{"id":753233,"date":"2026-02-15T05:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T05:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/753233\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T05:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T05:32:13","slug":"let-her-leave-cam-newton-gets-honest-about-james-pearce-jr-incident-involving-rickea-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/753233\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLet Her Leave\u201d: Cam Newton Gets Honest About James Pearce Jr. Incident Involving Rickea Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just a few days ago, the Atlanta Falcons\u2019 James Pearce Jr. was announced as one of the finalists for the 2025 Defensive Rookie of the Year award. But as of today, there\u2019s a very real possibility that he has already seen his last snap of professional football. The 26th overall pick from last year\u2019s draft class managed to incur a total of five felony charges just days after Super Bowl LX<\/a>, and given the severity of each and every single one of those charges, there doesn\u2019t appear to be much room for optimism.<\/p>\n

Pearce allegedly had several domestic issues with his now-former girlfriend and Los Angeles Sparks forward, Rickea Jackson, ones that ultimately became physical. After Jackson decided to separate herself from the relationship, Pearce proceeded to go on what could only be described as a rampage, racking up two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, one count of aggravated stalking, and one count of aggravated battery involving a law enforcement officer, which came as a result of his decision to also flee from law enforcement.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the worst potential instances of career suicide that the NFL has seen in quite some time, and according to Cam Newton<\/a>, there\u2019s not a single thing or person that could excuse Pearce\u2019s actions. \u201cI don\u2019t give doggone who it is, male, female, home boy, home girl,\u201d Newton started during the latest episode of his 4th & 1 podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are going to affect me by stopping my bag, or affecting my career, I don\u2019t want that, and I don\u2019t need those problems\u2026 Let her leave,\u201d Cam outlined, adding, \u201cIf that\u2019s what comes from our love, it ain\u2019t healthy for nobody\u2026 If she brings that emotion out of you, that ain\u2019t healthy, baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the eyes of the former regular-season MVP, there\u2019s no need to speculate as to what may be next for Pearce, as \u201cnot only did this man mess up his beautiful car, he messed up his beautiful career.\u201d The NFL is, unfortunately, no stranger to handling players who find themselves with domestic abuse cases, but Pearce\u2019s charge of aggravated battery involving a law enforcement officer will drastically complicate things for both him and the Falcons.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Audacy Legal Insider, Amy Dash, the penalties that come with such an offense are \u201cpurposely meant to be extreme, and that\u2019s to deter anybody from attacking a law enforcement officer in any way.\u201d <\/p>\n

So, unless Pearce can spend a healthy amount of his rookie earnings on legal counsel, likely, football fans won\u2019t be seeing him anytime in the near future. Simply put, a lengthy, perhaps even season-long, suspension is the best-case scenario, as the 22-year-old is now hoping to simply avoid spending time in a federal penitentiary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just a few days ago, the Atlanta Falcons\u2019 James Pearce Jr. was announced as one of the finalists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,703,6,106335],"class_list":{"0":"post-753233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-falcons","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-james-pearce-jr","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-rickea-jackson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116073014504734799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}