Marc RaimondiJul 27, 2025, 01:07 PM ETCloseMarc Raimondi’s first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it wasn’t his first year at ESPN. He joined the company in 2019 and was a top combat sports reporter. He also covered professional wrestling and wrote the book “Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Pro Wrestling’s New World Order Changed America,” which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2025.
Raimondi also worked for the New York Post and Newsday, beginning in 2009, covering high school and college sports, plus the NFL, NFL, MLB and NHL.Follow on X
Marc RaimondiJul 27, 2025, 01:07 PM ET
CloseMarc Raimondi’s first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it wasn’t his first year at ESPN. He joined the company in 2019 and was a top combat sports reporter. He also covered professional wrestling and wrote the book “Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Pro Wrestling’s New World Order Changed America,” which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2025.
Raimondi also worked for the New York Post and Newsday, beginning in 2009, covering high school and college sports, plus the NFL, NFL, MLB and NHL.Follow on X
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FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — TheAtlanta Falcons’ offensive and defensive units got into several skirmishes Sunday during practice, including two involving rookie edge rusherJames Pearce Jr.
On one series with the team’s first-team offense going up against the second-team defense, Pearce got into it with left guardMatthew Bergeron, whose helmet came off. There was pushing and shoving between multiple players on both units, and edge rusherLeonard Floydcame to Pearce’s defense.
Just one play later, tensions rose again.
Pearce got into it with right tackleKaleb McGary, who was screaming at Pearce with his helmet off. Once again, Floyd came in to try to separate things with more pushing and shoving all around.
“We’re trying to develop a culture, a style of play for sure, and part of that is the violence with which we play and aggression, the urgency and all that,” defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said. “Today, at times, it went a little too far and we’ve got to learn how to manage that.
“You’re going to get agitated and, especially when you’re playing really good defense, the offense is going to get very agitated, so you’ve got to anticipate punches being thrown, things being said, people getting pushed.
In those moments, you got to thrive and not retaliate and so it’s a good lesson to be learned today.”
The key, Ulbrich said, is to stop before punches are thrown. And there were some of those Sunday in the big scrums.
Ulbrich said it’ll be a major learning experience for Pearce, who has been playing extremely hard from the jump in practice and seems to have a chip on his shoulder.
“He’s prideful as it gets,” Ulbrich said. “He loves this game.
He’s got deep love for his teammates … and he wants to come out here and create a strong impression on everybody — and himself included — that he can do this. And you do this at a high level, and I think when you’re in that place of just every ounce of your body’s trying to prove who you are, sometimes it gets to that place where it can get a little wacky sometimes.
“His anger got the best of him a little bit and it is going to be a great learning experience for him.”
Source: Espnnfl
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