Everybody. I just you know, by the grace of God, Ricky Pearsall's here with the team and doing really well, and just wanted to address that situation from a team perspective. We just all feel incredibly blessed, you know, was able to be down at the hospital. And if I heard it from one person, I heard it from so many down there. There's nothing short of miraculous that he came out of this as good as he did, you know, on behalf of Ricky and his family. I talk with
Ricky this morning. He just wants to express and the team wants to express our gratitude to a variety of people. Number One, the San Francisco Police Department. They were incredible in their response. They were incredible at the hospital. You know, I want to in particular, recognized Joel Herel. I've met Joel. I met her husband, Frank, who happened to be in charge of everything at the hospital at San Francisco General.
But his wife was the first on the scene. And I think we've all seen the measures she went to to to make Ricky comfortable and and she was. She was there for him in a real rough time, and I know how appreciative Ricky is of that. We're appreciative
to the entire police department. They just were tremendous, from the police Chief Bill Scott on down the folks at San Francisco General, the care that they gave Ricky and his family, the respect, the way they handled things was just was was unbelievable and we're we're eternally grateful for that. I want to I want to shout out our staff.
Austin Moss was was the first that heard of this, our our senior director of player Affairs and Engagement, and Austin was just tremendous in his handling and helped identify where Ricky was. And you know, from Austin to and Little, our our head trainer, to our doctors, Tim McAdams, Nino, our Corey and his staff, everyone just pulled together when
we needed to be together. The best description I've ever heard to what the Niner culture is all about is Steve Young talking about one time Ronnie Lot came up to him early in his career and said, hey, I got You're back, and we had Ricky's back. And I'm real proud of our team with the way they've responded. I you know, I wanted to touch on you know, at at at the time of all this going on,
we had a team party that was scheduled. When I got to the hospital and visited with Ricky, is one of the first things he said, mister Lynch, what's going on. You know, I would really like everyone to go to that party, and I'd also like to talk to some of my teammates. I said, Ricky, you take care of yourself, but you know, kind of a cool moment. Were able to pipe Ricky into the party and he FaceTime the entire group, and that show of love and respect was
was a real special moment for our team. I uh, you know, before I take a couple questions, yeah, first of all, that we did put Ricky on n FI non football injury. It's it's similar to PUP, but it just happened away from the field, so we had to
we had to act quickly with that decision. I wish, I wish we had some more time to make it, but ultimately we felt the number one thing we had to be concerned with was Ricky's well being physically, emotionally, mentally, and ultimately decided that the best thing for Ricky was to have a little bit of time, and he's going to need that time physically, he's going to need that time emotionally mentally. And we made that decision, and uh, you know, when we drafted Ricky, we did it for
the long term. And Ricky's going to be a fantastic player here. He's eager. He was he was disappointed, but understood that we that we put him on on that list and and what that entails, it's it's four weeks at least, and you know, we're we're just going to take this as it comes. His Ricky's parents are are are so grateful. They were incredible. They got up here real quick from the Arizona area. Rick and Aaron, his girlfriend was tremendous. It just, uh, you know, there's a
lot of questions. There is an active police investigation going on, so please be respectful of I. You know, I'm not going to get into all the details. And and then finally, I, you know, the only thing I'd like to say, we're real proud to be part of this community. We live in a special place. What this makes me recognize, what this should make us all recognized, We we all can be better, We all need to be better to each other and uh, hopefully this this makes everyone step back
and pau and like I said, it's miraculous. The kid's doing as well as he is. He's in good spirits and we're just gonna we're gonna put our support and love behind Ricky and work through this. And and you know, with that being said, it is a it is a game week, but this really makes you stop and reflect on how precious life is. And he's a very fortunate young man and we're just we're we're so grateful for so many people that allowed the outcome to be as
good as it could possibly be. So with that, I'll take some questions.
Can you just how Ricky is physically right now?
And are you confident you know, you're setting is probably maybe a premature question, but are you confident that he can make a contribution and get on the field this season? Oh? Yeah, yeah, he's doing remarkably well. You know he Uh, it's un chartered territory. It's not every day deal with something like this. But we just felt ultimately, probably if it was just this scenario, he hadn't had the other shoulder and all that, it was just a lot for him to work through.
If you just were looking at it physically. I thought too much to ask, and I relied on our medical experts. They felt too much to ask to come back within the next four weeks. But so we made that decision to at least give him that time. And but he's doing remarkable. He's so much better today than he was yesterday. Really really miraculous. Didn't touch organs. Did it feels like all the nerve stuff is good. I mean, it's it's pretty pretty remarkable.
Did they pull it, strike a rib or what kind of damage did it do?
No, it didn't. It was through and through and through is kind of how they describe it. And you know, like I said, multiple people down there said, this is about as good as outcome as you could have in this situation. So monitor or tell players what to do at all times. But does this make you rethink or readjust things you tell players about their personal security. We're always concerned about that. Tim Uh. You know, the young man had done an autograph signing and was down buying
some luggage. That's what he was doing. He was buying some luggage for our road trips. We had some time off this weekend because of the kind of the bye week before the season that that now is and so we should we should all be able to do that. And so we always are talking to our guys about being safe and being aware. And Ricky was tremendous the poise he showed during the during the ordeal. But yeah, I worry about my own kids. I feel like our
players are like kids. We're all family, and so yeah, you do worry, But uh, I think we all got to live life too, and and just we should be able to do that and not be concerned with those things. Should have a plan to help him through any PTSD that he made potentially experience them. Yeah, of course, of course we do, and we're gonna you know, we have tremendous resources with that, and you know that's that's all
gonna we'll certainly, we we have made it available. I think Ricky embraces that and that's gonna be on his call. But will help them through this in every way. Is there an injury that needs a like a rehab of any sort or is it just a matter of kind of a healing, kind of healing healing of of of the wound. And obviously when something like that happens, there is some level of trauma.
So, yeah, Car, didn't you well be at the game one day?
I hope, So, I hope. So, you know, we'll stay tuned. I think there will be some cool stuff, tragic situation just from afar. Have you been able to kind of look at what kind of impact the whole thing has had on the group team? Sobering? Uh? It was, It was very sober. And you know, you never love to to to get any call with regards to your players where they're in danger apparel and and man, their earliest
calls that I received were were extremely scary. Ah. You know, we we believe Ricky's been shot in the chest and that outcome is not usually a good one. So it was a tough, tough Saturday. It was a tough ride down to uh San Francisco General and uh just so so grateful that uh everything worked out the way it did.
Nice, have you given Ricky? Being that it's been s a whirl win of a year. You go from the draft, coming into preseason injured, you practice a little, you're injured again. You come back or at least you're working your way back, but then something like this social manic happens. What have you been able to kind of mentor him or say to him in the time you've talked to him to kind of keep his mind a day.
Yeah, I you know, I think some of his earliest concerns is when he could play. Uh, he's asking me, he's asking this, I don't know you know this. Uh, but the surgeon was there and and helping him through those type of thoughts. But you know, Ricky takes a lot of pride in being available and uh, you know, one continues to point out that, I promise you I'm not I'm not injury prone, Ricky. This is not being injury prone, like something out of your control happened. And
Ricky's gonna be great. He's gonna be a fantastic player that the times we've seen him out on the play, he's exactly what we envisioned and more and can't wait to see that take place in due time. But we first and foremost, we're gonna make sure that he's all good and ready to go, you know, you know, more than ready by the time we bring him back. Yeah, thank you, guys, appreciate it.