At 4 a.m. on Mission Street in February, Keion White took a bullet to the ankle. Nearly seven months, one broken talus, and two surgical screws later, the San Francisco 49ers defensive end is back, talking about the metal now holding his foot together. Turns out those screws aren’t going anywhere, and neither is Keion White’s sense of humor about it.

“No, they’re still in there, so two small screws, like, in my ankle,” Keion White said. “So I got screws in each ankle now, so I’m symmetrical.

Keion White has never been shy about the fact that he doesn’t take much too seriously, and that includes getting shot.

Back in February, the 49ers defensive lineman was hit in the ankle during an early morning incident on Mission Street in San Francisco, hours after Super Bowl LX concluded, with the festivities still buzzing around the city.

According to police spokesman Evan Sernoffsky, the shooting happened around 4:06 a.m., and it started with an argument, although early police accounts indicated White was not believed to have been involved in the altercation. Reports later tied the dispute to rapper Lil Baby, whose group reportedly tried to get into a private event White was hosting.

Things escalated into a confrontation between the two men, and a witness said he’d gone upstairs to find management and calm things down. By the time he came back, two shots had already gone off, and White had been hit in the leg. White reportedly declined to identify his shooter, and no suspect had been named.

Police later recovered two different shell casings near the scene, a 9mm and a .45 caliber, though no one was arrested. White was rushed to the hospital and went into surgery that same afternoon.

When he finally addressed reporters about it on Tuesday, he didn’t dance around what happened.

“I got shot,” he said plainly. “It was a gunshot to the foot. I broke my talus bone, so I had to have surgery, two screws in there. But yeah, brush it off. Literally was making jokes as I was going to the hospital, so I don’t really be too serious.”

That kind of easygoing attitude showed up again when he was asked if the whole thing scared him.

“Nah, the funny part is I was actually the one calming everybody else down,” he said. “I don’t really take a lot of things seriously. I didn’t know I got shot until like five minutes after, as I was walking around.”

Still, White was honest that the recovery hasn’t been a straight line.

“To be honest, it’s still an ongoing thing,” he admitted. “Still dealing with my ankle and everything like that, recovering. Just having to take myself a day at a time, but I feel pretty good right now. It was like a touch-and-go situation right up to the beginning of training camp, for real.”

Unfortunately, White isn’t the first 49er to go through something like this. Wide receiver Ricky Pearsall was shot during an attempted robbery back in August 2024. Pearsall bounced back fast, making his NFL debut less than two months later.

As for White, having already logged snaps during the preseason, he’s set to take the field for San Francisco’s defense in 2026.