Aaron Donald has been the best defensive player in the NFL for most of his career. He’s accomplished everything a player could possibly hope to in eight years: winning Defensive Player of the Year three times, being named an All-Pro seven years in a row, winning a Super Bowl and leading the league in sacks once.
Those accomplishments are exactly why he’d be fine with retiring after “only” eight seasons and still in the prime of his career. After winning Super Bowl LVI, Donald checked that last box on his resume and is already a future first-ballot Hall of Famer.
That puts the Rams in a tough situation because Donald wants a new contract, and if he doesn’t get the raise he deserves, he’ll simply walk away from the game and spend more time with his family.
“It ain’t about the money. It’s a business at the end of the day,” Donald said on the “I Am Athlete” podcast. “That’s what you’ve got to see. For me, it’s about winning. I don’t want to play football if I can’t win anyway, so I feel like if I got a real opportunity to win another Super Bowl, then it makes sense to play. But again, it’s still a business. We’ve got to handle the business side of things, and if that wasn’t to get handled then, you know, ‘it is what it is’ type of situation. I’ll be fine regardless.”
Donald clarified that he didn’t just suddenly bring up retirement talk around the time of the Super Bowl when Rodney Harrison told the world that Donald might walk away if the Rams win it all. He came into the NFL expecting to play eight years and then be done. He’s played his eight years and now he’s thinking about sticking to that plan by walking away from the game.
“But me talking about retirement, that was happening way before we won a Super Bowl,” he continued. “I’ve been saying that since I got into the league: I was going to play eight years and be done. That’s just what I’ve been saying. It just came out and then everybody think that, ‘Oh, he said if he wins a Super Bowl, he’s going to retire.’ Nah, I got teammates, coaches, my family know about this. I said ‘I’m going to play eight years and I’m going to probably be done playing football.’ But winning a Super Bowl you get kind of a little addicted to it. I want to feel that again. I ain’t going to lie. That experience is like none other. If I was to play, it’s just to win another Super Bowl, but at the end of the day, it’s still a business and it got to make sense to me and my family.”
Donald is as competitive as anyone in the NFL, and he wants to win another Super Bowl. But he doesn’t need to win another one, just like he doesn’t need to play football to be happy.
“I’m happy. I’m fine. The thing is, I don’t need to play football to be fine. I’m fine,” he said. “I was blessed to play this game, to make the money I’ve made, the accomplishments I made in eight years is, like, I’m complete. If I can win another one, that’s great. But if not, I’m at peace.”
On the bright side, Donald feels like the contract situation is probably going to be resolved, which is a sign that he’ll likely be back on the field in 2022. But as of now, it seems like there’s no chance he’s going to continue playing on his current deal, which will pay him $14.25 million this coming season.
“It’s probably gonna get figured out but if it wasn’t to, I’m not gonna be mad at the organization. It’s fine. It’s cool,” he added.
The Rams will be in big trouble if Donald doesn’t return, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of their defensive line. And that’s exactly why they should figure out a way to give him a new contract to ensure he keeps sacking quarterbacks and blowing up running backs.
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