, after Michigan wrapped spring practice, he was on a plane back.<\/p>\n
The result of the second trip was a heightened urgency to do more to help. He started his own foundation, which Owens helped him launch. He planned construction on a new home for his birth parents and siblings with his NIL money. Meanwhile, an escalating perception of his ability to effect change in his homeland grew. He no longer wanted to fix one problem. He wanted to fix everything.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t know it at the time, but his bipolar disorder was beginning to manifest.<\/p>\n
Last summer, he was preparing for his final season at Michigan, training with teammates, going to classes to inch closer to graduation, starting his foundation and overseeing the build of the new family home in Uganda. By his own admission now, \u201cI forgot that I still have to take care of myself.\u201d Which was easy, because on the surface, things seemed incredible.<\/p>\n
ESPN and CBS were coming to tell his story. He was elected a captain at the end of fall camp, \u201can unbelievable honor,\u201d he says. \u201cOne of the greatest things I\u2019ve ever accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n
The leadership Partridge had seen in him two years earlier, when Harbaugh had him address the team before playing against Nebraska, was coming to life. That night, Hausmann used his favorite superhero, Batman, as an example, as the crusader who only came out at night when he was needed most, to explain how guys play for each other\u2014and he felt like the group responded by playing for him against his former team. \u201cIt was special,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But there was another Batman reference more poignant for the time. On his shin, Hausmann has a tattoo of Bane, the villain from The Dark Knight Rises, with the quote, \u201cNo one cared who I was until I put on the mask.\u201d<\/p>\n
Football had become his mask, his ability to suppress everything in his head and just go, giving everyone the impression he was O.K.<\/p>\n
Then, what Hausmann hoped would be his dream season arrived, and everything came undone. In Week 2, the Wolverines lost to Oklahoma and Hausmann got banged up, to the point that it started to affect his sleep. He played through it. He was trying to lead the team. He was still trying to manage things in Uganda.<\/p>\n
Experts on bipolar disorder maintain that those who suffer from it make things worse when they fall out of structure\u2014with their sleep, with their diet, with their life. Conversely, someone who is incredibly disciplined can keep it at bay, which, unknowingly, may have been what covered up Hausmann\u2019s affliction well into his 20s.<\/p>\n
But, as fall wore on, the injury, his obsession with helping in Uganda and the responsibility he felt as a captain to his teammates only mounted\u2014and his behavior changed.<\/p>\n
After a loss at USC on Oct. 11, he says, \u201cI dug a bigger hole.\u201d Known for being a stoic, strong, quiet leader, he was increasingly struggling to contain his emotions. After the game, he punched a hole through a whiteboard in the locker room, splitting open his pinkie finger. When the team returned to Ann Arbor, the Wolverines held a meeting, with Hausmann standing up and going into fight-or-flight mode with his teammates. He was blunt. He was honest. He was sharing what others wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The worst part: He didn\u2019t think his teammates heard him.<\/p>\n
Michigan started winning again, but things stayed bumpy. Five weeks after losing to USC, the team was in a rockfight with Northwestern at Wrigley Field. In the fourth quarter, Hausmann took on a block from Wildcat guard Evan Beerntsen, trying to get to running back Caleb Komolafe, and fractured his thumb. Komolafe scored, Hausmann came off the field for the two-point conversion, then returned later after being taped up.<\/p>\n
That wound up being the end of his college career.<\/p>\n
![\"Four](\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_0,h_0\/c_fill,w_16,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/voltaxMediaLibrary\/mmsport\/si\/01km360h0jvp8xx2zb70.png\" "\\"Four")
<\/p>\n
Ernest Hausmann and the rest of Michigan\u2019s captains before a game against Purdue. | Courtesy: University of Michigan Athletics<\/p>\n
By then, Hausmann was communicating his delusions of grandeur\u2014a symptom of bipolar disorder\u2014more frequently. A young man of deep faith, he told people he thought he had a greater calling, and that he was a sort of Second Coming.<\/p>\n
And the thumb injury became another piece of the puzzle. He refused treatment coming out of the Northwestern game, believing he had a \u201cgift\u201d to heal his body any way he wanted. He even asked a teammate to come to his apartment, trying to prove it by squeezing on a forearm gripper and saying, \u201cIf I really broke my thumb, do you think I could do this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Concern was raised with the athletic department, and the decision was made to conduct a wellness check on Hausmann on the night of Nov. 18, three days after the game at Wrigley and four days before a game at Maryland. A police officer and two social workers came to his apartment, and left, determining there was no acute safety issue. But, Hausmann says now, his paranoia was mounting.<\/p>\n
