LA Rams star reportedly moments away from retiring in offseason

[ad_1]

Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams nearly retired this offseason, and it has been revealed just how close he was to pulling it off.

When you think of the word dominant when youre talking about an NFL player, there is a good to fair chance that youre talking about Aaron Donald, who has over the years put himself on a pantheon all his own with the way that he has played the game.

Since entering the league in 2014 when the then-St Louis Rams, he has 441 combined tackles, 226 QB hits, 150 tackles for loss and 98 sacks which have turned into 8 Pro Bowl appearances, 7 First-team All-Pro honors and 3 NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards, before finally getting his well-deserved Super Bowl this past season.

In a sense, there is nothing more than he can do to put himself on course for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, everything else would just be the cherry on top of the cake. Which is perhaps why ahead of their Super Bowl victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in February, reports emerged that he could have retired if the Rams were victorious.

And that decision very nearly came to fruition, as he appeared on the I Am Athlete podcast (via Ari Meirov), that he was at peace with the idea of ​​moving on from the Rams, which could have spelled retirement, only for him to agree to a new contract and put it all to rest.

How close did Aaron Donald come?

The fact of the matter, is that he came very close to following through on his talk from February. In a report from the NFL Newtorks Ian Rapaport, Donald had even gone as far as to put his retirement in writing and handing it to the Rams, before ultimately coming to a different decision:

The agent for the greatest defensive tackle to ever play sent a letter to the only team Donald’s played for, the Rams, and informed them of his decision to retire, according to several sources informed of the situation. The letter, which has been an unreported secret since it was sent, was on Athletes First letterhead and addressed to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Simply, it stated that Donald had informed the Rams he was retiring effective on May 9. It came with instructions to send it in to the league office.

But the letter was never sent to the NFL.”

So, the letter was sent to the Rams, and Donald was at peace with his decision. The only caveat was this: The Rams brass, Donald and his agent had a zoom set up the next day to discuss his contract. The letter stayed unearthed until that meeting just to be sure there wasn’t anything they could do. Meanwhile, the Rams were endlessly respectful of Donald, regardless of his decision, simply wanting to know when and how to properly honor him for his stellar career.

Instead, there was a slightly encouraging conversation between Donald’s agent and the Rams and another one was scheduled. And then another. And another. And suddenly the two sides were even more encouraged that an impossible deal could get done.

So in the end, there was no divorce between the two sides, and they can both look to a few more years of working together, where hopefully things will start looking up again after last night.

Did Aaron Donald make the right choice?

After the Rams performance last night, you might argue that he perhaps should have followed through with his threat, as the Rams didn’t get off to the greatest start of their title defense, falling 31-10 at home to the team many people have won the Super Bowl this year, the Buffalo Bills.

Donald himself wasn’t too bad on the night, recording two tackles, one of which was for loss, and an additional sack, but a night to forget for the Rams overall as their title defense got off to the worst possible start.

next story previous story News Now – Sport News

[ad_2]