“I’m DONE”: Aaron Donald submitted his retirement letter to the Los Angeles Rams but it never reached the Commissioner’s table
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The Los Angeles Rams may have won the Super Bowl last year but during the offseason, the team dodged a huge obstacle that would have left them greatly short-handed. The heart and soul of the team’s defense, Aaron Donald was considering retirement seriously and he wanted to move on to the next chapter of his life as he has achieved everything that a defensive tackle could. Donald is a 3-time Defensive Player of the year, he was Defensive ROTY, has made the First-team All-Pro 7 straight times, made the Pro Bowl 8 times, and also was voted as the best player in the league on numerous occasions.
The rumors surrounding Aaron Donald’s retirement were gaining traction just days before the Super Bowl and after the Los Angeles Rams closed their season with a Lombardi trophy, the best defensive tackle to ever set foot on the field wanted to end his career on a high note. Aaron penned a letter in which he stated that he wishes to retire from the NFL and made his agent send the letter to the team. The letter has been secretive, we do not know if Donald penned any reasons for his abrupt retirement but he addressed it to the NFL’s Commissioner.
Aaron Donald’s retirement letter stated that he would walk away from the NFL effective May 9th:
The league Commissioner has to get a copy of the letter in which a player formally announces that he will no longer be playing and once Roger Goodell approves, the athlete can walk away from the game. This is just a formality but the whole process requires the team for whom the athlete is playing to intimate the Commissioner of such a move.
Aaron Donald informed the team that he will be retiring effective immediately from the 9th of May and his agent had clearly mentioned in the letter that the Los Angeles Rams have to forward this letter to the league office. However, that never happened.
Instead of retiring, Aaron Donald was able to ink up a new contract with the Rams which locks him in with the team for another two years. Before the new contract was negotiated, Donald had three more years left on his $136 million, 6-year contract, and there was no talk about the Rams renegotiating his contract. Donald’s agent, Todd France was constantly urging the Rams to give his client a well-deserved raise but this was something that had never happened to a defensive player.
In the NFL, once you sign a contract, you are locked in, there is no scope for renegotiations or demanding more money. With his stalled contract negotiations combined with the fact that he had achieved everything that a player in his position could, he seemed to not get the point of playing any longer. As a result, Aaron sent his retirement letter to the Rams and he seemed to be content with his decision.
However, the DT’s agent had scheduled a meeting with the GM of the Rams to discuss his contract, the initial reaction of the Rams was one filled with shock but the team wanted to make sure that they left no stone unturned in attempting to change his mind. At the meeting, the tables turned quickly, and the two scheduled another meeting where they managed to bring to fruition a deal that was initially considered to be impossible to do.
Aaron got a $40 million raise over the next three years, which means his contract will still be for 3 years but he will be paid extremely well. There is a chance that Donald may have orchestrated this brilliant move just to nudge the Rams to pay him more, if that was the case then well played. But at the same time, if Aaron were to retire, the LA Rams would not only suffer on the field but their salary cap would have also ended up taking a massive hit.
If the Rams had ended up sending the retirement letter to Roger Goodell, then they would have been hit with a $21.5 million salary cap but after the new contract was negotiated, this cap amount fell to $9 million. The salary cap issues combined with the fear of losing a defensive powerhouse were enough to compel the Rams into renegotiating a new deal that made their defensive tackle happy and want to play.
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Sumedh Joshi
(2235 Articles Published)