Fights happen all the time when two teams get together for joint practices during training camp. Tempers certainly boiled over in the summer of 2022 when the Rams and Bengals held a joint practice just months after their Super Bowl matchup.
Aaron Donald was at the center of that unforgettable brawl, with cameras catching him swinging a helmet at Bengals players. Practice ended immediately after the two sides were separated and Donald was disciplined by the Rams internally, but that was a fight no one will soon forget.
During a sit-down on “The Pivot Podcast” recently, Donald finally explained what led to that brawl. Previously, he danced around questions about the fight and his actions but in this interview, he was more open about what happened before things got out of hand.
He even revealed that he warned Sean McVay that he would take care of business if one specific Bengals player kept fighting one of the Rams’ players.
“I was the peacemaker that day,” Donald said. “They had an offensive lineman that kept fighting one of our guys the whole practice, since one-on-ones. And he kept doing it. He did it at least five times. I looked at Sean and I said, ‘Listen, Sean. I’ve been a peacemaker. I’ve been breaking up these fights this whole practice. If they do it again, I’m going to feel like they think they’re trying to bully us. I’m going to shut the practice down.’ He said, ‘Aaron, I understand. I understand.’ I said, ‘I’m just letting you know, Coach.’ We were cool. He wasn’t mad. First play, he comes out, he throws a punch. They start fighting. I grab the dude, he throws him down. My guy starts beating him up. And I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a football brawl, but it’s just a bunch of people and you’re just like, you’ve got to protect yourself. And I blacked out from there, I don’t know what happened.”
He added: “I was the peacemaker and then it just happened how it happened. I got to protect my guys and protect myself, too.”
Deleted video of Aaron Donald swinging a helmet at bengals players. pic.twitter.com/dHCAGN8Bby
— Not Jake 🥷🏻 (@CincyHub) August 25, 2022
Donald is not someone to instigate and while he might be calm and soft-spoken off the field, he’s as fiery as anyone between the white lines. He obviously lost his temper that day but he maintains he was just trying to separate two guys before things got really out of hand.