Los Angeles Rams star defensive tackle Aaron Donald announced his retirement from the NFL on Friday.
The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year accomplished a lot in his 10-year playing career. Now, at 32 (33 next week), he has the opportunity to focus on the next chapter of his life.
While Donald was coy in his announcement, saying “I don’t know what the future holds,” there are signs out there that an acting career might be next.
During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” NFL insider Ian Rapoport cheekily dropped something that resembled a scoop while discussing Donald’s plan since he almost retired two years ago.
I can't believe this @tyschmit 😂😂#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/BqgYy5jIRW
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 15, 2024
“Two more years, get to 33, retire as a Top-5 greatest defensive player in the history of the NFL, and then go be an action movie star, which I think he’ll probably do next,” said Rapoport. “I thought he was gonna retire two years ago… he told the Rams he was gonna retire, they ended up with a new contract. I thought he was gonna go be an action movie star. He would be amazing. He’s good at basically everything, so that makes sense.”
Rapoport didn’t just pull that out of thin air. Donald has a history of talking about his desire to get into the acting biz.
In a 2022 appearance on the I AM ATHLETE podcast, Donald said he wanted to pursue a career in acting once his NFL career was over.
“I got certain things that I want to be involved with,” Donald said. “I’ve got a little acting career I wanna do after football. I got different business adventures I want to be a part of, but at the end of the day, I’m the type of guy that I need to learn everything.”
Donald had already caught the acting bug before he made those comments, appearing in an episode of CBS’s “Magnum PI” in 2019.
5x Pro Bowler, 2x Defensive Player of the Year and now… an actor?!
Don’t miss @AaronDonald97 on @MagnumPICBS tonight at 9/8c on @CBS! 🎬 pic.twitter.com/cdl3fRkDWF
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) October 19, 2019
Donald also showed a lot of charisma and charm during the Los Angeles Rams’ season on “Hard Knocks.”
The future Pro Football Hall of Famer certainly has the physique to play a superhero or action hero. Does he have the acting chops? That remains to be seen. But don’t be too surprised if Donald soon shows up on a movie screen (or streaming service) near you.
[The Pat McAfee Show, I AM ATHLETE]
