NFL News: Aaron Donald May Hold Off Retirement After Super Bowl-Winning Tackle

Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams vowed he would retire if he failed to win Super Bowl LVI at the expense of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Ironically, he was involved in the last play that could have determined if it was the last play of his NFL career.

The 30-year-old left tackle made a gem of a defensive play after his teammates Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp completed a touchdown to hand the Rams a three-point lead, 23-20, with less than two minutes remaining.

Hence, all Donald had to do was make sure that the Bengals would not complete their last offensive anchored on Joe Burrow. And so he did.

Donald perhaps had the most memorable tackle of his life against Burrow, heralding the Rams to become the Super Bowl LVI champions.

In the final play, the Super Bowl hopes of the Bengals hinged on how Burrow could execute the potential game-winning play.

Unfortunately for him, Donald applied good pressure on the fourth-and-1, covering the 25-year-old well and thus making it impossible for Burrow to complete a first-down pass to Samaje Perine.

When everything was over, Donald preferred to enjoy the moment and admitted he was not thinking much about retirement--at least for now.

“I’m just so happy, I wanted this so bad. I dreamed this, I dreamed this. It’s surreal,” Donald stated. “I’m not thinking about it (retirement), I just want to enjoy this with my teammates.”

Kupp was adjudged the Super Bowl LVI MVP, edging out Stafford and Donald for the prestigious individual award.

The Rams won their second Super Bowl plum. Their first triumph was back in 1999 when the team was still based in St. Louis.

On the other side, it was the third Super Bowl defeat for the Bengals.

They also fell short of winning the Super Bowl when they lost in 1982 and 1989, ironically both against the San Francisco 49ers.

As pointed out by Sporting News, only two players on the current Bengals roster were alive the last time Cincinnati made the Super Bowl in 1989. These were Clark Harris and Kevin Huber.

Meanwhile, Bengals coach Zac Taylor was only six years old at the time.