Entering Sunday, Aaron Donald had been a Rookie of the Year, a Pro Bowler, an All-Pro selection and a Defensive Player of the Year.
By day’s end, he had earned a new distinction: Super Bowl champion.
Donald, the standout defensive tackle for the Los Angeles Rams, recorded two of his team’s seven sacks in Super Bowl LVI, helping to secure a 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. He made several big plays down the stretch to punctuate what has been one of the greatest careers by a defensive player in NFL history.
“I’m just so happy,” Donald told NBC following the game. “I wanted this so bad. I dreamed this. Man, I dreamed this. And it’s surreal. Look at this. I feel amazing. I feel amazing.”
With the game on the line in the final minute, Donald broke through the Bengals’ offensive line and wrapped up quarterback Joe Burrow, who flung a desperation fourth-down pass that fell incomplete.
“One last play to be world champs. Give it everything you got, and I found a way to get to him,” Donald said. “We made a play and we won. That’s all that matters.”
Now it remains to be seen if Donald, who reportedly was considering retirement if Los Angeles won the title, will walk away as a champion, or if he’ll return for a ninth season with the Rams.
“I’m in the moment. I’m just going to enjoy right now with these guys,” Donald said. “My kids (are coming) on the field. This is a promise I made to my daughter when she was 5. We’re going to play in the confetti for a minute and live in the moment.”
–Rams safety Eric Weddle said after the game that he believes he tore his pec early in the contest. A postgame report by ESPN confirmed the injury, which often is a season-ending ailment for most players.
The six-time Pro Bowler was lured out of retirement last month to rejoin Los Angeles for its Super Bowl push. The 37-year-old Weddle finished Sunday’s game with five tackles, earning the first — and, as it appears, the only — championship of his career.
“I am re-retiring,” Weddle announced after the game. “Back to my daily life.”
–Cincinnati earned its spot in the Super Bowl, emerging from one of the NFL’s most competitive divisions and then defeating the Las Vegas Raiders, Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs, with the final two victories coming as road upsets.
The Bengals then held the talented Rams offense to 313 total yards in the Super Bowl before falling in the final two minutes of the game.
Still, cornerback Chidobe Awuzie commented postgame that Sunday’s loss, while tough, is merely the beginning of things to come.
“Our heads are still high. We know who we are,” Awuzie said. “I’m really excited about the future.”
–Field Level Media