From the bright lights of New York City to the unpredictable chaos of MMA and pro wrestling to heading down south to Atlanta, the accomplished reporter talks about his sports media journey and future ambitions.
Beat reporters have one of the most demanding jobs in media. It’s a constant grind of needing to be on the pulse of everything you are covering and ready to report on breaking news. Countless people are counting on you to deliver the information they need to stay informed, the content they need to remain engaged, and the consistency they demand in order to view your work. As grueling as the job can be at times, there is great satisfaction in being in a role where an organization and fanbase are depending on you to be at your best and keep them informed.
Marc Raimondi has been reporting for nearly two decades. Starting in New York City gave him valuable experience to thrive in an intense, competitive environment. Entering the exciting, yet volatile world of combat sports showed his versatility. It’s one thing to be passionate about sports. It’s another thing to maintain journalistic integrity and become someone who fans and athletes count on to report accurately. That’s what he did in establishing himself as one of the top MMA journalists for over a decade. For all the thrills that come with covering combat sports, Raimondi wanted to get back to his beat reporting roots. That’s where his journey ultimately started.
“I was looking to take on a new challenge,” Raimondi stated. “I knew I wanted to be a sports reporter back in high school. Back then and even after finishing college, I never envisioned covering MMA or pro wrestling. They had been hobbies of mine since the 1990s, but it wasn’t something I thought I wanted to cover or could even cover since there weren’t many full-time positions covering MMA or pro wrestling at that time.”
“Even as MMA became more popular, my first few jobs out of college were covering high school and college sports. It was all the main sports like football, basketball, and baseball across New York City. I wanted to be involved with everything, which I ended up doing. When I started working for the New York Post in 2009, that’s when I started doing more with professional sports. I got to transition a bit across the city and cover the New York Giants and Mets for SNY. These places, especially the New York Post, allowed me to do a plethora of things like go into the locker room or clubhouse and produce stories. I got to cover games for every major sport, including hockey, which I didn’t know much about, but Newsday sent me to a few New York Islanders games when I was writing for them.”
“It wasn’t until 2012-2013 that I got into writing about MMA. I started covering the UFC a bit for The New York Post. This is after not writing about combat sports during the first decade of my career. I eventually transitioned into full-time combat sports reporting in 2013. Fox Sports hired me to cover the UFC. That ended up being the start of me being a combat sports journalist for 11 years.”
I met Raimondi in February 2014 at a UFC event where we got to have lunch with MMA legend Demetrious Johnson. It didn’t take long to recognize his raw passion for the sport. Being 20 years old at the time, I learned valuable lessons from watching him ask questions and seek out insightful responses. He was on his path to being one of the best reporters in a growing sport, and MMA seemed to be his home. That’s what made his move to being ESPN’s beat reporter for the Falcons a surprise to many.
“When this opportunity came up to cover the NFL, it hit me knowing this is what I wanted to do since I was a kid,” Raimondi said. “I always wanted to be a beat writer for a major professional sports team. I quickly realized this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I will always love MMA and pro wrestling. I’m big into boxing as well. I just recently watched the Canelo fight and the last UFC card. Covering the NFL is an incredibly big challenge that I wanted to try on this level at ESPN. That’s why I made the move. It was a hard decision because of my passion for combat sports. My main passion is always going to be journalism and reporting. That’s everything to me, which is why it made sense to cover the NFL in the next phase of my career.”
Raimondi grew up a true New York sports fan. While becoming a credible reporter requires years of experience and personal development, it also requires an undeniable appreciation for players and coaches. Investing time into consistent research of teams and personnel comes with the territory of becoming well-informed about a particular topic. Raimondi would go above and beyond to do more, which set him up nicely to work for New York’s biggest publications, no matter the obstacles he faced and the pressure that came with it.
“I graduated college in 2006, so I was in these locker rooms and clubhouses at 22 years old,” Raimondi stated. “I felt comfortable covering college sports because of my prior experience, but covering professional sports in New York proved to be a lot to take in. I remember Willie Randolph used to make fun of me at post-game press conferences. He would joke around saying I was Jay Horwitz’s nephew. I looked very young. It was hard at times to get around these clubhouses. It was still an incredible experience. I know I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t have these experiences in a huge market like New York, which is very competitive. The best of the best write, report, and work there.”
“I was a total New York sports junkie growing up. I would look to read the sports pages of every newspaper every day. Sundays were a big day for me getting each newspaper and reading every sports section. It was so cool being in the same area with the reporters that I would read. Between following and studying the reporters to constantly watching all the major New York teams, it helped me be prepared and become who I am today.”
Despite his success for nearly two decades, Raimondi has plenty to prove in his new role. As exciting as covering the Giants is in a massive market, especially in 2006 with the number of stars they had, it was still an enormous challenge for someone who had just graduated college. The demands can be overwhelming for a young reporter looking to find his niche. Raimondi was candid about his experience and desire to excel on the NFL media beat.
