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A year after being shot, Ethan Pritchard walks out with FSU football
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- A year after being shot, Ethan Pritchard walks out with FSU football
Florida State linebacker Ethan Pritchard walked out of the tunnel for the first time in nearly a year on Saturday, Aug. 29.
Pritchard, who survived a gunshot wound to the head last summer, was wearing his No. 35 jersey as he entered the field for the Seminoles' Week 0 game against New Mexico State . He was shown on the ACC Network broadcast cracking a smile as he walked with a cane.
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Pritchard was shot on Aug. 31, 2025 , and spent weeks recovering — including time in the intensive care unit under "critical but stable" conditions — before being released from the hospital in October 2025. He was shot while driving his aunt home from a family gathering in Havana, Florida.
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Pritchard had been planning to walk out of the tunnel with his team at some point in the future, he told Tallahassee Democrat , part of the USA TODAY Network.
"I don't want to put no specific time standpoint, but I will tell you that I'm going to walk out there on the field, come first game," Pritchard said in June. "I feel like I already beat the hard part. I beat death. This is just getting my body back."
The former 3-star recruit from Sanford, Florida, joined Florida State ahead of the 2025 season, although he has yet to appear in a game due to the injury. Pritchard is still focused on a potential return to football one day, though.
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"I will be back," Pritchard told reporters Aug. 28.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A year after being shot, Ethan Pritchard walks out with FSU football
