Aaron Donald has taken the league by storm, and his nearly unprecedented success certainly didn't catch former Rams teammate Chris Long by surprise. Long was the second overall pick of the Rams back in 2008, and had a highly successful career himself.
But that didn't prevent him from being in awe of Donald during the time that they were teammates. Speaking with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s “Huddle Up with Gus” podcast recently, the recently retired Long raved about Donald.
“I would like to credit myself with being the first person know he was going to be amazing,” he cracked. “We used to joke his rookie camp that he was going to be in the Hall of Fame, but I kind of wasn’t joking.”
“I’ve never seen anybody work so hard, who had so much talent and play so violent and play with such tenacity,” Long continued. “This guy would fight you on the field at the drop of a hat, and I respect that about him, and outworks everybody.”
It's not shocking given what Donald has accomplished on the field, but what Long describes is an insane work ethic.
“I would be the last person in the film room usually at the end of camp, and I would go in there and watch tape once everybody was at home. I started going in there an opening the door and turning the lights on to find my pen or notebook, and he was in there every night,” he explained.
In case there was any doubt, Long declared Donald “the best football player in the world, in my opinion.” Donald was only teammates with Long for two seasons before Long left to join the Eagles, but clearly he made quite the impression.
Donald has won the league's Defensive Player of the Year Award in each of the last two seasons, and teams simply have no answer for him. He works out like a maniac, and likely won't be slowing down in 2019.
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