“One of my motivations for going back to covering the NFL is because I was so young when I first covered the Giants, and frankly, I wasn’t ready for it at 22 years old,” Raimondi reflected. “Now nearly 18 years later, I feel more than ready after over a decade of covering combat sports to jump back into the NFL. I can’t wait to see what stories I can tell and what kind of reporting I can do here. I’m excited about rookie minicamp, OTAs, and training camp. I want to cover the team and serve the fanbase here in Atlanta, along with Falcon fans everywhere. That’s what I’m very excited to do. A big part of this job is working for the fans. ESPN is a national website.”
“We know what type of national reach is there, but I feel like my job is to serve the local market and Falcons fan base consistently. That’s my job as the Falcons beat writer. There will be times when I do league-wide stories. Ultimately, my number one job is to cover the team. That means giving the fans what they want with my coverage.”
Most reporters begin their journey covering high school and college sports. It’s how they build their journalistic skills and prove their capabilities to drive interest in a local market. With several years of experience covering athletes at a non-professional level, it made covering the draft even more compelling for Raimondi. He couldn’t get enough of the preparation for it and the aftermath of what proved to be a dramatic draft for the Falcons.
“I was stoked for the draft,” Raimondi declared. “Once I was transitioning out of my role covering combat sports between January and February, I started getting into the draft. I was watching tape and reading about the top prospects. I have always loved football since I was a kid. I hadn’t been watching it to the level of watching MMA in recent years, where I was covering it and knew the sport in and out. I knew everyone across MMA. Everyone knew me. I had a ton of great connections. I was obviously all in. That’s what made starting something new like getting into the draft so exhilarating for me because I was getting to know about all these prospects. It got me super excited about the draft weekend, which ended up being memorable for the Falcons. I was exhausted on Sunday after spending three days at Flowery Branch, but I left that weekend buzzing about the future. This team is going to be interesting.”
Considering his love for New York sports and covering MMA for over a decade, there was curiosity among fans about Raimondi’s knowledge about the Falcons prior to taking his new position as a beat reporter, especially with taking over from an experienced NFL beat reporter in Michael Rothstein. We had to get into his overall thoughts of the team from the outside looking in, excluding any discussion of Super Bowl LI.
“It’s got to start with Matt Ryan,” Raimondi chuckled. “Him throwing the ball to Julio Jones. You have to appreciate Roddy White. I enjoyed watching those teams when they were there. More recently, everything you have heard about the Falcons over the past few years was how dynamic they can be with their young talent. You hear about Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and Bijan Robinson. They have real potential to dominate if they have a few more pieces around them. We know how the quarterback position has held them back. They have to get that right.”
“That’s what I thought about them going into this year. I do have to mention Arthur Blank is from Queens, New York. I am from there as well. That’s a cool connection. I do love red and black. It’s the colors of the nWo Wolfpac. You have to love it.”
It didn’t take long for Raimondi to get his first major story on the beat. The Falcons selected Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth overall pick in the draft. It was a stunning decision, considering how they went all out to secure Kirk Cousins as their starting quarterback. To significantly invest in another quarterback a month later was difficult to comprehend for nearly everyone on the outside looking in. Despite conducting interviews around the organization and being at pre-draft events, Raimondi never saw it coming. All he could do was understand the front office’s rationale behind selecting a player who isn’t expected to play for multiple seasons.
“The selection of Penix was definitely unexpected,” Raimondi stated. “It certainly made for an interesting draft weekend at Flowery Branch. It’s going to make for a very interesting several years in Atlanta. This is going to be the big storyline around the team. It’s a quarterback league. When you have a 180 million-dollar veteran quarterback who has been productive for a long time and then draft a kid with a golden arm coming out as the eighth pick and just played in the national championship game, it’s going to be the story. You can’t forget he is a left-hander like Michael Vick, too. Seeing how it unfolds is going to be fascinating, especially knowing it all begins shortly with OTAs and minicamp starting up in a few weeks. How Cousins’ rehab goes is another layer to this storyline as well. Do we know how healthy he is right now? Is Penix going to take first-team reps? These are questions that need to be answered pretty soon.”
“They saw a franchise long-term quarterback who is a blue-chip player who can win in the NFL for a long time. When he was available at eight, they felt no player could make the impact he could make long-term. You have to look at the clumsy transition that was made when moving on from Matt Ryan. They don’t want to be in that situation again, where Ryan was at the end of his career a few years ago and they couldn’t replace him. They tried to get DeShaun Watson. They were linked with Lamar Jackson for a minute. Ultimately, they ended up with Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder. Nobody within the organization wants to move like that again. If Penix wasn’t there, they likely wouldn’t have taken a quarterback. It was the right opportunity for them in that moment, as controversial as it seems.”
