Los Angeles Rams DT Aaron Donald announced his retirement from the NFL last week and Friday he released a long interview that he did with his wife that included him reflecting on his career, discussing his family life, and what might be next for him. Surprisingly, Donald’s wife asked him late in the interview about all the times the University of Pittsburgh product was asked about him potentially ending his long career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I love the Rams,” Donald said in a video posted on his YouTube channel. “I don’t want to retire nowhere else but with the Rams. I told Sean [McVay] when he first got there after that first year, I was like, ‘As long as you’re the head coach here, I want to be here. I want to continue to win as many games, where we can create together. I don’t want to go nowhere else but here with you.’ And I got the opportunity to do that because the relationship, the bond we’ve got, I feel like it’s special. It’s beyond football.”
Donald then continued to talk about the special bond that he developed with Rams HC Sean McVay over the years and how that played a huge role in him wanting to finish his NFL career with the team that originally drafted him way back in 2014.
“Again, we talked about earlier all the personal stuff that was going on, he helped me with a lot of stuff too,” Donald recalled. “You know, and never asked, second guessed. It was like, okay, that’s always first before football. And even if it was a phone call, ‘You good?’ Or he’d just call me to the office just to check on me. And like, for me, that’s way deeper than football. That’s like, that’s real love right there. So, you know, I wouldn’t want to be play for no other coach than I got right there.”
McVay became the Rams head coach in 2017, so he essentially played most of his NFL career for him. You can tell by his response that he developed a strong bond with him over the years. That’s not a slight toward the Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin in any way whatsoever.
While Donald was likely asked about the possibility of finishing his career with the Steelers quite a bit over the years, the most recently known time that the subject was brought up publicly was ahead of the Rams game against the Steelers this past season. Speaking to reporters on that Thursday ahead of that game, Donald was asked if he could see himself ending his career with the Black and Gold.
“Not really,” he said. “I never thought of it. I never thought about it, [so], nah, no.”
That game against the Steelers ended in a Pittsburgh win and that meant that Donald had failed to beat his hometown NFL team for a third consecutive time. In the three career games that Donald played against the Steelers he registered 14 total tackles, six tackles for loss, two sacks, and six quarterback hits. He also was credited with a safety as well. Only one of those three games was played in Pittsburgh and that was the 2019 meeting between the two teams.
While it certainly would have been fun to see Donald end his NFL career with the Steelers, it’s very respectable that he was able to play all 10 seasons with the team that originally selected him in the draft. Not a lot of players can say that these days.
With Donald’s NFL career now seemingly over with, the three-time AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year should be a lock to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a first ballot selection once eligible. After all, he was selected for 10 Pro Bowls and eight All-Pro first teams, and he won the award as the league’s top defensive player in 2017, 2018 and 2020. Donald also managed to win a Super Bowl with the Rams to close out the 2021 NFL season.
During Donald’s recent interview with his wife, he sounded at peace with his decision to retire and with all that he accomplished in the NFL.
“Ten years, 10 Pro Bowls, eight All-Pros, three defensive player of the year, rookie of the year, two NFC Championships, three NFC West championships, went to two Super Bowls, won one, lost one,” Donald said. “I’m complete. I’m full. I think the passion to play the game is no longer there for me. I will always love football, but to think about going through another camp and another 17-game season, I just don’t got the urge to want to push myself to do that no more. I’m just, I’m burned out. The best way to say that is I’m full, I’m complete, I’m satisfied with what I was able to do in 10 years, and I think it’s time for me, at 32 years old, to retire from football and jump into the next step of my career and life and it’s time to move on.”
We certainly wish Donald the best as he moves into the next phase of his life. It was a joy watching him play all of those years and even though it wasn’t in a Steelers uniform.
