The Rant: The origin of Aaron Donald's dominance, Kurt Russell's birthday, and why more 'Bear' up front is a good thing

On a beautiful Sunday morning, let's get into it.

If you asked me what the biggest gripe was when it came to losing the Rams out of St. Louis back in 2016, it was watching Aaron Donald take his talents to Los Angeles. Stan Kroenke didn’t just take NFL football out of town for the last time in my lifetime (most likely), but he really took one of the best defensive players of all time along with it. Fuck you eternally, Enos, for that conceited decision.

I’d urge the city to hand back the $700-plus million to Stan in exchange for the last eight years of Donald’s career, one that started its legendary trek right here under the biggest horseshoe in the land. He played all 32 games of the 2014 and 2015 seasons, totaling 20 sacks and 48 tackles to go with three passes defended. He would go on to explode in 2018 with 20.5 sacks, and the guy didn’t miss a lot of time in his career.

He just missed a lot of potential snaps in St. Louis. He’d be more beloved in St. Louis than Los Angeles, a place that can’t even fill a stadium for a playoff game. The community here would accept him as the latest sports prodigal son, ushering him into a land that only guys like Brett Hull, Marshall Faulk, Kurt Warner, Albert Pujols, and Yadier Molina know.

One could say Donald had an indelible, Yadi-type effect on the playing field for the Rams. He wasn’t just a pass rusher, but a general disruptor of anything positive for the other team. He was the wall that stood in front of points and personal confidence. If he hit you, the feeling was left in the body for days instead of hours. I don’t watch a ton of football these days, but I would have loved to see Patrick Mahomes line up against Donald for four Super Bowl quarters.

A matchup for the ages will have to live out its lifespan in our heads and imaginations, because the big fella retired Friday. After eleven seasons and countless damage to his body and head, Donald decided enough was enough. The reason isn’t complex. Like Barry Sanders and the NHL’s Dustin Byfuglien, one can decide to know when to end things before an incurable amount of harm is done to their brains.

Calvin Johnson did the same thing in Detroit, as did Jim Brown decades ago. Hang them up before the game hangs you. Cheers to Aaron Donald for putting together a career that should be talked about, discussed, and drooled over for a very long time.

That was the portion of this week’s Rant that free subscribers get for free. The rest, you’ll have to donate a few shekels from your weekly Starbucks allowance to access the rest. As the Joker says, and my wife agrees with: If you’re good at something, never do it for free. Here’s the rest of the stuff in my head that is fit to print without getting me fired and turned into a nomad.

The Bear will film Season 3 & 4 back-to-back

Two things. It doesn’t exactly spell the end of the show, and there will be a shorter wait between seasons for fans to watch the show.