Rams star Aaron Donald doesn’t want to talk about the helmet-swinging brawl with Bengals
Aaron Donald doesn’t want to talk about the wild helmet-swinging brawl he was involved in last month.
The Los Angeles Rams star, who was seen seemingly at the center of the fight during a joint practice between the Cincinnati Bengals last month, didn’t want to get into any specifics on Monday afternoon.
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His attention, he said, is only on their season opener against the Bills.
“I’m happy nobody got hurt in the practice and whatever, but my main focus is Thursday night against Buffalo,” Donald said, via The Los Angeles Times.
Aaron Donald, Rams involved in brawl with Bengals
The Rams and Bengals held joint practices in Ohio last month before their preseason game, though one practice was abruptly ended after a fight broke out between last year’s Super Bowl teams.
Video of the brawl showed one player swinging a helmet at the other team, and Donald was shoved to the ground with a Bengals helmet in his right hand. Donald was later seen with two Bengals helmets in his hands.
#Rams Aaron Donald swinging two #Bengals helmets in the mix. pic.twitter.com/y92A0gNskd
— Sam Greene (@SGdoesit) August 25, 2022
For what it’s worth, the #NFL historically has yielded to teams when it comes to punishment for fights that occur in joint practices. Although, this is pretty far beyond the usual stuff. This is wild. pic.twitter.com/4Dwi6PgEmK
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) August 25, 2022
It’s unclear what sparked the fight in the first place. The Rams said that they were planning to handle any discipline internally.
Though it’s unclear if Donald was actually swinging a helmet during that mele, he admitted doing so is a step too far.
“For sure,” he replied when asked if swinging a helmet is dangerous, via the Los Angeles Times. “Everybody protected each other, everybody got out of the situation clean, healthy. That’s what mattered.”
The NFL doesn’t generally step in to handle punishments or discipline from joint practices. The league did, however, suspended Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett for six games in 2019 after he ripped off Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph’s helmet and swung it at him during a game.
It’s unclear how, if at all, Donald was disciplined.
“You don’t want to swing a helmet ever, just at anybody in general,” defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said, via the Los Angeles Times. “But there’s been some helmets ripped off at times.
“You never ever want to do those things. You don’t want to have that on your resume. You don’t want to have that on paper. You don’t want to have that on a look. But at the same time, those things happen in practices. They’re mistakes, they’re errors and they’re correctable.”
