Add The California Post on Google There are certain people in Los Angeles that require no introduction.
So at SoFi Stadium on Monday night, turn down the lights, crank up the music and just let No. 99 walk out of the tunnel.
Because for the first time in over two-and-a-half years, Aaron Donald plans to play professional football again when the Rams host the New York Giants in their home opener in primetime.
And when Donald emerges from that tunnel wearing his jersey and shoulder pads again, seismologists might need to check the Richter Scale because SoFi Stadium is going to shake.
“That’s the plan,” Donald said Friday when asked if he would play.
Three words. That’s all Los Angeles needed to hear.
“If he said it, he’s going. Whatever Aaron says, I support,” said head coach Sean McVay.
Donald stopped short of guaranteeing anything, but after two seasons away from football and nearly three years since his last game at SoFi Stadium, the Rams legend said additional practices this week have him feeling “more free, a lot more loose” and increasingly like himself.
And if he can be anything like he was when he retired after the 2023 season, that should terrify the Giants.
It should also electrify a Rams team that desperately needs something to feel good about after getting embarrassed 27-7 by the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia.
The Rams flew halfway around the world for Week 1 and apparently left their pass rush somewhere over the Pacific. Myles Garrett finished without a tackle, sack or quarterback hit, then underwent knee surgery that will sideline him for at least four games.
There is something almost too perfect about the symmetry.
Donald’s final regular-season appearance before retirement came against these same Giants on Dec. 31, 2023. On New Year’s Eve in New York, Donald recorded five tackles and two sacks as the Rams escaped with a 26-25 victory.
His final game came two weeks later, Jan. 14, 2024, when the Rams lost 24-23 to the Detroit Lions in the NFC Wild Card round.
His previous appearance before the home crowd at SoFi Stadium came Dec. 21, 2023, a 30-22 victory over the New Orleans Saints. Monday falls on the 21st, too — exactly two years and nine months, or 1,005 days, later.
Screenwriters can only dream of a comeback like this, but once the ball is kicked off, the nostalgia will disappear and the reality will set in.
Donald is 35. He hasn’t played a meaningful snap in nearly 1,000 days. The Rams would be foolish to expect 60 snaps of vintage AD immediately, and Donald has already acknowledged he’ll tap out when necessary rather than pretend retirement somehow turned back the hands of time.
But honestly, the Rams don’t need the old Aaron Donald for 60 snaps.
Third-and-8. Two-minute drill. Late in the fourth quarter. The snaps where the outcome of the game is hanging in the balance. Let Kobie Turner and Byron Young eat some double-teams early in the game, and then unleash the most destructive interior defender of his generation in the moments that matter the most.
Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart wasn’t even in the NFL the last time Donald took a snap, neither was running back Sam Skattebo, but apparently he still wants an introduction.
“If I have to meet him in the hole on third-and-1, then so be it,” Skattebo told reporters Thursday. “I got to get one yard.”
Skattebo deserves credit for the confidence. After rushing for 81 yards in New York’s season-opening victory over Dallas, the bruising second-year back isn’t coming to L.A. for Donald’s retirement-homecoming parade.
But challenging Aaron Donald to meet you in the hole is the NFL equivalent of seeing a “Do Not Feed the Bears” sign and unpacking a picnic basket in front of it.
Maybe Donald has lost a step. Maybe two years away dulled that supernatural first burst. Maybe those famous hands of his aren’t quite as violent anymore.
Either way, we’ll finally find out on Monday night.
“AD is AD,” said Turner. “You guys will see it on Monday.”
Turner said Rams fans “love him” and predicted an emotional reception when Donald runs out of the tunnel during introductions, while the defense welcomes the entirely different dimension his presence creates.
Donald once walked away from football on his terms, with a Super Bowl ring, three Defensive Player of the Year awards and nothing left to prove to anyone.
But now he’s coming back just for the joy of playing football again and another chance to win the Lombardi Trophy inside SoFi Stadium.
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