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If Aaron Donald decides this is it, there is only one thing left to say:
Thanks.
Everything else, for at least the next few days, is pointless. Also, unwarranted. Donald has been so good — in such a joyful, forceful way — for so long and so consistently that he should transcend the gathering dust cloud of regular punditry.
There’s just not much to add. He’s one of the best — and most impactful — football players we’ve ever seen. We were lucky to watch him play. Just take the time to revel in it.
Think about the snap that could end up being his last; the way that it felt so inevitable to everyone, and yet there was nothing the Bengals could do to stop it from happening.
Cincinnati faced a 4th and 1 from the Rams’ 49 with 43 seconds left in a game they trailed 23-20 and knew Donald was the most dangerous player on the field. The Bengals had built a blocking scheme for this game centered on making sure he always had at least two people to deal with (often it was three) and yet to that point he’d had two sacks on six pressures and helped his team to record five others sacks because the Bengals looked at future Hall of Famer Von Miller, a former Super Bowl MVP and said, “Our only option is to let this guy run free.”
Donald had also just made the play to force fourth down in the first place, pulling Samaje Perine backward as the 240-pound running back attempted to charge forward and keep the game going. (That play will never get the credit it deserves; it was completely improbable.)
He’d also ended the NFC Championship two weeks earlier by racing to Jimmy Garoppolo and grabbing him so fiercely that the QB spun around and flung the ball in the general direction of the first down marker — but not really to anyone.
The Bengals knew all this.
Everybody everywhere knew it.
The way we think about football now is that if you know something like that you might be able to do something about it. That you can choose to shuffle some of your effort to stopping that one player.
Give up an edge elsewhere.
Manipulate the situation.
Push the onus onto lesser players so that your better ones can make plays.
Except that there is just no answer for Aaron Donald. Never has been.
It took him 2.2 seconds to reach Joe Burrow and grab him so fiercely that the QB spun around and pushed the ball forward to nobody.
If that was it, then it was perfect. No notes.
News that Donald might walk away if the Rams won reached us in the most innocuous way, as a pre-game aside of sorts.
Then, in a magical post-game interview so full of wonder that I will watch it 20 times today, he admitted that he would think it over.
This makes a lot of sense. Aaron Donald has been ramming his body, often head first, into other large men, play after player after play, for much of the last 20 years. This was his eighth NFL season and he clearly could continue to dominate for years to come if he so chose but … absolutely nobody should question him if he opts not to.
He won’t want to leave his teammates, to feel he is abandoning them, but it’s not like Matthew Stafford would be caught by surprise: former Lions star WR Calvin Johnson walked away after nine seasons and used his Hall of Fame speech to talk about the toll the game took on him.
Look at that picture at the top of this article. Of course Aaron Donald is thinking about walking way. Of course.
He has the ring now. He should have been Super Bowl MVP. He was brilliant Sunday night and has been since he entered the league.
We may very well never see a player better than Aaron Donald.
Quick hits: Joe Burrow wore his flashy pregame suit after the loss … A review of that awesome halftime show … Emotional Rams celebration photos … and more.
— Joe Burrow wowed us all with his pregame suit … but got crushed for wearing it again after the loss.
— Our Bryan Kalbrosky reviewed that incredible halftime show.
— Christian D’Andrea delivered his entirely-too-soon NFL power rankings for 2022.
— Check out 11 of the most emotional photos of the Rams celebrating.
— Chiefs players savagely trolled Eli Apple after the game.