Report: Alabama OL Elijah Pritchett arrested for knowingly transmitting STD

Alabama Crimson Tide offensive lineman Elijah Pritchett has reportedly been arrested for knowingly transmitting an STD, per AL.com.

A report was filed against Pritchett on December 13th, leading to the warrant for his arrest on Wednesday night. He was later released on a $500 bond. It’s a class C misdemeanor charge in the state of Alabama.

“Any person afflicted with a sexually transmitted disease who shall knowingly transmit, or assume the risk of transmitting, or do any act which will probably or likely transmit such disease to another person,” AL Code § 22-11A-21 reads.

A redshirt freshman, Elijah Pritchett was a four-star recruit in the Class of 2022, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. He was the 34th-ranked player nationally and the fourth-ranked offensive tackle in that class.

Pritchett has played in every single regular game this season for Alabama, splitting time with freshman Kadyn Proctor. Proctor and Pritchett were in a competition for the starting position before the season began and it bled into the regular season. By SEC play, Proctor was the Tide’s primarily tackle and Pritchett ultimately played only special teams in the SEC Championship Game.

On December 15th, Elijah Pritchett announced his intention to enter the transfer portal, before deciding against entering the portal the next day.

Alabama is currently preparing for a College Football Playoff semifinal game against Michigan.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban opens up on how early signing period has changed recruiting

The way coaches and programs need to recruit has completely changed thanks to the early signing period, as Alabama head coach Nick Saban explained.

“Our focus right now is on the game, aight? We’re trying to get ready for a game. I know we’ve got to recruit, and we’re trying to recruit and there’s a lot of stuff, there’s a lot of guys in the portal. There’s still some players out there that we’re recruiting that we think are outstanding players. We’re trying to do the best that we can in every regard from coaching our players standpoint to trying to get quality players to come here,” Saban said.

“But the whole recruiting process, when we had the early signing date years ago, we said this would be come the signing date. Well, it also just moved the recruiting calendar up, like, six months, aight? So players visit in the summer time. That’s when most guys visit. We used to have tons of guys visit in January. We’ll have very few guys visiting in January. The whole thing is kind of pushed forward. I don’t know how to answer. There’s just a lot of things happening right now, aight, that kind of take our time and focus and attention — the game’s important, recruiting’s important our team’s important. We’re trying to manage our time the best that we can to do a good job in all those areas so that we can finish.”