LA Rams Star Aaron Donald On The Art Of Starting Over

Photo Credit: Mark Hanson

BY LAURA SCHREFFLER

PHOTOGRAPHY MARK HANSON

STYLING ANTOINE KELLY

GROOMING JUANITA LOPEZ

SHOT ON LOCATION IN LOS ANGELES

Even superheroes have some sort of weakness, and Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, a man largely considered to be among the best to have ever played the game of football, is no exception.

“I’m obsessed with french fries,” the 32-year-old Super Bowl LVI champ confides just before our cover shoot at his Hidden Hills, California, home in June. “I have to have them once a week, but only on the weekends. It’s my biggest kryptonite. Even if it’s after my cheat day, I have to at least eat one — it’s so hard for me to turn them down.”

His refusal to indulge takes a serious well of strength, because hello — who has the willpower to eat just one fry? But that’s Donald. He’s made of steel and sinew inside and out, just like his favorite superhero, the Hulk. (“I’m into super strength — I’d like to lift up a house if I could!” he declares. I mean, the man can bench-press 500 pounds. I feel like he’s almost there.)

But admitting any kind of weakness at all is a big thing for Donald, who is known to be a man of few words on a good day, never mind when he’s discussing a perceived flaw. He is regimented to the nth degree, working out like a beast five to six times a week, even in the offseason, to stay razor sharp, like the 270-pound bruiser he is. His body is a temple, and that’s the way he likes it. It’s how he needs it.

“It’s hard for me to sit around, even during the offseason. Everyone else [on the team] travels and might take a week or two off, but I’m a guy that personally just can’t do that,” he admits before quickly explaining why. “To be the best, you’ve always got to work. I feel like when you’ve made a name for yourself, everybody’s always trying to find a way to stop you.

Everyone wants to find a way to dominate Aaron Donald. So, I’m always working, you know? Always trying to find ways to get stronger, always trying to keep myself in top shape all year round. And that’s why I’m all year round with football. I’m training pretty much every day in the weight room. Now that I’m getting older, there’s a lot more I need to do just to keep myself healthy and fresh to be able to perform.”

This type of discipline isn’t unusual, but it also makes sense that he’s putting in maximum effort — especially this summer — given that he was plagued by an ankle injury during the 2022-2023 season that frustratingly left him sitting on the sidelines for seven of 17 games.

Photo Credit: Mark Hanson

“I’m just grinding,” he says. “I’m coming off of ankle surgery this season, so I’m trying to keep my body in top shape, pretty much training Monday through Friday and sometimes Saturdays. I’m in the weight room, conditioning, making sure that I’m able to move how I need to move. And honestly, I’m in the best shape of my life. I feel like my strength is where it needs to be. I’m trying to stay away from a lot of fried food, sugars, and things that can cause inflammation, and eat a lot of protein. If I eat certain bad stuff, I just feel like I have to work out. I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s just mental with me now. I grew up a chubby little kid, and I try as hard as I can not to get back to that chubby little kid. I’m scared of that guy [because] I like to take my shirt off and look good. So, I’m trying to make sure that I’m healthy for football, but also for life, period. And right now, my body is looking good.”

He is going to need every weapon in his body’s arsenal this season because, in many ways, his team is very much starting from scratch. The Rams bid farewell to some big-name starters, including Jalen Ramsey, Bobby Wagner, and Leonard Floyd, and are starting with an entirely new rookie defense — players like cornerback Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson, and outside linebacker Byron Young — a defense that’s promising but that also has never actually set foot on a National Football League field.

But Donald isn’t scared. He feels good, he looks good, and he’s ready to dominate. Plus, as not only a Super Bowl champion but also a nine-time Pro Bowl select, seven-time All-Pro select, and three-time Defensive Player of the Year, he is more qualified than most to lead his team —however green — to victory. And for many, that could be daunting, disappointing even — but not for Donald. For him, it’s a challenge, and he’s ready and raring to go for the 2023-2024 season, which kicks off on September 10 away against the Seahawks in Seattle.

He says as much now. “Winning a Super Bowl was my goal, and obviously, I accomplished it. I had plans of being done after accomplishing it, too, but when you experience something like that, it’s hard to just walk away from it. Now, I’m trying to do everything I can to relive that, but I’m coming into the season with pretty much a whole new team,” he admits, noting, “It’s going to be a huge thing to accomplish something like that, but for me, it just makes it that much better, trying to bring that to reality. Obviously, the year we did win the Super Bowl, we had a lot of star power. If you can win the Super Bowl with a young team — a bunch of guys that have never even stepped on an NFL field in an NFL game yet — to accomplish something like that just proves you’re a great player, a great leader, a great teammate. So, having the opportunity to come and see this unfold with a young team, to try and relive that win, is exciting, like starting over from scratch.”

And that doesn’t just apply to the newbies, either. He’s speaking about himself here just as much.

Photo Credit: Mark Hanson

“I feel like I’ve got to kind of remake my name all over again because I missed seven games last season with an injury,” he confesses. “I feel like I need to restart all over again, make a name for myself all over again, and that’s how I’m going about this year.”

