Through His Dad's Eyes: Brady Pretzlaff's road from season-ending injury to starter at Michigan State
After losing most of last season to a shoulder injury, the Michigan State linebacker returned to make his first career start – and shared a moment with his family that required no words
When Brady Pretzlaff ran out of the tunnel for his first start at Michigan State, Jeff Pretzlaff did not see only the 20-year-old linebacker wearing green and white.
He saw the little boy throwing a football in their backyard. He saw the third-grader beginning to play the game that had shaped their family. He saw the high school linebacker who arrived before sunrise for summer workouts in Gaylord, hours before everyone else.
Then he looked at his wife, Molly.
Her teary eyes matched his own.
“I’m like, ‘Why are we crying right now?’” Jeff said. “It was just so emotional to see.”
The moment would have been meaningful under any circumstances. For the Pretzlaffs, however, it came nearly a year after Brady had been helped from the same field with the shoulder injury that ended his 2025 season.
Jeff and Molly had watched him undergo surgery, endure months of rehabilitation, and struggle with being on the outside of the team looking in. They had seen football taken away from someone who had spent most of his life preparing to play it at this level.
Now, it had been given back.
“It was actually so surreal to see it,” Jeff said. “Our whole life, we’re a football family. I coach football, so Brady’s been raised around football. To actually see him on that field, you get all these flashbacks going through your mind, when he’s in third grade playing football. He’s worked so hard for it, and then to finally see him get that chance, I was just so happy for him.”
Brady had kept his father updated throughout preseason camp. He was receiving extensive work with the first-team defense at Sam linebacker, a position that can become more prominent depending on the opponent’s personnel and game situations.
The family believed Brady had positioned himself for a rotational role there. But then the coaches told him they wanted to start him at Will linebacker, giving him the opportunity to play a more consistent role.
That was the surprise.
“He was like, ‘Dad, you can’t tell anybody,’” Jeff said.
Photo credit: Marvin Hall/Spartan Illustrated
Jeff honored the request, watching and waiting without letting anyone know that his son - who had appeared in only seven games during his first two seasons - was about to make his first start for the Spartans.
Brady entered his redshirt sophomore season with 11 career tackles, including two tackles for loss, and two pass breakups. He had shown promise during limited opportunities, but his chance to establish himself in Michigan State’s linebacker rotation the previous season ended abruptly.
The shoulder had already been bothering him before the 2025 season. An MRI did not reveal a major injury, although doctors saw what appeared to be the beginning of a slight labrum tear.
Surgery was an option that they considered, but undergoing the procedure might have kept Brady out until the middle of the season. He wanted an opportunity to play and demonstrate what he could contribute, so he decided to postpone surgery and hope the shoulder would hold up.
It lasted three games.
Against Youngstown State, the labrum tore. Jeff recognized what had happened almost immediately.
“As soon as I saw it, I’m like, ‘Oh, no,’” he said. “I was sitting by my wife, and we definitely knew what it was.”
Brady had recorded a season-high three tackles, including a tackle for loss, against Youngstown State before the injury ended his year. Because it occurred in the third game, though, he retained the season of eligibility.
The timing offered a small consolation, but it did little to ease the immediate disappointment.
Surgery repaired the labrum, and doctors remained confident Brady would recover physically. The more difficult part was being separated from the daily life of the team.
Jeff described his son as feeling as though he were “on the outside looking in.” His family experienced some of the same detachment. They attended fewer games, and the season no longer carried the same rhythm it had when Brady was playing.
“I think the hardest moments for him were the day-to-day of not being involved with the team as much,” Jeff said. “He felt like he was kind of on the outside looking in. That’s what he said a lot, too. Now he’s just so happy to be back in it.”
The time away also allowed Brady to confront how closely his identity had become connected to the sport.
“A lot of us put our identity fully in football, and I learned that that can be an issue because, you know, I went down, I got hurt,” Brady said. “And then it’s like, ‘Well, if I’m fully a football player, what am I without it?’ That’s where I really leaned on my faith.”
Jeff did not see his son endure a crisis of faith or identity, but rather he saw Brady gain a clearer understanding that football was part of his life without defining all of it.
Brady had already developed a strong personal faith, but the injury provided more time to deepen it. He also benefited from teammates who gather regularly for Bible study and reinforce the idea that their value extends beyond football.
“I don’t think he was really wrestling with it,” Jeff said. “I just think it really showed him, even though he wasn’t playing football, he was still who he was. It was a positive thing. It showed him that he’s not just a football player.”
By spring practice, Brady was participating in noncontact activities, including seven-on-seven drills. He received full clearance after the spring and entered preseason camp without restrictions.
The repaired shoulder now feels better than it did even before the injury. Brady recently told his father that he had not felt this healthy since approximately his freshman year of high school.
Still, the final psychological test could not occur in a training room.
Brady needed to get hit.
He admitted feeling nervous...
Beyond the paywall:
Brady’s father reveals what the linebacker endured during his season-ending shoulder injury and the difficult months that followed
The story behind Joe Rossi’s snowy recruiting trip to Gaylord – including the moment it nearly went disastrously wrong
How Max Bullough is helping Brady translate Rossi’s defense from the whiteboard to the field
The surprising way Brady is using his NIL earnings to prepare for life beyond football
Why Brady stayed behind during the Spartan Walk as the rest of the team continued toward the stadium
The emotional, wordless exchange between Brady and his father after his first career start – a half-second that captured nearly 20 years of their lives
