Super Bowl 2022: Aaron Donald gives Rams perfect finish
By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports NFL Analyst
Sean McVay saw it coming, and he called it.
Before the play that decided Super Bowl LVI and wrapped up a world championship for the Rams, the Los Angeles coach knew how it was going to go down.
Because … Aaron Donald.
With the Cincinnati Bengals trailing 23-20 and trying to drive at least into range for a tying field goal, they were met with a fourth-and-1 at midfield. They would get no further.
"I promise you guys: I was mic’d up, so you can hear it," McVay told reporters afterward. "When it was fourth down, and they got into shotgun, and they were probably not going to run the football, I said, 'Aaron's going to close the game out right here.' He is the f---ing man."
Donald, a defensive marauder and arguably the most impactful player in football, took matters into his own hands. In what might have been the final play of his career — let that one percolate for a minute — he wrestled his way to the outside of Bengals guard Quinton Spain, then cut inside to get to quarterback Joe Burrow.
Once the giant lineman got his arms around Burrow, there was no escape for the QB, and a desperate fling of the ball was all the young Cincinnati quarterback could manage. His toss fell to the SoFi stadium turf — and the Rams had clinched the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
"The epitome of greatness is making everybody you’re around and every situation better," McVay added. "That still doesn’t do justice to what an impact he has made."
Donald has been in the league since 2014 and has amassed a staggering collection of personal accolades. He has been NFL Defensive Player of the Year three times and a Pro Bowler eight times, and he was named to the league’s All-Decade team for the 2010s. He has missed only two games in his pro career, neither of them due to injury.
He is one of the old guard for the Rams, with his time dating to the St. Louis days, long before the likes of Jalen Ramsey and Von Miller were added on defense, with Matthew Stafford and Odell Beckham Jr. on the other side of the ball, and a run at a championship became feasible.
Rumors began to circulate prior to kickoff that Donald might call time on his career if the Rams were successful, a theory put forward by NBC’s Rodney Harrison, who conducted a sit-down interview with Donald in the days leading up to the big game.
As he ended his postgame media session, I asked Donald whether he would return next season, and he was noncommittal, saying only that he was "in the moment."
If he does depart, he will leave behind quite the legacy of sustained excellence.
For now, though, he was far more effusive when talking about the play that put a ring on his finger, just like he gestured after victory was sealed.
History might forget that with a few minutes remaining, the Rams were in trouble and the Bengals were looking like favorites. Stafford’s long touchdown drive put the team up by three, but Burrow had gotten the Bengals to a spot where field-goal position was not far away — and overtime loomed.
But … Aaron Donald.
Just like McVay predicted it, Donald also saw it unfolding in his mind. Poor Spain had no chance. As has happened so often before, Donald was too quick, too strong, too smart and too determined.
"We had just made a third-down stop, and I thought they were going to drop back and pass," he said. "I thought I could bend the edge and find a way to get to the quarterback. It was a huge play, a huge stop.
"You’ve got to be relentless. You want something bad enough, you’ve got to go get it. It was right in front of us. We had the lead. It was pinned on the defense’s shoulders to make the big stop to help us be world champions, and I wouldn’t want it any other way."
The game on the line and a future Hall of Fame defender in position to put it to bed? The Rams wouldn’t have wanted it any other way, either.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. You can subscribe to the daily newsletter here.