MJ Flaum: From Guard to Gavel
MJ Flaum grew up in the small town of Westminster, Colorado. From an early age, MJ loved sports, but it wasn’t until high school that he started playing his favorite one. During his freshman year at Northglenn High School, Flaum started playing football and immediately took to it. Before long, he was starting as an offensive tackle. In his sophomore and junior years, schools around the country began to make offers to Flaum, but he chose to stay home and committed to Colorado. However, Colorado football coach Rick Neuheisel would accept the head coaching job at the University of Washington. After hearing about this, Flaum would reopen his commitment, and that’s when Nebraska entered the picture. Flaum took an official visit to Nebraska, saw everything they had to offer, and instantly knew he wanted to be a Cornhusker. Nebraska didn’t just offer things that would lead to success on the field but also off the field. Flaum liked the newly formed life skills department, which would help make sure players could not only handle the demands and challenges of life but dominate them. Nebraska checked every box Flaum had, so on February 7, 2000, he signed his National Letter of Intent and was officially a Cornhusker.
MJ Flaum arrived on campus in June and would join the team in summer conditioning. While participating in summer conditioning, Flaum would aggravate his left shoulder but didn’t think it was anything to be concerned about. So, he continued practicing like normal and finished the last couple of weeks of conditioning. After summer conditioning, MJ would move fully into the dorms and prepare for fall camp. Before camp, MJ would get his pre-camp physical and expected to pass without issues. However, the medical staff found his shoulder severely damaged; it was so bad that Flaum would undergo reconstruction surgery to repair that shoulder. After his surgery, Coach Solich visited Flaum at the hospital. Solich would make it clear that Flaum was a part of the Nebraska family, and his commitment to him was unwavering. Solich also told Flaum that his availability, when it came to football, wouldn’t affect his commitment to him, and he would be at Nebraska until he earned a degree. 
Flaum would be sidelined for nearly a year before he was cleared to play again. When he returned for the 2001 season, it was mainly on the scout team and the occasional play on the 3rd string. Nebraska would finish the regular season 11-1, earning them a trip to the Rose Bowl to face Miami. During the practices before the Rose Bowl, Flaum would start to gain his confidence again and feel like his old self. Nebraska would go on to lose against Miami, so Flaum’s focus moved to spring camp.
Flaum came into spring camp excited and feeling great. During the first two weeks, MJ showed up and performed at a high level daily. In the third week of spring camp, tragedy would strike again. Flaum injured his right shoulder, which would need to be fully reconstructed. He would be out again for nearly a year while he recovered and did rehab on that repaired shoulder. After 12 months of intense rehab, Flaum was finally cleared to return to football just in time for winter conditioning. However, Flaum would, once again, severely damage his left shoulder. This time, he had to go and have an even more intense reconstruction surgery. After surgery, MJ was told by his doctors that his time as a football player was over. Flaum was heartbroken; he didn’t know what to do. Frank Solich and Ron Brown remained by his side and asked Flaum if he would like to remain on the team as an undergrad assistant coach, MJ gladly accepted the position. So in 2003, Flaum spent the entire year helping out where he could. He often was tasked with helping the scout team run smoothly, something he really enjoyed doing. Nebraska would go on to a 10-3 record after beating Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl. After the season was over, Flaum would graduate from UNL and move back home to Colorado.
Once Flaum got back to Colorado he coached high school football for a year while he decided on what he wanted to do going forward. Flaum wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay in coaching, go into sales, or go back to school for his masters or earn a law degree. After a lot of thought and research, Flaum decided to go and earn a law degree. While Flaum could have gotten into basically any school he wanted, he missed being in Nebraksa, so he enrolled at Creighton University. Many lawyers will tell you that law school was the worst decision they ever made, MJ would say the opposite. He absolutely loved the topics his classes went over, the experience he gained and the new friends he made. In 2009, he graduated from Creighton University and began sending out applications to become as a district attorney or a public defender, either in Omaha or back in the Denver metro area. Flaum would accept a job back in Colorado as a Deputy Disctrict Attorney in Adams County. He would work a lot of county court cases, often working over 40 trials a year. MJ would stay in this role until 2016. He would then move over to the district court felon docket, where he would try felonies. Soon after this, Flaum applied to become a judge, and after numerous interviews and all kinds of paperwork, Flaum would be appointed by the Colorado governenor to become a judge in Janurary 2017 and still holds this position today. MJ Flaum loves his job and the impact he is able to have on his community and has no plans to seek a different court in the future.
Today, when Flaum isn’t in the courthouse, you can find him raising his daughters. He enjoys coaching their soccer and basketball teams and spending time together as a family. When Flaum is able to get some free time, he really loves to golf or go to the mountains and enjoy nature. MJ Flaum’s story is one of overcoming major setbacks and that even with bad shoulders you can still carry yourself to a life full of purpose and make a major impact in the community around you.