Later that night, he received a text saying he still needed to be cleared because of the thumb injury, something he thought was strange because the team doctor had already told him he could play with a cast. He went in the next morning anyway. A staffer led him down a hallway at Schembechler Hall and took a left where Hausmann knew the X-ray room was to the right. Waiting for him was Dr. Victor Hong, a psychiatrist at the University of Michigan and on the athletic department\u2019s mental health team.<\/p>\n
As they talked, Hausmann reiterated that he was capable of healing the thumb on his own. He said he planned not just to dig wells, but to fix the clean water issue across Africa, eradicate poverty in Uganda and even unite nations across the world. He added that he could see the gift he had in others, and couldn\u2019t trust nonbelievers. He was irritable, which he\u2019d never been before.<\/p>\n
And, Hausmann says now, \u201cThat\u2019s where my brain blocks off.\u201d He\u2019d texted head coach Sherrone Moore that his thumb was fine, and told him to show up to see if he believed him. Moore didn\u2019t show up, saying he had a meeting. Hausmann asked a team doctor for another X-ray and for his closest friend on the team, TJ Guy, to come and see it. He then told Guy he felt betrayed by his coaches, and was planning to take a break from football.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t cleared, and didn\u2019t make the trip to Maryland. Broken up over it, he sent the coaches a 30-second voice message to play for the team from him, as a captain, the night before the game. He tried to watch that Saturday, but couldn\u2019t. He caught the highlights afterward, with the 45\u201320 win setting up a showdown with archrival Ohio State for Nov. 29.<\/p>\n
Hausmann returned to the facility the Monday after the Maryland game, got X-rays and informed linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale that the game against the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes would be his last as a Wolverine.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a captain, I had never lost to Ohio State,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd being a leader for a game like this would be very crucial. So I said I\u2019d come back for this one last game, just for my team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But at practice, it was clear that his reps were cut and that other linebackers were being prepared to start. \u201cNow,\u201d he continues, \u201cI thought I had been betrayed again.\u201d Dr. Hong, who spoke for this story with Hausmann\u2019s permission, had already commenced meetings with Moore, assistant coach Biff Poggi (one of the few who\u2019d maintained Hausmann\u2019s trust), Jean-Mary and team doctors on whether they\u2019d clear him for the game.<\/p>\n
By Wednesday, they\u2019d decided not to clear him. But that night, Hausmann decided to leave the team on his own.<\/p>\n
![\"Hausmann](\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_0,h_0\/c_fill,w_16,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/voltaxMediaLibrary\/mmsport\/si\/01km366nd5k8jp4g6r42.png\" "\\"Hausmann")
<\/p>\n
After he left the team, Hausmann struggled to watch the games he didn\u2019t participate in. | Courtesy: Ernest Hausmann<\/p>\n
Bob and Teresa Hausmann rented a Vrbo in Ann Arbor for Thanksgiving weekend and, by then, they knew something was wrong. Ernest was only communicating through text. In telling them he wasn\u2019t coming over for Thanksgiving dinner, just down the street from his apartment, he asked his mom to respect his space and trust him.<\/p>\n
Dr. Hong, by law, couldn\u2019t yet talk to them. The football program hadn\u2019t told them anything.<\/p>\n
Ernest had told them that while he might not play, he spent the week helping the linebackers prepare. Since the Hausmanns received their tickets, Teresa assumed he was still with the team. But she had an intuition to go by his apartment before the game and, sure enough, just before kickoff, they saw his Audi parked there. Teresa threw an elbow into a glass door to break into the apartment and found Ernest inside.<\/p>\n
By then, he was overcome with his plans for Africa. He was talking a mile a minute.<\/p>\n
What Bob and Teresa didn\u2019t know was that Ernest tried to leave the day before for Uganda, to avoid the pain of being in town for The Game. He couldn\u2019t because he didn\u2019t have a visa, but was working on a way by getting his birth father to write a letter that he\u2019d use to get through the airports and customs. Teresa and Bob tried, for what Teresa estimated was two hours, to get him to reconsider. But he wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the worst feeling in the world,\u201d she says, \u201cgiving him a hug goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ernest had booked himself through Dulles and Ethiopia to get back to Uganda, putting only a laptop in his backpack\u2014a laptop he hoped to use to create a national database for his native land that would help curb all the corruption that he\u2019d witnessed. He Ubered to Detroit as the Buckeyes and Wolverines kicked off. He actively avoided finding out what happened in the game, to no avail.<\/p>\n
