HOLD ON!!! Rams Future Hall of Fame DT Aaron Donald Just Retired!?!?! | The Rich Eisen Show

Aaron Donald the uh future Hall of Famer um is now retired um this is Aaron Donald's statement uh cheers to what's next extending a big thank you to the Rams and all of the fans for your support over these last 10 years much love wow um this is a lot a lot to uh really kind of break down I would say this man 10 years ago I had retired from the NFL um no no little bit no yeah about 10 years so in 201 13 is I retired from the NFL and I knew I was going to get in the broadcast and I had already started my journey yep and 2014 uh the people over at Fox gave me the opportunity to call games to be a broadcaster I wasn't on the Buckman and a I mean the buck and aan team I was on like the 17 though but my shout out to my guy dick Stockton right he was my play byplay and I remember we got our first broadc our first game it was Vikings at St Louis Rams and so here I am I'm you know I'm wideeye just out of the league I'm about to call a game and I'm doing all my research and everything and so you when you go do these games you get there a couple days before so I'm in say St Louis and we ride over to the Rams football facility Well we get over to the facility um you know I'm meeting with head coach Jeff fiser no lesne general manager and we were having meetings before the team went out to practice a little bit later on and if we wanted to watch practice we could it's a Friday practice and I said uh what time is practice today coach and I remember you said oh practice today is at I think I wanted to say practice started at uh um about 11:00 so we're having meetings at about 9 9:30 but in the conference room that we had the meetings in it overlooked the practice field and so I was like okay cool so we had a meeting and then after that there was this player out there on the field there was nobody out there and he's out there full uniform working I'm talking about hitting moves hitting the back and do this I'm like okay see you see the young guy out there getting in some work and then he was out there for such a long time and I'm like practice isn't until 11: it's 9:30 now 10:00 and then I remember I said coach who who which which player is that he said that's Aaron Donald and everybody was just like yeah he's different I was like how different he's different and I'm like whoa and I saw it then and you wonder why some guys are great you wonder why some players are special you wonder why you have the accolades three-time Defensive Player of the Year and I feel like I had a up close and personal I saw what it looked like I knew what it looked like and then all of a sudden he go remember he didn't even start in the beginning they actually did not start Aaron Donald as a rookie in the early part he worked his way into the rotation and then they just couldn't take keep him off the field and I'll never forget that moment of seeing this young player rookie outworking I mean he's on the he's out there with let me think his defensive line had Robert Quinn and Chris long and this dude is just scrapping trying to find a way Michael Brockers was on there I mean he's he's just trying to say hey I belong let me let me let me show with you guys what I can do and Aaron Donald has just have got moments right he's got plays sealing an NFC Championship game against the 49ers making the play to end the Super Bowl against the Cincinnati Bengals he's got moments and to think that he was in his 10th year this year and to see not one not two but sometimes three offensive linemen committed to blocking number 99 up front this is one of the game's best players I think I'm more upset is that we don't get a chance to see greatness what hard work is Aaron Donald when at training camp this year you know having to talk to him this was going to be different for him this was going to be that the Rams were considered a rebuild this year they drafted 14 players and they were saying hey Aaron Donald Papa Smurf we need you to help us out we need you to go help and bring these young guys along and there was a point in this season where the Rams didn't look like they were going to have much of a season I want to say they were about three and six they go to a byee and or or something like around there and then all of a sudden something changed after a bye after a loss to Green Bay and they went on the streak and I remember at the end of the season I had told my partner I said do you see that and he said see what and there was a picture of Aaron Don or a video of Aaron Donald walking off the sideline with the younger guys skipping and laughing and he had a Joy about him that I said hopefully this gives us two or three more years of Aaron Donald because he's found that new Joy what energizes you cuz we always ask a lot of these guys especially as kind of bringing his back to free agency a little bit fellas a lot of guys get these big contracts a lot of guys have won Super Bowls have accomplished a lot in their career so what drives you you've already won everything that that's what made Aaron Donald for me so special is that here watching him in year 10 at Rams training camp practice starts 1:00 guess who was out there at 11:30 in full gear a guy who's been to 10 Pro bowls All Pro every year three time defensive player the year but his work ethic never change his number of Defense the the amount of money that he gets is now the standard for defensive lineman that they can't touch that people keep saying oh it's not Aaron Donald money but he's getting closer he has set the standard and again I think I'm just more I'm hurt because I want to see more of it because more players need to see the example that Aaron Donald LED and man I just I'm thankful for the time of watching him I I really am his pro football reference page guys he played years he made the Pro Bowl all 10 years he made seven First Team all Pros in a row from 2015 to 2021 then made first team All Pro this past year TJ at age 32 he has a 111 career sacks as a defensive tackle yeah that's insane that's insane yeah um you know I think Kirk like you talk about his work ethic I'm from Pittsburgh and one of my best friends works for the Post cazette it's not Ed buett though it's not Ed so I I I was aware of okay Aaron Don back in like 2008 2009 when he was a a a high school kid at Penn Hills in Penn State and the stories that you read about him you know at 12 years old he'd wake up at 4:30 in the morning with his dad and go work out in the basement gym that his dad made for him so that that work ethic you talk about that was instilled really really early in his life and he just continued it on all the way up until I'm sure yesterday where hopefully he decide to maybe have a a cheat day as they say take a break I don't know if there was a cheat day I don't know if there was a cheat day with Aaron Donald I still have never seen a guy who's 285 90 plus pounds with a chiseled six-pack the way that that dude he like a pro wrestler like that's it's just different you know what I mean and they also I think they renamed the weight room at Pittsburgh is like the Aaron Donald weight room right like and I understand why the the Aaron Donal wait room because how much time he spent in it but man like it's just um you know it's just these certain players you just like man you watch and you see and you're like man like that's what made him great we watch basketball players and it's always about the shots and they make it look easy but yet when you think about it how difficult it truly is though like Steph Curry can make it look easy but the amount of work that he put into that we don't see those hours those countless hours whereas like I saw that Aaron Donald stuff and I'm like I understand why like I truly understand why me KES just uh posted you know kind of a congratulations and then it was just four pictures of him getting triple teamed like meiv posted just four pictures of him getting triple teamed and that's how you had to block this guy because if you had to if you didn't he was going to blow up your back field that I mean the um I remember uh Shan McVey said we in order for us to have a good practice offensively we actually had to make Aaron Donald sit out drills like think about that like he big dog big dog we we need you to sit this one out trying to got some things we want to accomplish we're trying to work on this and you're blowing it up man I mean the Rams just tweeted out a picture quarterbacks Rejoice I would say yeah quarterbacks Rejoice I would say that his own offensive lineman for his teams rejoice and look at Kyler Murray Kyler Murray has chimed in all caps thank God that is incredible uh I think that was one of the quarterbacks that he sacked no Russell Wilson also was another one of those guys oh Russ long time NFC West catch the rich eyes and show every single day on the Roku Channel 12 to3 Eastern for free

Channel: The Rich Eisen Show

Views: 52,922

Keywords: Rich Eisen, Rich Eisen Show, sports, NFL, football, college football, CFP, NBA, basketball, MLB, baseball, pop culture, Roku, NFL Network, Chris Brockman, TJ Jefferson, Del Tufo, Super Bowl, sports talk, talk show, Football, CFB, College Football, Baseball, NFL Draft, Kirk Morrison, Rams, Los Angeles Rams, Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua, Aaron Donald, Cooper Kupp, Kyren Williams, NFC West, 49ers, Niners, Seahawks, Arizona Cardinals, Aaron Donald retires

Id: mVC5bSoP1Rw

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2024