49ers' Ricky Pearsall makes NFL debut 50 days after being shot - ESPN

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Lying in a hospital bed in the 24 hours after he'd been shot through the chest in an armed robbery attempt, Ricky Pearsall had two questions for anyone who entered his orbit: Am I going to live and, if so, am I going to be able to play football again?

The answer to the first question came quickly, with doctors assuring Pearsall that though his injury was significant, he was going to survive. The answer to the second required multiple tests and a long, difficult night.

And though doctors informed Pearsall on the morning of Sept. 1, that, yes, playing receiver for the San Francisco 49ers could still be in his future, the real answer came Sunday, when he tugged his red No. 14 jersey over his shoulder pads and played in his first NFL regular-season game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

It was a moment 50 days in the making.

«It meant everything,» said Pearsall, speaking publicly for the first time since the shooting. «Obviously, all the adversity I just went through these past months, it was really good to go out there with my guys again.… At the end of the day when the incident first happened, the first thing I was thinking about was the guys and the coaches in this locker room, the entire staff, and they did a really good job of rallying around me, making sure I stayed up, and it was a huge blessing for me.»

Pearsall's road back to the football field might have been shorter than anyone with the Niners expected initially, but it also wasn't wholly unexpected given how quickly his recovery had gone at every step of the process.

On Aug. 31, Pearsall was shopping in the Union Square area of downtown San Francisco when, according to police reports, a 17-year-old male from nearby Tracy, California, attempted