MINNEAPOLIS _ A car drives past Tyler Johnson as he stands outside the North Community High School football field on a sunny summer afternoon. A man leans out the passenger side window and shouts, "Northside for life!"
Johnson raises his hand, gives a nod of acknowledgment, before focusing back on the memories. Of walking three blocks from the high school to the field after school, pads in hand. Of then crossing the street a couple hours later for post-practice chicken wings and cheese fries at a "legendary" local favorite. Or of leading a team that won just twice his freshman year to the state championship game as a senior.
These recollections aren't just Johnson's personal history. It's part of the fabric of his community. When Johnson earned a scholarship to play for the Gophers, north Minneapolis traveled the five miles to campus with him. Minneapolis is literally inked in black cursive across his chest, along with the downtown skyline.
And yet, north Minneapolis _ wedged between highways and a regional park north of downtown _ is often misunderstood as an area known mostly for gun violence and poverty, according to Northsiders.
"It's definitely not what people think it is," Johnson said. "When people hear 'north Minneapolis,' they just think all the negative things, like dangerous things."
What people from outside the community don't see is how neighbors sit outside their houses on lawn chairs, playing soul music from car stereos and chatting with each other. How every July 4th, the block with Johnson's late grandmother's house shuts down for a big party, including fireworks and her still-famous mac and cheese. How the community comes together to support one of its favorite sons.
Now in his senior year as a star receiver for the Gophers, Johnson has one season left before likely embarking on an NFL career that could take him the farthest he's ever been from the community he loves. But north Minneapolis and Johnson are so interwoven, those threads might stretch taut, but they won't snap.
"Representing my city is something that means a lot to me," Johnson said. "I want to do whatever it is that I can just to let people know, just to let my city know, that I care for it so much."