An ESPN alert came across his phone while he was on his first layover that said Ohio State had won, 27\u20139. Seeing that, he says now, \u201cwas one of the worst pains I\u2019ve felt. It was unbearable. Like, it wasn\u2019t until I came back to America that I even watched some of the highlights. I\u2019ve yet to watch the whole game from start to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
He arrived in Uganda on Monday and got picked up at the airport by a man he\u2019d met on one of the previous trips, who\u2019d take him the six hours to a refugee camp in the village of Sembabule to start his work. He arrived there the next day, where the man showed him around and brought him to meet with the camp\u2019s prime minister. He couldn\u2019t understand the language, but says, \u201cI can read body language.\u201d He then saw a woman in a shirt with a sentence printed across the front: Do you see us?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was everything I needed to know,\u201d he says. \u201cIt said that I can\u2019t stay here in Uganda forever if I want to do what I want to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After just three days in Africa, he headed back to the U.S.<\/p>\n
Upon his return to Ann Arbor, with nearly everyone in his life now cut out, the burden on Hausmann was only growing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a million pounds in my head,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought my whole process was just going crazy in my head in terms of the national database. Now it\u2019s to the point where I have a computer here, another computer. It\u2019s now tenfold. Now it\u2019s do you want to build the currency? Do you want to build the security system? All these thoughts were going through my head. Because I\u2019d quit the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just two minutes down the road, his teammates were preparing for their bowl game against Texas. And he was researching trying to create a currency, when he hit a roadblock that caused him to reconsider all of it\u2014and start looking into the military.<\/p>\n
Now deeper into his manic episode, impulsivity was kicking in. He saw a plane overhead and thought, \u201cIt\u2019d be very cool to fly.\u201d The quote from his Bane tattoo also happened to be derived from a scene where the villain threw his arrestors out of a military jet. So he went online and filled out an application for the Air National Guard. The response came asking if he wanted to start the process of enlisting. He said he did.<\/p>\n
He was to report to Klamath Falls, Ore., more than 2,000 miles from Ann Arbor. To prepare, he did something he\u2019d never done, sleeping through the day, waking up at 6 p.m. to start his drive at 7 p.m., with a plan to go straight through. He took only his bible and that laptop in his backpack. He left his license and credit cards behind. Twenty minutes into the drive, he threw his cell phone out the window, to be sure no one could reach him.<\/p>\n
During the drive, on Dec. 11 and into the 12th, he had only the radio, which is how he first heard the news that Moore was fired by Michigan<\/a>. He was pulled over in Wyoming, as the sun was coming up over the mountains, going well over 100 miles per hour, the first time he\u2019d ever been pulled over in his life. He told the officer where he was going and gave him his name, without his license on him, and the officer ticketed him and let him go.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fatigue was setting in as he followed his car\u2019s GPS. He chewed sunflower seeds, downed energy drinks and put his windows all the way down as tactics to keep himself awake.<\/p>\n Then, it all went dark, he felt the pain in his side, he climbed out of the sunroof around 8:30 PT on Dec. 12 and saw a man. Hausmann asked if he\u2019d hit someone, with the headlights of the police and EMTs showing. \u201cThere\u2019s no one out here,\u201d the man responded. The first responders approached the car. An EMT checked his vitals, and the sheriff offered him a ride to the Best Western after completing the report. Hausmann got there, and didn\u2019t have enough cash to check in\u2014he\u2019d brought enough only for gas and food. He went to a hotel next door. They wouldn\u2019t give him a room because he didn\u2019t have an ID.<\/p>\n Finally, at a third hotel, Hausmann pleaded with the manager, explaining that he was in an accident and was going to enlist, and the manager let him in. Soon after checking in, there was a knock on his door. It was the sheriff.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, I just looked you up, you had a great career,\u201d he said. \u201cAre you willing to voluntarily go to the hospital?\u201d<\/p>\n Hausmann agreed, with the hospital in walking distance. Bob and Teresa, meanwhile, had been notified of the accident by the deputy sheriff, and were already headed to Omaha, where they could take a flight to San Francisco, and then Medford, Ore., and then drive three hours to reach their son, whom they hadn\u2019t talked to since the day of the Ohio State game two weeks before.