With Candlestick Park’s days being numbered, many players are sharing their favorite memories of their time in the stadium. For Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez, his came in 2000 when he was pushed out of bounds on a late hit and ran right over a sideline photographer, Mickey Pfleger.

That hit, from what Gonzalez told reporters (via CSNBayArea.com), ended up saving Pfleger’s life.

The hit, Gonzalez said, knocked Pfleger unconscious. Though he was concerned, he had to go back to the huddle as the photographer went to the hospital in an ambulance.

From CSN Bay Area:

“Then, I hear after the game that he’s going to be OK. He’s in the hospital. They’re just running some tests on him. He’ll be OK. So I was happy about that. Then, a couple days later – three, four days later – they come talk to me. ‘Hey, you know what happened to that guy? It turns out, they did a brain scan to make sure he was OK, and they found a tumor in his brain. They never would’ve found this tumor if you hadn’t hit him.'”

Pfleger later reflected on the incident in a 2001 essay on Sportsshooter.com titled “The event that changed my life”.

From the essay:

But I did find out that I had a brain tumor and I really believe that things happen for a reason. I was supposed to be knocked out by Tony Gonzalez at the football game. I was supposed to go into a seizure while I was unconscious, so that Dr. Klint of the 49ers would tell the paramedics to tell the emergency room doctors to do a CT brain scan on me. I was supposed to be taken to San Francisco General Hospital and land in the hands of Dr. Martin Holland, an incredibly talented neurosurgeon. I was never supposed to get hurt from the “hit” by Tony Gonzalez. I couldn’t find any bruises on my body the day after being hit full force by Tony, a 249-pound tight end in full football pads. I didn’t even have a headache the next day, even though I suffered a concussion and seizure and was unconscious for two minutes. And, none of my camera equipment was damaged in any way, even though my cameras went flying in three different directions.

Pfleger died in 2010 at the age of 61.