Aaron Donald was never one to be messed with on the field, though he still saw his fair share of scuffles when he played for the Los Angeles Rams.
In the middle of a game or practice, things can escalate rather quickly and with Donald going up against multiple offensive linemen every day, fights expectedly broke out.
Tensions can rise even higher during joint practices in the summer as it’s the first time players get to go up against competition that isn’t their teammates. This was true a few summers ago when the Rams held a joint practice with the Cincinnati Bengals and a major scuffled occurred.
Donald was seen swinging his helmet at Bengals players and he explained what led to the situation, via The Pivot Podcast:
“I was the peacemaker that day,” Donald said. “They had an offensive lineman that kept fighting one of our guys the whole practice, since one-on-ones. And he kept doing it. He did it at least five times. I looked at Sean and I said, ‘Listen, Sean. I’ve been a peacemaker. I’ve been breaking up these fights this whole practice. If they do it again, I’m going to feel like they think they’re trying to bully us. I’m going to shut the practice down.’ He said, ‘Aaron, I understand. I understand.’ I said, ‘I’m just letting you know, Coach.’
“We were cool. He wasn’t mad. First play, he comes out, he throws a punch. They start fighting. I grab the dude, he throws him down. My guy starts beating him up. And I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a football brawl, but it’s just a bunch of people and you’re just like, you’ve got to protect yourself. And I blacked out from there, I don’t know what happened…I was the peacemaker and then it just happened how it happened. I got to protect my guys and protect myself, too.”
It didn’t take long for the teams to shut down the practice after Donald retaliated, though it goes to show that he wasn’t afraid to stick up for his teammates when he felt like it was warranted.
Rams’ Braden Fiske to workout with Aaron Donald
With Aaron Donald gone, Rams rookie defensive lineman Brande Fiske is slated to take his place along the defensive line though he isn’t expected to replicate his production. To prepare for his role, Fiske revealed he will train with Donald before training camp.