<\/p>\n Trips back to Uganda will continue to be an important part of Ernest Hausmann\u2019s future. | Courtesy: Ernest Hausmann<\/p>\n Hausmann didn\u2019t ask for, or want, his parents to come to the hospital. But they were there, and spent the night after Ernest was discharged in Oregon. Before he left the doctors, one asked if he wanted them to arrange a ride for him to get to Klamath Falls to follow through on enlisting. \u201cI don\u2019t know what it was,\u201d he says, \u201cbut all of a sudden, I just said no.\u201d<\/p>\n His plan was then to return to Ann Arbor, and finish his degree\u2014he was 18 credits short of graduation\u2014as a regular student, not an athlete. So his parents saw him off to the airport, before they returned to Nebraska, frightened for what was next. The next day, Teresa bared her soul in a heartfelt email to her son, telling him that he had her unconditional love.<\/p>\n \u201cIt kind of broke me a little bit,\u201d Ernest says, \u201cI felt like nobody was on my side.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n His response was a very cold thank you to Teresa and Bob for bringing him to America, and to his sisters, Molly and Emie, for being good siblings. Then, more or less, a goodbye to all of them. \u201cIt was horrible,\u201d Teresa says.<\/p>\n On Dec. 16, Dr. Hong was tipped off that Hausmann was spotted at a grocery store in Ann Arbor. Hong got on the phone with the Hausmanns, who told him of the accident, that he ended up in the emergency room and had been treated for injuries\u2014and that, fortunately, he was not seriously hurt in any way. But it was time, as Hong saw it, to go further. \u201cGod bless Dr. Hong,\u201d Teresa continues. \u201cHe saved my son\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n The next day, Dr. Hong went to the Washtenaw County Courthouse in Ann Arbor to petition the court to initiate the process of running an involuntary mental health check, making the case to the judge that Hausmann was a danger to himself or others. The judge agreed, and a team of police and mental health professionals were on the scene at Hausmann\u2019s apartment, again, that afternoon.<\/p>\n This time, they took him in as the first step of the involuntary mental health check. The second step, as prescribed by the state of Michigan, was to have a doctor assess and see if they agreed with the petitioner. In this case, the doctor did. At that point, Hong was concerned that Hausmann would continue on the path of thinking he was O.K., not accept treatment and wind up stuck in the hospital for an extended period of time.<\/p>\n \u201cSurprisingly, within two days, he realized he needed help,\u201d Hong says.<\/p>\n Hausmann went on a mood stabilizer. He quickly started to realize the error of his ways and the relationships he severed. He apologized to Hong, then to his parents. Teresa remembers one conversation in particular.<\/p>\n \u201cMom, can we talk?\u201d Ernest asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to talk,\u201d she responded. \u201cBut can we agree that you\u2019ll be an adult about this?\u201d<\/p>\n He agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you remember the email I sent you?\u201d she asked. \u201cYou said you don\u2019t want contact with me. Is that still true?\u201d<\/p>\n Ernest said yes. Teresa then, through tears, responded, \u201cErnest Hausmann, I will not be bitter \u2026\u201d He stopped her, and added, \u201cI don\u2019t mean forever.\u201d<\/p>\n That was on Hausmann\u2019s seventh day in the hospital. He was released a week later.<\/p>\n A moment Ernest Hausmann had with teammates in Wrigley Field stands out as memorable. | Courtesy: University of Michigan Athletics<\/p>\n Hausmann got out on New Year\u2019s Eve, and was in an Uber to the Detroit airport later that day to fly home to Nebraska. He was watching the Wolverines\u2019 bowl game against Texas on his phone and the emotion became too much. Those were his teammates. That was the group he was supposed to captain. This was his year. He shut it off.<\/p>\n Four days later, he announced on Facebook that he was medically retiring from football and would stay in school to complete his degree.<\/p>\n The spring semester started and he was enrolled in upper-level writing classes that required a lot of reading. He was staying on top of it, and sticking to his schedule, and then one day at the Fishbowl, a computer lab on campus, it hit him that he had to see his NFL dream through. He missed football badly. He sent a couple of texts. Then, he called his parents and asked, \u201cIs my wanting to go back to football all of a sudden part of being bipolar?\u201d<\/p>\n The first person to support his newfound desire to play was, indeed, Teresa. She said she knew him, and the sacrifices he\u2019d made for football, and that, going with what was in his heart, he\u2019d make the right decision.<\/p>\n \u201cThat meant so much to me because at the time I had guard up,\u201d he says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t really sure about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Ernest then texted his Ann Arbor\u2013based financial advisor, Jared Kohlenberg, to get a number for Mike McCartney, the agent he\u2019d fired on Thanksgiving Day. McCartney jumped right in on mapping things out\u2014and Hausmann was on a plane to San Diego that Friday to start his training for the draft.