Raimondi has been consistently active since becoming the Falcons beat reporter for ESPN. He is interviewing the franchise’s primary decision-makers and publishing insightful content from those conversations. It’s all happening quickly for someone who had recently covered the UFC’s historic 300th pay-per-view and one of the most memorable Wrestlemanias ever. He embraces the rapid change between those roles and wants fans to be assured of his desire to connect with them.
“I didn’t initially expect to spend so much time with Raheem Morris and Terry Fontenot,” Raimondi said. “I covered the NFL Combine and annual meeting. They were available at both of those events. It was a good experience with them. I got a better idea of who they are and what they are expecting from not only the players and team but also the media. There is a dynamic between the franchise’s main decision-makers and journalists that needs to be established. It was interesting to get that right away. By all accounts, I think they are both good guys. Now, let’s see the execution of what they can do following this offseason. What has Fontenot done this offseason to help them win games in 2024? How can Morris execute during the season? I do want to mention assistant general manager Kyle Smith is very influential in the front office, as far as, personnel and acquisitions. He is someone who is considered around the league as someone who can be a general manager someday.”
“I want to see what every player can do and how I am going to bring that information to the readers and viewers. I’m excited to see who is going to make the team. Which undrafted free agent is going to shine? What are they going to do in training camp to prove they are good enough to make the final roster? Those are some things that only the reporters who are there consistently see day in and day out. That’s what I am excited about as a reporter. It’s not all about the glamorous stories and big-ticket items. Those are great, but I have to make sure I am serving the fans. I have to know what they want from my coverage. I look forward to engaging with Falcon fans and seeing what they value the most.”
As exciting as the future is ahead covering the Falcons, Raimondi has another major project that will be coming out in the future. In May 2022, he announced he signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to write a book about the nWo, pro wrestling’s most iconic wrestling faction. Given the history of WCW’s powerful connection in Georgia, this unbelievably exciting project correlates nicely with his new full-time position. He talks about how much Atlanta influences his story while providing an update on the book’s current status.
“In early 2023, I took some time off from ESPN to do some traveling to do interviews for the book,” Raimondi said. “Of course, the main place I came to was Atlanta. This is where WCW was built. There are a ton of people who worked for WCW behind the scenes, along with some wrestlers who still live here. I spent a week in Atlanta. This was long before I had any foresight that I would be covering the Falcons a year later. In one of my last days there, I connected with my buddy Michael Rothstein, who we know is the former Falcons beat writer at ESPN. We’ve been friends for a long time. He showed me around Inman Park, and now I live here. It’s a cool neighborhood, but I never pictured it becoming my new home a year later at that time.”
“When it comes to the book itself, the manuscript is done. It’s hopefully going into production in the summer. The plan for it is to come out in early 2025. We are aiming for the pre-orders to be available between January and February next year. We are getting into the home stretch now. It’s both exciting and nerve-wracking. This is my first book. My approach to the book was writing as a fan because I am a fan. I wanted to deliver the things that fans wanted to know about such a legendary group. Writing a book is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It was a crazy experience to be doing it on the side while having a full-time job covering combat sports for ESPN. I’m sure it’ll have its fair share of critics. Jim Cornette will probably crush me for it. That said, I’m excited and confident it will hit that sweet spot for fans feeling that nostalgia and giving them information they didn’t know. Going into a book like this, fans will likely know a good amount of information about the subject matter. It’s on me to deliver something different and bring truth to stories.”
As the quiet part of the off-season begins, Raimondi will prepare for a busy summer. Although nothing pressing is happening at the moment, he is staying on course with his new role by analyzing the draft class outside of Penix Jr. His recent story about the Falcons’ front seven gives fans plenty to consider where the coaching staff’s focus lies in the trenches. It also provides a nice glimpse of what the Falcons’ new beat reporter will bring to the table with his stories. Fans will learn plenty from them.
“I recently published a story about the new additions to the front seven, which we all know was a big team need,” Raimondi said. “One of the most interesting things to come out of it was the emphasis on length. I spoke to Coach Morris about it because you look at who they drafted and length stood out when analyzing every prospect. The length and athleticism of the players they selected were near the top of the board. Three of the defensive tackles they picked were among the top eight in arm length at the combine this year. That’s what stood out from analyzing Ruke Orhorhoro, Brandon Dorlus, and Zion Logue.”
“Ohorhoro was the number two longest defensive tackle and had the best athleticism score within the positional group at the combine. This could be a trend to monitor with the new coaching regime. Morris likes to rotate defensive linemen, putting them in different spots to disrupt opposing offenses. We saw how successful he was at doing it in Los Angeles. All coaches have traits they greatly value. Length is something Morris absolutely loves.”
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