Zack Golditch knows full well how very lucky he is.
An inch here or there, and his story might have turned out differently that July night almost six years ago, when he went to see the latest Batman movie in an Aurora, Colo., theater.
“I was a 17-year-old kid going to see a movie; next thing you know, I might not have come home that night. For me to still be able to play football, to be able to be a normal person and an able-bodied person is great,” he told USA Today during the NFL Scouting Combine in February. “I take nothing for granted. This opportunity to continue to live my life today is amazing.”
He was watching a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” when a gunman opened fire during a showing of the same film in an adjacent theater, killing 12 and wounding 70 others. One of the bullets went through the wall and struck Golditch on the left side of his neck, entering under his ear and exiting the back in pieces.
“I’m blessed,” he told the Denver Post in August 2012. “I guess I wasn’t just grazed. It just went clean in and out, no shrapnel, just clean it out, no stitches because of the risk of infection. It’s just a really deep cut, is how I took it.”
After missing a few weeks of practice and the first game of the season, he was back playing on the offensive line and soon heading to Colorado State, where he became a starter in 2015. He tore a tendon in his ring finger during the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl in January and had surgery that sidelined him for Colorado State’s pro day in March.
He was passed over in the NFL draft but then Saturday night signed as an undrafted free agent with the Los Angeles Chargers. The 6-foot-5, 300-pound lineman has been cleared to return to football and is expected to be able to participate in the Chargers’ offseason program.
“I hope, when teams watch my film, they see a guy who’s a competitor, someone who is not afraid and won’t back down from a challenge,” he said. “Doesn’t matter if you’re bigger than me or better than me; I’m going to come back every single play and give my best effort and try to be better the next play.”
What happened in that theater will always be with him.
“I never stopped and realized this is part of my story,” he said. “I shouldn’t push that away, because what I hold on to right now is a story, not just about myself, but about everyone else. I can carry that and represent them through what I do now and how I carry myself. I have to embrace it.”
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