As one of the remaining team vets from the Rams’ monster February 2022 win — along with quarterback Matthew Stafford, wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Van Jefferson, tight end Tyler Higbee, running back Cam Akers, offensive tackle Rob Havenstein, defensive tackle Marquise Copeland, and linebacker Ernest Jones — Donald finds himself in a position of power to truly lead the young guard and to help position them as a unit … and, hopefully, become the team to beat.

“I’m planning on leading by example,” he explains. “Obviously, you need to be vocal at times, but I feel like the best way to lead is by showing the guys how I work — from what I do in the weight room to the football field. When you tend to do things the right way, at a high level, and guys know who you are, know what you’ve accomplished, they’re going to try to replicate what you’re doing. Those are the kind of guys I want out there with me, playing with me, and that’s what we need to have any kind of success.”

To emulate Donald, the rookies are going to have to go above and beyond, well past an extra mile. It’s his 10th NFL season, after all. He started as the 13th pick in the 2014 NFL Draft straight from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was named an All-Big East selection twice. In his last year, 2013, he received the NCAA’s Outland Trophy for top interior lineman, as well as the Lombardi Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy, and Chuck Bednarik Award  — and he’s still “in the weight room, working out, lifting, and when I’m done with my workout, I’m doing extra work at the end.” He’s confident that when the younger players see his work ethic, they, too, are going to put in the additional effort, not because he told them to, but because they will see that commitment pays off. Similarly, his home is always available to teammates who want to watch film and study it with him. “When it comes to film study, from a mental standpoint, you’ve got to study yourself — and that’s not when I’m at work only; it’s when I’m at home. Guys [are] always asking if they can watch film with me. I have no problem with that. So, you teach them how to do it, how it’s done. And then, obviously, you need to showcase the way you work on the football field. You can’t be half-assed; you have to go 100 miles per hour when you’re out there. Being a guy that’s respected in this league, I think younger guys are going to gravitate to that and try to imitate what they see.”
And if the new players can imitate what they see, there’s definitely another imminent Super Bowl spot for the Rams — rookies and old guard alike.

Photo Credit: Mark Hanson

AS I’VE PREVIOUSLY NOTED, Aaron Donald has a lot of titles attached to his name. Buffalo Bills linebacker Von Miller recently referred to him as “the greatest lineman of all time.” There was also the recent aforementioned superhero comparison; and now, 33rd Team, the premier football think tank, has dubbed Donald one of the top three most intimidating players in the entire NFL — just behind Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

When I share this, Donald mulls it over for a bit, finally saying, “I guess because of the talent we have and what we can do on the football field, I guess we can be considered intimidating. But, you know, I guess it’s like kind of like a compliment more than anything.”

It’s not like he’s actively trying to be intimidating — it just kind of comes with the territory.

“I really don’t think about it; I just play. Definitely at my position, you’ve got to play with some type of attitude, some type of aggression. I think some of the best football players got that ‘dog,’ we call it, that type of attitude that you need to play this game. Football is a physical sport; you ain’t on the field smiling and high-fiving. Sometimes, you’ve got to have that intimidation factor,” he notes.

This intimidation factor is something he personally acquired at a very young age, growing up as the youngest of three children in Lincoln-Lemington, a working-class neighborhood of Pittsburgh. “I grew up with an older brother and sister. They always tried to beat up on me, so when I got the opportunity to play sports — which I’ve been doing since I was 5 years old — I was able to express myself that way. It runs a little of the ‘mean’ out of me,” he explains.

But the second he’s off the field and in his home, a switch flips. He is no longer the intimidating pro athlete Aaron Donald; he is Aaron Donald, doting husband to wife, Erica, and father to Jaeda, 10; A.J., 7; and Aaric (A.A.), 2, with, at press time, a fourth child on the way.

“Away from football, you’re a different person. Even if it’s a bad day at work, you’ve still got kids that run up to you and are like, ‘Dad, Dad, Dad!’ It doesn’t matter what time you get home. You have to put all that other stuff to the side. You’ve got to be a father, a dad, and a husband. You have to find that on-and-off switch.”

Photo Credit: Mark Hanson

Donald is a family dude through and through. He’s exceptionally close to his parents and siblings, who still live in Pittsburgh. In fact, his sister, Akita, runs his nonprofit, AD99 Solutions Foundation, while his wife is also his business partner and manages all of his marketing efforts. As such, it’s no surprise that family means everything to him — especially his wife and kids. That doesn’t mean that he’ll let them win, though; they’ve got to learn to compete the hard way, just as he himself did.

“My daughter’s 10, my oldest boy is 7, and I don’t let them win no more,” he says with a laugh. “My youngest is little — he still gets to win — but the other two need to work now. They’ve got to understand that competition is competition!”
Donald is a self-described “laid-back and quiet guy” — unless he’s with his wife and kids, that is. “I’m like a big kid with my kids. We have Nerf gun fights. We play football. We wrestle. We play around a lot. With my wife, I’m the same way.

