It all hit Pearce Spurlin on a whirlwind day. A visit to Piedmont Athens Regional hospital. A trip to Atlanta to see a heart specialist at Emory. Then back to Athens to meet with Georgia's medical staff.

Football for him was suddenly over. Or so he thought on that day on Feb. 22, 2024.

“Everything happened so fast,” he said this October. “The news and then I wasn’t playing like 10 minutes later.”

Spurlin knew the congenital heart defect that was discovered after his junior season at South Walton High in Santa Rosa, Fla., could derail his football career.

Georgia ’s medical staff was closely monitoring Spurlin.

He was at Piedmont for annual testing when results showed the margins had changed for the worse. It was confirmed after going to Emory to see Dr. Jonathan Kim, who serves as

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