James Pearce Jr. was arrested on Saturday in connection with an alleged domestic dispute. According to law enforcement, the Atlanta Falcons’ pass rusher got into an altercation with Los Angeles Sparks forward Rickea Jackson, intentionally ramming his Lamborghini into her vehicle multiple times. Afterwards, he fled the scene, eluded police officers, crashed his vehicle, and resisted arrest.
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Pearce is now being charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, a count of aggravated stalking, and a count of aggravated battery on law enforcement. If you watch the video of his arrest, it took nearly seven officers to restrain the athlete before he finally gave in. All in all, things are not looking good for him.
Now, fans are beginning to dig up scouting reports on Pearce from college. They are concerning, to say the least. And maybe after looking at them, we should’ve seen this coming.
“I was told by one scout that Pearce Jr. is seen as the player with the worst character report of any player in this draft class,” sports journalist Cory Kinnan wrote in his blog a year ago.
“These are not made up character concerns by the way I went to high school with this n***a he is actually crazy. He had the worst anger issues ever,” James Pearce Jr.’s teammate reportedly said about him last year.
This is what one of James Pearce Jr Teammates said about him last year
Yikes pic.twitter.com/mepBalVklJ
— Phil (@Phxlly) February 8, 2026
These are all reports that came out about Pearce almost a year ago. At the time, many shrugged off the concerns as possible overexaggeration. But now we can see that the player does indeed seem to have anger issues, and they boiled over for the public to see.
Meanwhile, the Falcons have not made many comments about Pearce’s situation. They mentioned that they are waiting to gather all of the facts from the incident. But they are aware of it. It’ll be interesting to see how far they go in terms of punishment.
At the end of the day, we probably should’ve seen this coming with Pearce. The evidence was there for years from his teammates and coaches that he had personality issues. It’s also unfortunate that Jackson, a young and blossoming WNBA star, was involved as a victim.
But at the same time, nobody could have assumed anyone would go as far as Pearce did. He will now most likely pay the price for his actions, as the player who finished third in the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year voting could have his future and career taken out of his control.
