49ers WR Ricky Pearsall sends powerful message to teen who shot him in chest

This past August, San Francisco 49ers receiver Ricky Pearsall suffered a gunshot wound to the chest in an attempted arm robbery.

Pearsall, who made his NFL debut 50 days after being shot, reflected on the incident while speaking with the media on Monday. Pearsall sent a powerful message to the 17-year-old boy who shot him, saying he would be open to talking with him at some point.

Ricky Pearsall goes in-depth about being shot, and would like to forgive and talk to the kid who shot him during an attempted robbery.

"I don't how how he grew up so, I can't judge him as a man just based off one action that he made. As violent as a crime as it was, god forbid… pic.twitter.com/1ycoUYha88

— KNBR (@KNBR) January 6, 2025

“I don’t how he grew up so, I can’t judge him as a man just based off one action that he made,” Pearsall said, via KNBR. “As violent as a crime as it was, God forbid him doing that to somebody else. I don’t ever want that to happen so… just being able to forgive him at the end of the day like, I have to be able to forgive him to have that weight off my chest.

“At some point I do want to talk to the kid and make sure that, if I can create an impact on him in any way, I think that would be really big. I’d be definitely open to doing that.”

Ricky Pearsall assesses rookie season

Pearsall, San Francisco’s first round selection (31st overall) out of Florida, wasted no time in making an impact once he got into the lineup. The 24-year-old appeared in 11 games, hauling in 31 receptions for 400 yards and three touchdowns. Pearsall was the 49ers’ leading receiver in the final two games of the season, registering a career-high 141 yards in Week 17 against the Detroit Lions and 69 yards in the season finale versus the Arizona Cardinals.

Pearsall said his rookie campaign was full of “highs and lows.”

“There were a lot of highs and lows and a lot of things that I have to learn from,” Pearsall said last week, via Grant Cohn of Sports Illustrated. “That’s just the player I am though. I receive those coaching points on the things I didn’t do as good of a job on and go out there and fix those things. When I got drafted, I told Mr. Lynch that I’m a workhorse. I’m always going to work on my craft and get better and be myself.”