Texas receiver Tank Dell recalls ‘traumatic experience’ as victim of Florida restaurant shooting

HOUSTON– As Houston Texans receiver Tank Dell recovered in the hospital after being injured in a shooting at a Florida restaurant, one question dominated his thoughts.

“The only thing I asked was: will I be okay to play football? Like that’s my main goal,” Dell said on Tuesday. “Will I be okay to run and play football like I did before?”

Doctors soon told him that the gunshot wound to his leg was a superficial wound that would not leave permanent damage.

“So once they told me it was a complete assignment, once they told me that and said, ‘You’re going to do great,’ I was ready to go,” Dell said.

The second-year player said he was sidelined for only about a week after the April shooting in Sanford, Florida, which injured nine other people before resuming training to prepare for the season.

“It’s a blessing to be safe,” said Dell, who is from Daytona Beach. “But it is a traumatic experience.”

Dell has fully recovered from the shooting and participated fully in Houston’s minicamp on Tuesday. He shined in the more than hour-long practice, catching several passes from CJ Stroud.

Dell said he overcame the shooting with the help of his faith, family, friends and members of the Texas organization. He goes to church once a week and prays every morning and evening.

“I have God on my side, keep Him first in everything I do,” he said. “So, I feel good. I have the right group of guys around me, keeping my head up, my mom, my dad, people at home, my grandmother, everyone praying for me and just calling me every day now.”

Dell was drafted in the third round in 2023 after a standout career at the University of Houston. He had 709 receiving yards and set a franchise rookie record with seven touchdown catches last season before breaking his left fibula in December.

After missing time due to injury and then dealing with the aftermath of the shooting, Dell is happy simply to be back on the field.

“It’s a blessing to be out there running around,” he said. “I don’t even have to catch the ball, just running and running routes and feeling the love from my team makes it great.”

Stroud, who counts Dell among his best friends on the team, praised how hard he worked to come back after everything he had suffered in recent months.

“This football thing seems like it’s everything, but it’s not,” Stroud said. “We are people and we go through a lot of things off the field that people don’t know about. And as his brother, I have to be by his side, just as he is by my side. I’m very proud of him; the word proud probably isn’t even enough to express the feelings I have for that guy.

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