Super Bowl 2022: Aaron Donald eyes elusive Super Bowl ring
Rams defensive end Aaron Donald celebrates during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff game against the Cardinals in Inglewood, Calif., on Jan. 17. Credit: AP/Mark J. Terrill
LOS ANGELES — The Rams are trying to win a title for Aaron Donald.
Aaron Donald is trying to win one for someone else.
Three years ago the most dominant interior defensive lineman of his generation — and maybe ever — made a promise to his 5-year-old daughter Jaeda. He told her she would be able to play in the confetti that covered the field after they won the championship. The Patriots kept him from fulfilling that vow, beating the Rams in Super Bowl LIII, and it was hard to tell who was more disappointed.
Anyone who has ever promised something to a child knows those contracts are never forgotten.
"She always asks me, ‘Remember, Daddy? You said I could play in the confetti when we win the Super Bowl. You’ve got to win the Super Bowl,’ " Donald said this week of the now 8-year-old holding him to his word. "Those are memories that last forever. Being able to share that with your family, with your kids, that’s special."
Or at least Donald imagines it is, because he has never done it.
He’s done just about everything else imaginable. He’s been a Pro Bowler every one of his eight years in the NFL, voted an All-Pro seven times and named Defensive Player of the Year three times. He has 98 career sacks in 127 games.
Los Angeles Rams defensive end Aaron Donald (99) sacks Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady (12) during the first half of an NFL divisional round playoff football game Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark LoMoglio) Credit: AP/Mark LoMoglio
He is so revered and respected that during Rams defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson’s media availability this week, a reporter asked about Donald by calling him "the best defensive player in the world."
Robinson corrected that description.
"The best player in the world," he said.
But there is that one hole on his resume.
"I know what it feels like to be there [in a Super Bowl], but I don’t know what it feels like to win," he said. "I feel like I accomplished a lot in a short amount of time in this league.
The only thing I’m lacking now is being a world champion."
Not for long, if the rest of the Rams have anything to say about it.
"This building wants to win for Aaron Donald, to create more for his legacy and what he’s done," defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said. "Our people in PR, community relations, the football office, ops, everything that we have, the training room, his players, his brothers — we want to win for Aaron Donald."
Part of that is because of how much Donald has meant to the game, but it’s also because of what Donald has meant to the Rams.
On a team that has more imported parts than a Formula One garage — almost all of the key players come from elsewhere, including Matthew Stafford, Odell Beckham Jr., Jalen Ramsey, Von Miller, Leonard Floyd, Eric Weddle, Andrew Whitworth — Donald stands out as a homegrown product. The Rams selected him with the 13th pick in the 2014 draft (one pick after the Giants took Beckham), and in his first three seasons, the team posted a losing record. The last five have finished with winning records — four of them with a playoff berth and two of them with a Super Bowl appearance.
"That means a lot,’’ Donald said of everyone in the organization pulling for him. "Words can’t express the way that feels, hearing it from my teammates, definitely your brothers. You’re doing everything in your power to help the team win, to help them win, and for them to feel they’re trying to help me accomplish something, that’s huge, man. It’s a blessing my guys got that much love for me to try to do that. We’re trying to win this not just for me, for all of us.’’
And now, that last step: Super Bowl LVI against the Bengals.
"That’s really all we talk about," Miller said of his relationship with Donald. "Everything that I talk to him about is about winning a Super Bowl, how can I help him be a better Aaron Donald, how can he make me a better Von Miller. Our whole friendship is about winning this Super Bowl."
Morris recalled watching that Super Bowl three years ago.
"I remember watching Aaron Donald’s face because they kept showing him on television," Morris said. "I looked into his eyes, and I felt that hurt. I felt that pain. And when I got here, that was the first thing that I said to him. I said, ‘I’m going to do everything in my power, everything possible, to help you win a championship.’ "
Donald had a different reaction at the end of his most recent game. He gave a passionate sideline address to his teammates, flexing the vocal leadership muscles that those close to him — including Miller, who joined the team in midseason — have been getting on him to flex more often, and when the Rams closed out their win over the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, he started pointing.
Not at the opponent. Not at his teammates. At his empty ring finger.
"When that happened, it was just off of emotion, a lot of emotions running through you, excitement,’’ Donald said. "The ultimate goal is to be playing in this game."
And if things go well, to be playing in confetti with Jaeden after it, having kept a three-year-old promise and providing the crowning achievement in a Hall of Fame career that has one empty box left to check.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
