The Houston Texans become the first NFL team of 2024 to have all their players reporting for training camp on Wednesday, and wide receiver Tank Dell is ready to go.
When Dell got shot in the leg this offseason, he immediately wondered if that would be the case.
“When it first happened, when I was in the hospital that’s the only thing I was asking: Am I going to be all right to play football?” Dell said during the Texans’ offseason program. “That was my main thing. Will I be OK to run and play football like I been doing?
In the early hours of April 29, 10 people were shot at an event billed as a “Nobody Leaves Sober” pool party in Sanford, Florida, including Dell. None of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries, with KPRC-TV in Houston reporting a bullet entered the back of one of Dell’s legs and passed through.
“It definitely changed my perspective of things, like hanging around – just not even hanging around, but just being around the right group of guys and stuff like that or being in the right situation,” Dell said. “But just wrong place, wrong time. Just got to live with it. God blessed me to get out of that situation healthy. I was only down for like a week. But after that, I got right back to work and feeling good. …
“It’s definitely scary, not only for myself but for my family because I don’t want to put myself in that type of position, and especially like my family – I got a little brother, my mom. I know how they was feeling at that time. It’s just a blessing that I’m safe. It’s a traumatic experience.”