<\/p>\n In the process, McCartney advised Hausmann to turn down an invitation to the NFL combine, because teams would ask the obvious questions in the interviews, and this was far too complex a story to pack into 15-minute sessions, with the risk that word of his condition would leak out.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the number of people who knew was kept to a small circle. Partridge, his linebackers coach, and Guy, his closest teammate, were among the few connected to Michigan who knew. His linebackers coach from Nebraska, Barrett Ruud, did, too. His training group of fewer than 10 prospects\u2014including three guys on the other side of the rivalry with Ohio State: Sonny Styles, Lorenzo Styles Jr. and Davison Igbinosun\u2014was looped in. But otherwise, information was intentionally sparse on his whereabouts as he worked toward Friday\u2019s pro day.<\/p>\n As for where this all goes now, his intention is to do a whole lot more than just make the pros, with the story of his broken-road journey to a dream he\u2019s had since he was 8.<\/p>\n Ernest Hausmann has stayed on track while training for the NFL draft. | Spot1ight Visuals<\/p>\n Maybe most remarkable about where Hausmann is now is that he\u2019s made it back to this point without so much as a hiccup since January.<\/p>\n This is where football comes in. Again, sticking to a schedule\u2014and being diligent about sleep, diet and routine\u2014is vital for those dealing with bipolar disorder. And Hausmann has been as good at keeping his schedule as he is at playing linebacker, now fully trusting those around him to help.<\/p>\n He wakes up at 7 every morning and takes his medication. Since high school, he\u2019s been strict about nutrition, so adapting back to that was never going to be a problem. \u201cHe\u2019s always put that on himself,\u201d Teresa says. \u201cWe\u2019d say to him, Don\u2019t you want some Skittles? Nope.\u201d He takes his melatonin at 9 p.m. and is asleep by 10. He\u2019s back, in many ways, in his element, before the dueling obsessions of football and fixing Uganda conspired to derail him.<\/p>\n And that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s given up on his nonfootball aspirations. He still wants to help in Uganda. The house for his family is nearing completion. He also has a new mission to do all he can for people who are battling mental health issues and don\u2019t know where to go\u2014which reveals something about him that actually never changed, as bad as things got.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people have their first manic episode, they are often occupied with picking up the pieces afterwards. That\u2019s not Ernest,\u201d Dr. Hong says. \u201cHe almost immediately started thinking about how he could use his platform to inspire others to seek care.\u201d<\/p>\n The other rare thing, Hong adds, \u201cis his capability to own that he has this illness. A lot of people fight it for years. It took him two or three days in the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n The plan is to continue work through his foundation to create wells that bring clean water to Ugandan villages like the ones he visited, and help where he can in making people aware of what he went through, in hopes that others who have bipolar disorder can flag it earlier.<\/p>\n For now, though, Hausmann is back to dreaming about playing pro football, closer than ever to the NFL, and ready to answer anything teams have to ask him. He\u2019ll have dinner with the Eagles on Thursday night in Ann Arbor, and be in on a whiteboard session with the Patriots and fellow Michigan linebacker prospect Jimmy Rolder after that.<\/p>\n But what he really can\u2019t wait for is what\u2019ll come after he finds his next team. Especially since there\u2019s no one way he could\u2019ve seen what was coming after the last time he strapped on his pads, four months ago at Wrigley.<\/p>\n \u201cI would never imagine,\u201d he says, with a smile. \u201cI remember I have a picture, still have it, from that day and it\u2019s just me talking with the DBs in pregame warmups. It\u2019s just me smiling. And just knowing how much the team means to me, that\u2019s one thing about Michigan I love\u2014it\u2019s the team, the team, the team<\/a>. That\u2019s everything to me, the players, the whole organization. Because that\u2019s what it takes to win football games.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not about one individual person, it\u2019s everybody in the organization. That\u2019s who an NFL team is gonna be getting, someone that cares about the whole organization. Because it\u2019s more than just a game. It\u2019s always been more than just a game.\u201d<\/p>\n After the last year, Hausmann can truly say the game was his salvation. And he hopes that, through it, he can help others find that faint light at the end of the tunnel that he saw from those police cars in Oregon, and deliver them the same kind of salvation that he found.<\/p>\n![\"Ernest](\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_0,h_0\/c_fill,w_16,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/voltaxMediaLibrary\/mmsport\/si\/01km3758jntkqx098q6w.jpg\" "\\"Ernest")
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