Los Angeles Rams defensive end Aaron Donald confirmed that he had one major requirement for coming out of retirement.
Aaron Donald spoke to the media following the announcement that he is back to play with the Los Angeles Rams in 2026. During that availability, the future Hall of Famer admitted that he did not have an easy time making a decision on his return.
Additionally, Donald said there was one major requirement that needed to happen for him to even consider ending his retirement.
The Rams defensive end has had a long journey back to playing football, which included an admitted 12 to 14 weeks of training to even see if his body was ready. Donald also stated that he had long conversations with many people regarding his return, which was never guaranteed.
This makes sense considering just weeks prior to the news breaking that he was considering returning, Donald spoke on Cam Heyward's podcast and said he was completely content with never taking the field again.
That tune change when Myles Garrett was added to the Rams, or at least it greatly helped Donald decided to attempt a comback. However, before any of that could happen, he had to ensure that his family was ok with him playing football again.
"I think my wife played a huge part of me making this decision, period. If the wife wasn't happen, it wasn't going to get done. I gotta make sure the household was good, the kids was ok with it all ... my wife was on board," Donald said.
Donald made sure that his family was fine with his return to football, especially his wife. Erica Donald has been incredibly supportive and also shared many updates and jokes about the situation on social media.
Arguably the most humorous was following the announcement, where Erica said she finally let him out of the house.
That said, a football player being on the road for games is a lot for any family, hence why Donald needed to make sure that his wife and kids were going to be ok with him taking this journey yet again.
With that in mind, the Rams now have one of their greatest defenders back in the building. What must happen now is the ramp-up back to football, which Donald and head coach Sean McVay admitted.
There is a reality where Donald cannot make the trip to Australia to play in Week 1. He has been added to a special two-game exempt list so that he can be exempt from playing in the game, should he need more time to get into football shape.
Regardless of Donald staying in incredible shape, and training over multiple months, there is still a lot of work to be done for him to get his body ready to play a long 17-game season.
