“No better way to start 2026 than having Ethan Pritchard lead us out last night,” the Seminoles wrote on social media
Credit: Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Ethan Pritchard led the FSU football team onto the field, nearly one year after he survived being shot in the head
- In videos shared to social media, the athlete can be seen walking out to a cheering crowd with a black cane in his hand
- Pritchard was in the intensive care unit after suffering a gunshot wound while visiting family on Aug. 31, 2025
Ethan Pritchard, a linebacker on the Florida State University football team, walked out with his Seminoles teammates nearly a year after being shot in the head.
On Saturday, Aug. 29, Pritchard, 19, led his team out of the tunnel and onto the field ahead of their opening game against the New Mexico State Aggies. The Seminoles went on to win, 34-17.
“No better way to start 2026 than having Ethan Pritchard lead us out last night,” the Seminoles wrote alongside a video clip of the athlete slowly walking out with a cane in his hand as the crowd went wild.
Nearly a year ago, FSU Football announced that Pritchard was in the intensive care unit after suffering a gunshot wound while visiting family in Havana, Fla., on Aug, 31, 2025. At the time, he was in critical condition.
“The Pritchard family is thankful for the support from so many people, as well as the care from first responders and medical professionals, and asks that their privacy be respected at this time,” the football team wrote in a statement.
The Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office found Pritchard shot inside a vehicle, local news station WCTV reported at the time. Officers were then “able to get him out of the vehicle” before EMS arrived and transported him to a hospital.
Months before he returned to the field, Pritchard told the Tallahassee Democrat that he was making it his goal to walk onto Doak Campbell Stadium’s field for the team’s opening game.
“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,” he said in June. “I feel like I already beat the hard part. I beat death. This is just getting my body back.”
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More recently, Pritchard shared a glimpse into what it was like to have to learn how to perform everyday tasks — including talking and eating — all over again throughout his recovery.
“People might think this is funny, but I had to learn how to sneeze again because I really didn’t know how to sneeze,” he told Spectrum News 13. “Other than that, I started moving my hands and I started moving my legs.”
Credit: Don Juan Moore/Getty
“I will be back,” he added, making it clear that he hopes to return to football one day. “I am feeling great, better than ever, better than I did before I got shot.”
His dad, Earl, when asked if he ever thought he would see his son get to this point, told the outlet, “Knowing my kid, with the drive he got, yeah. He’s a go-getter.”
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