How Aaron Donalds potential Rams comeback compares to other legendary athletes
The pull Aaron Donald is feeling to unretire and chase football greatness again is hardly unique.Sports history is littered with legends who walked away, only to hear, and ultimately heed, the same call.Some, like Michael Jordan and Mario Lemieux, discovered that shaking off the rust was little more than a formality.
They returned and quickly reclaimed their place among the best in their sport.Others, like Deion Sanders and Randy Moss, never recaptured their previous greatness but still found ways to become valuable pieces on championship-caliber teams.And then there are the cautionary tales — icons like Muhammad Ali and Reggie White whose comebacks offered a painful reminder that eventually even the greatest athletes meet an opponent they can’t beat: Father Time.The 35-year-old Donald is about to find out where he belongs on that spectrum.The good news is the Rams aren’t asking him to be the Aaron Donald who terrorized the NFL for a decade.They don’t need him playing 90 percent of the defensive snaps or chasing another Defensive Player of the Year award.With Myles Garrett now wearing the Superman cape and commanding the kind of attention a player of his caliber demands, Donald will likely be asked to play 25 to 30 snaps per game, at least initially, with obvious passing downs and late-game situations serving as his primary calling cards.And maybe that’s the most compelling argument for Donald to try this.He doesn’t have to prove he can still be the best defensive player in football.
The Rams don’t need him to be.Provided everyone keeps that perspective, the floor for Donald should be high enough for him to remain a meaningful contributor.And given how special he has always been, it would be foolish to assume his ceiling isn’t considerably higher.History offers plenty of examples to consider.Michael JordanJordan actually unretired twice during his illustrious career, producing two very different outcomes.His first comeback was overwhelmingly succe...