Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle and NFL legend Aaron Donald announced his sudden retirement on Friday morning, ending a 10-year career that included eight First-Team All-Pro honors, three Defensive Player of the Year awards, and a Super Bowl title.
Donald ended his career with 111.0 total sacks, the 40th-most in NFL history.
Before he was a legend on Sundays, however, the interior lineman terrorized ACC quarterbacks with the Pittsburgh Panthers. In fact, one of his most iconic collegiate highlights came against Duke.
During a 2013 game against Pitt, Duke called a read-option run play. Donald, as he usually does, broke into the backfield immediately, but he couldn’t decide if the ball would go to Blue Devils running back Josh Snead or stay with quarterback Brandon Connette.
So Donald tackled them both, wrapping an arm around each Duke player and dragging them to the ground.
Throwback to Aaron Donald tackling the QB and RB on this read option đź’€
pic.twitter.com/x1wPwUDTZt— PFF (@PFF) March 15, 2024
The former Panther slid down to the Rams with the 13th pick in the next year’s NFL draft due to size concerns (Donald is 6-foot-1) but any Blue Devils fans knew he’d be special back in 2013. The rest was history.