Obviously, you’ve got to be a little romantic at times, and she brings out the soft side of me, as do my kids. They’re my happy place. As a father, I’m excited to just watch them grow and see what they get into. I got to be a kid who grew up dreaming about being in the NFL, and I got to live out my dreams. I want to be a part of helping my kids find what it is that they’re passionate about, whatever it is, just as long as I get to help them find out what they’re passionate about and watch them accomplish it.”

It goes both ways, too. His family inspires and motivates him just as much as he does them. “I would say for a long time that [my greatest motivation] was trying to be the best. And I think that I’m there: I’ve accomplished everything you can accomplish at the highest level — NFC championship, winning the Super Bowl, All-Pros, Pro Bowls, Defensive Player of the Year, I accomplished that multiple times. I accomplished everything that a defensive player can accomplish in this league, so I had to find a new motivation. For me, it’s my kids and the way they look up to me. I’ve got to continue to motivate myself for them, give them something to be proud of.”

And though his own children are the most important, he also wants to positively affect other children. This is why he started his foundation in the first place, its mission being “to change the trajectory of Pittsburgh’s most vulnerable youth by providing necessary resources in a free, safe environment.”

“I grew up in the inner city and had a lot of friends that had the potential to do great things, had a lot of potential in football, and could be where I’m at today, but didn’t have a mom and dad that pushed them to go to practice every single day,” Donald says. “I had that support system to make sure I stayed on the right track. A lot of my friends were in and out of jail; a lot of my friends got murdered. So, me creating my foundation was just trying to give kids the opportunity to live out their dreams.”

He pauses, before saying, “I’m a living testimony of somebody that put the work in and is living his dream. How many kids get to say at 5 years old that they’re going to be in the NFL? I’m 32 and still can’t believe that I’m here. I now have the opportunity to help these kids not just through football, but with tutoring and mentoring. Being around me, seeing where I’ve come from is some of the strongest motivation they can get, because they get to see me, you know, because they don’t just get to see me as Aaron Donald, the football player; they get to see me as Aaron Donald, the person. To me, I’m just Aaron. I’m the same guy I’ve been my entire life. But these kids see me on TV, see me play football, and they look up to me. That I’m able to talk to them, motivate them, means everything to me that I’m able to change the narrative for these kids, to help them be as successful as they can possibly be.”

He’s not even close to thinking about throwing in the towel — that ship sailed after he won the Super Bowl and decided he wasn’t satisfied with just one Vince Lombardi Trophy — but when he does, he’s got a plan and it definitely involves becoming much more hands-on with AD99, stoking the fire of his investments, and getting more heavily involved in the real estate market. He thinks he’ll probably stay in California for a few more years post-retirement and buy land somewhere — he’s not quite sure where yet — to build a brand-new home. He’ll also likely buy a condo and spend some time back in Pittsburgh, where he plans on building affordable housing. 

“Football blessed me with financial stability to be comfortable, but I’m not the kind of guy that can sit still and just be at home all day, so I’ve got to continue to work, branching off and creating different outlets for different things to keep me busy and keep me going. Now, I’m putting things in place that can generate not just money, but legacy. To be a part of that, to put my name on something and say that I helped create that, that’s what life is about,” he says.

Naturally, Donald’s legacy involves football, too. How could it not when he’s literally a GOAT?

But, to him, it’s more than just how he plays the game — leaving his mark is all about changing public perception, and in doing so, ultimately changing the game. “You want to be one of the best to do it at your position. You want to be the guy that helped change the game in some way. For me, I feel like I helped do that, being that I wasn’t highly recruited. That, for a defensive tackle, I was considered to be undersized. That, in coming out of high school, even though I had a lot of success, a lot of colleges didn’t want to give me a scholarship. But then, you go Division I at the University of Pittsburgh and have a lot of success. It lands you in the NFL, where no one thinks you’re going to do well because you’re 6’1” and 275 pounds. But you play at a high level, and all of a sudden, everyone is trying to find the next Aaron Donald. So, leaving a legacy is obviously about trying to be great and accomplish great things, but it’s also about how you changed the game, what you brought to it, if you did something to impact it in a special way. I feel like I did that, and I’m on the verge of continuing to do that.”

He’ll certainly have accomplished that this year if he and the Rams can pull off a Super Bowl “W” with a slew of rookies. But in sports, it’s a general rule of thumb that anything can happen — and frequently does. So, he’ll keep on putting in the work, hitting the weight room, honing himself into the lean, mean tackling machine Angelenos know and love.

As we get ready to wrap up — he has our photo shoot to get to — he leaves me with a few more thoughts on the legacy he hopes to leave. “Am I the best, the greatest? I’m still living in it. There are so many greats that played this game, this position, that I can’t personally [refer to myself that way]. But I’ll tell you what: to be an interior defensive tackle and be considered with the greats is more than just a huge accomplishment — it’s a blessing. Going from being a 6-year-old kid dreaming about playing in the NFL to getting here and having so much success right away is surreal at times. It’s sunk in, but it hasn’t really sunk in, if you know what I mean. It’s hard for me to kind of take that in because I’m still working, man; I’m still trying to do more, still trying to accomplish more. I’m still playing the game.”  

Photo Credit: Mark Hanson