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Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff Writer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Just 44 days after he was shot in the chest in downtown San Francisco, 49ers receiver Ricky Pearsall returned to practice Monday.
On the heels of their Thursday night win over the Seattle Seahawks and the ensuing “mini bye” that came with it over the weekend, the Niners held a bonus practice Monday afternoon.
Any notion that the session would lack for energy coming off some downtime quickly went away as Pearsall excitedly trotted to the field, danced during stretching and was encouraged by tight end George Kittle to jump into the middle of the team huddle before drills began.
“It meant everything,” said Jacob Cowing, a fellow rookie wideout. “All the adversity that’s kind of been thrown at him in the past few months and just for him to overcome everything and for him to fight and to grind to get back into football shape … it was just a great feeling for everybody to see him put that helmet back on, put that jersey back on and for him to go out there and be part of the team.”
On Friday, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan announced that the team planned to open Pearsall’s 21-day practice window as he comes back from the reserve/non-football injury list. The team made that move official just before 1:30 p.m. PT on Monday, enabling Pearsall to take part in his first practice since Aug. 29.
It’s the next important step in a series of boxes Pearsall will have to check before he is able to play in his first NFL regular-season game. The 49ers have three weeks to activate Pearsall to play, at which point they will need to make a corresponding roster move if they activate him or, if they don’t, he will revert to NFI for the rest of the season.
Shanahan said Friday that while he suspected Pearsall would need a little bit of a longer ramp up before he can be activated to the roster, he didn’t want to make any judgments until he saw him practice. The Niners will have three more workouts this week, three next week and then their bye.
That Pearsall has even reached this point continues to amaze his teammates and coaches. Pearsall was shot in the chest after a 17-year-old high school senior from nearby Tracy, California, attempted to rob him, resulting in a struggle between the two, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The bullet exited Pearsall’s back and missed vital organs, allowing for a speedy recovery that Niners general manager John Lynch has called “really, really miraculous.”
San Francisco placed Pearsall on the non-football injury list Sept. 2, promising not to rush him back so he could make a full recovery. Since then, Pearsall has been around the facility and attending meetings while continuing to work out.
“It was definitely a surreal feeling when news broke out about it,” rookie safety Malik Mustapha said Monday. “It all just hit us hard because that could have been any of us … definitely eye-opening, for sure. Thank God that he’s OK and now he’s able to play the game he loves.”
The 49ers used the No. 31 draft pick on Pearsall in April. He spent five seasons in college, including three at Arizona State and two at Florida. Before the shooting, he’d been slowed in training camp by injuries, a hamstring issue that cost him the first four days and then a left shoulder subluxation that kept him out for nearly another three weeks.
Pearsall’s return provided a boost Monday, according to teammates, but that will only increase when he’s actually back on the field. Cowing said observing Pearsall’s journey back to the practice field has given him a focused perspective on life.
“Life’s too short,” Cowing said. “You never know when your time’s done here on this planet. I think it was a big, huge eye-opener for me to just continue to reach out to family and friends. You never know when your life is done, so just cherish each and every moment.”