Connor Shaw in stable condition after collapsing during son’s football game
Former South Carolina quarterback Connor Shaw remained in the hospital Friday and was in stable condition after collapsing during his son’s football game.
This was according to a statement the City of Simpsonville provided to The State.
“Former quarterback for the University of South Carolina Connor Shaw was coaching his son’s 8U flag football game at Gracely Park on Wednesday when he collapsed about 15 minutes after the game started,” according to the statement. “Emergency Medical Services took Mr. Shaw to Greenville Memorial Hospital. The Parks & Recreation Department was informed on Thursday that Mr. Shaw is in stable condition. The Simpsonville Parks & Recreation Department and City of Simpsonville have Mr. Shaw and his family in our thoughts and prayers and wish Mr. Shaw a full and speedy recovery.”
CPR was performed on the field, eyewitnesses told The State.
Upstate South Carolina resident Chad Smith was on an adjacent field Wednesday coaching in a Simpsonville Rec Department 10U flag football game when he heard a commotion and saw Shaw lying flat, face down on the grass.
A woman, Smith said, was running around and trying to find anyone with medical experience. One of the coaches on Smith’s field was a firefighter and bolted over.
“As soon as that coach got over there, within a few seconds he was doing CPR” on Shaw, Smith, the eyewitness, said. “That’s when it really got scary.
“I talked to the referee who was on that field,” Smith continued. “And he said somebody had just scored, he turned around and he heard a thud.”
Many folks began calling 911, Smith said. Others ran over to the Simpsonville Fire Department just a few hundred feet away from the football fields at Gracely Park. While waiting for an ambulance, a number of men jumped in, switching on and off to perform CPR on Shaw.
That lasted between 20 and 30 minutes, Smith estimated, until the fire department arrived. But because the football fields sit at the bottom of a hill, an ambulance wasn’t able to directly get to Shaw.
“So they brought the side-by-side from the fire department with a gurney on it,” Smith said. “Once they got him stable, they put him in the back of the side-by-side and took him to the ambulance.”
Shaw, who turned 34 on Friday, was in the medical ICU at Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital as of Friday morning, according to a source.
Connor Shaw’s standout Gamecocks career
A quarterback at USC from 2010-13, Shaw was elected to the South Carolina athletics hall of fame in 2021. He holds the record for most wins by a Gamecocks quarterback and finished his career with 6,074 passing yards and 56 touchdowns.
He was signed out of college by the Cleveland Browns in 2014 and played in the NFL with the Browns and Chicago Bears until 2016.
Shaw was the quarterbacks coach at USC for three games in 2020 before transitioning to the team’s director of player development. He served as the director of football relations in 2021.
He, his wife Molly and their children lived in Lexington for a few years before recently moving to the Upstate.
Messages of support continued to flow Thursday on X/Twitter, including:
— Mike Davis, former USC RB: “Prayers up for Connor Shaw!”
— Jake Bentley, former USC QB: “Prayers for Connor and the Shaw family!”
— Jeff Scott, former Clemson offensive coordinator: “Praying for Connor Shaw.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2025 at 11:41 AM with the headline "Connor Shaw in stable condition after collapsing during son’s football game."
