Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Drake London had to be held back after getting into a verbal confrontation with a fan during a blowout loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
It’s unclear what sparked the incident, but London swore at someone in the stands at Mercedes-Benz Stadium midway through the third quarter of the team’s 34-3 loss to the Panthers. Olamide Zaccheaus got between London and the fan, who was not seen on the Fox cameras.
London said after the game that he regretted his actions and that it wasn’t the “right thing to do,” but that some “personal stuff” was said to him.
“I’m going to be honest here, I don’t take light to disrespect at all,” London said, via ESPN’s Marc Raimondi. “I don’t care who you are. I’m a man, too, at the end of the day. So, if you want to get on a personal level, I can get there, too, but it’s not the right thing to do. So, I got to take accountability for that, and I got to push forward and be the bigger man in some of those situations.”
The Falcons fell to 0-2 after Sunday’s loss, and their offense looked rough throughout the contest. London had a team-high 51 receiving yards on four catches, though quarterback Cooper Rush went just 10-of-17 for 86 yards with two interceptions before he was benched in favor of Jack Strand.
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Strand threw a pick 6 on his first pass of the day, so he wasn’t any better.
London finished with 4 catches for 51 yards on 5 targets.
The Falcons are still without quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa, who are recovering from ACL and oblique injuries, respectively.
While it’s not hard to see why things have been an issue for the Falcons’ offense this season, that hasn’t made things any easier — and absolutely played into London’s reaction when he got into it with the person in the stands.
“But with how the game was going and what was said to me, I don’t like it,” he said.
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London, who the Falcons selected with the No. 8 overall draft pick in 2022, signed a four-year, $141 million extension with the team this past offseason. He had 919 receiving yards and seven touchdowns last season, but was limited to 12 games due to various injuries.
The Falcons will take on the Green Bay Packers next on Thursday, which marks the first of three straight prime-time games. If they can’t beat the Packers, it’ll mark their worst start since the 2020 campaign when they opened the year on a five-game losing streak.
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