Legendary Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald recently announced his retirement, and while he did eventually win a championship with the team, he revealed it was not always sunshine and rainbows early in his career with the organization.
“My first year in L.A. in 2016 was horrible. It was a bad year. We weren't a good team. That's the year Fisher ended up getting fired. Was on ‘Hard Knocks.' It was an embarrassing year,” Aaron Donald said, according to Cameron DaSilva of RamsWire. “For an individual year, it was an All-Pro year, Pro Bowl year. But when you accomplish that, not saying you're not happy and excited about that, but you just want more as a team. You're not even a competitive team and a team that only wins four or five games, it's like, what are we doing here? My agent was talking to me like, ‘you're about to go into your fourth year. Time to start talking about contracts.' I'm like, ‘I love the Rams, but I want to win. I want to go somewhere I can win. I don't know if I even want to try to come back and get a contract with the Rams.' I just want to win. I'm tired of losing.”
Donald was drafted by the Rams in 2014, when they were still in St. Louis. Donald's first two seasons were there before the Rams moved to Los Angeles. He held out in 2017, Sean McVay's first year as head coach, missing the first game of the year.
Aaron Donald's contract negotiations with the Rams
Donald revealed that during contract negotiations, he felt it was personal with the Rams, as they struggled to get a deal done.
“End up holding out, was in Pittsburgh training the whole time,” Donald said, according to DaSilva. “That was my first holdout year so for me, it was personal. I was kind of mad at the organization. I'm like, ‘What? Y'all don't want me? If y'all don't want me, y'all can get rid of me. Send me somewhere that want me. Please.' So I was a little mad, a little frustrated about it.”
Donald did hold out again in 2018, but signed a long-term contract with the Rams and helped them go 11-5 that season, which was the beginning of the success that the organization had with Donald and Sean McVay leading the way.
Now, Donald enters retirement as a 10-time Pro Bowler, eight-time All-Pro, Super Bowl champ and a sure-fire hall of famer. All 10 years of Donald's career were spent with the Rams, and he said he is glad that he will only be known as a Ram, according to DaSilva.
There is no replacing Aaron Donald, and there is no doubt that his absence will be felt for the Rams in 2024.
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