KNBR:
Ricky Pearsall he’s making 2025 the year of forgiveness … saying he wants to forgive the teenager who shot him in a botched armed robbery in San Francisco and wouldn’t mind talking to the shooter.
The 49ers rookie opened his whirlwind rookie season on cleanup day at the team facility after his team missed the postseason, and as awful as it got. attempted burglary in August was that the 23-year-old WR makes no judgments about the teenager’s character.
“I don’t know how he grew up,” Pearsall said. “I can’t judge him as a man based on what he did. As violent a crime as it was, God forbid he do it to someone else.”
Sure enough, Pearsall, who was signing autographs, was shot in Union Square by a teenager who tried to steal his Rolex watch, luckily missing all vital organs.
SF District Attorney charged the shooter with attempted murder, second-degree attempted robbery and assault with a semi-automatic firearm.
While he waits for his case, Pearsall hopes to one day talk to the 17-year-old … trying to make a positive impact.
“I have to be able to forgive him to get that weight off my chest,” Pearsall said. “At some point, I want to talk to the kid and make sure that if I can have an impact on him in any way, I think it’s going to be really big.”
X/@espn:
Although that meeting has not yet taken place, Pearsall has reunited with some of the first responders who rushed to the scene to save him … when he hosted the group at the Niners-Jets Monday Night Football game in September.
