00:00I don't know. Everyone's talking about the Rams for some reason.
00:03I mean, listen, do you hear, can you hear that in Los Angeles?
00:07That's the sound of a parade.
00:10I didn't know you could have a parade in August,
00:13but I think the Rams are orchestrating a parade right now.
00:17They might be practicing it. They might be practicing it.
00:20I can't wait to get into this because I really don't see any way out of this
00:24for anyone else, at least in the NFC.
00:27Okay, John. So the reason, the thing that we're talking about,
00:32if anybody didn't know this already,
00:34Aaron Donald officially is making his return to the Los Angeles Rams.
00:40He's coming out of retirement for the first time since 2023.
00:44It is official. We've gotten trainer snippets.
00:47We've gotten multiple workout videos.
00:51Angles.
00:52We've gotten Sean McVay being bugged to death over this.
00:56And even Aaron Donald made the, he actually joked about it.
00:59He said, I felt bad for Sean McVay because he's had to answer all these questions.
01:03Erica Donald, his wife, has been teasing and then not.
01:07And then she would say, oh, we're on track.
01:09And then she'd drop three words and then all the fans would get up,
01:12you know, all up in arms.
01:13But now we have official confirmation.
01:15And John, we were kind of debating if it was going to be before week one.
01:21We were debating if it was going to be at the bye week.
01:23We were going to be debating if it was anything at all.
01:25But now we have confirmation he is back.
01:29And he was at practice.
01:30It's crazy.
01:31Within minutes of the announcement, they have video.
01:33Our good, our awesome reporter that does such good work for us at the Sporting Tribune
01:38with both the Dodgers and all around SoCal, Mikel Matthew, he's going to be on here soon.
01:43But we also had Fredo Cervantes out there.
01:45He's shooting video.
01:46It's crazy.
01:47Aaron Donald's back at Rams practice already.
01:49Talking to Matthew Stafford.
01:50Talking to everybody.
01:51Talking to the media.
01:53John, he's back before week one.
01:55Is he going to play in week one?
01:56What do you think?
01:57I hope so.
01:59Me too.
02:03I think that this guy was always in amazing shape.
02:07And then for him to turn around and to see him walk around, that looked like football shape
02:13for 90% of football players.
02:15And that's just the way he walked around the globe.
02:19Now to see him in football shape, there's no reason why this can't happen right out the
02:25gate week one.
02:25I think that's why they waited until after preseason.
02:28They got the cut down to 53.
02:30And then they squeezed him in with a nice 20 million.
02:33And so I, this, I like, when we talked about this, I said, if this doesn't happen, it will
02:38kind of feel like a letdown.
02:40Kind of like some air ran out of the balloon to start the season.
02:44And I don't know how that would affect everybody.
02:46But now that he's here, now that it's official, now Penn has been to paper.
02:49I think this is a, this is a jolt for every member who made that 53.
02:55This is a wake up to everybody on that coaching staff.
02:58Like you're about to try to do something legendary.
03:02And you've got the players to do it on defense.
03:05You've got the players to do it on offense.
03:07I'm talking about point differential.
03:08I'm talking about points put up.
03:10I'm talking about yards.
03:11I'm talking about touchdowns.
03:12I'm talking about sacks and miles guy just set the sack record.
03:15So there's going to be so many opportunities at history for the Los Angeles Rams this year.
03:22This may be one of those things that I know I may be speaking too soon for some people.
03:25Cause they're like, well, what about my team?
03:27Sometimes some teams are playing against the record.
03:30They're planning against the record books.
03:32I think we're about to see a team play against the record books.
03:35And it just so happened to be somebody else in helmets on the field.
03:39Yeah.
03:39And, you know, we'll get into this conversation with our good friend, Josh Tariff, who's going
03:44to come on in the next break.
03:46But, you know, it's funny because the contract was also another thing, John, that a lot of
03:52people were questioning like, well, how are the Rams going to get to the number that Aaron
03:56Donald and Erica Donald would want?
03:59Are they going to pay him a lot of money?
04:01Is it going to be on a minimum?
04:02Well, now we know that it's $20 million for one year.
04:07And that's a good chunk of change.
04:09Now, our good friend, Timothy Parker was in our group chat earlier and he was just basically
04:14saying, well, how are the Rams going to find this money?
04:16Like he was always worried about it.
04:17I said, they'll take care of it at some point.
04:20You'll get details at a later point.
04:22We'll, we'll, we'll sort out the financials, but we're going to have you back.
04:25What do you think of the, the, the contract is 20 million for a year.
04:29And by the way, any, any, you know, penalty they have to pay for over, for stepping over
04:34a line somewhere, the owner's going to go, all right, here's a big fat check to have the
04:37Superbowl in my city with my team playing in it.
04:39This is, this is a, this is a, this is a walk in the park when it comes to cutting
04:42checks
04:43for, for that guy.
04:44I, I don't, the number to me, you couldn't have given, given him something low.
04:49Cause that's disrespectful.
04:50You couldn't have given him something that wouldn't justify him coming back financially.
04:55You had to make it worth his while to put his body through all this.
04:59So the number didn't shock me at the 20 million.
05:02I just wonder where it came from, like everybody else, but the 20 million absolutely didn't shock
05:08me in the least bit to get a player of that caliber.
05:11If he was only open market today, what would he have gotten way more than that?
05:15More.
05:16So, you know, the 20 million feels like a team discount, like the Rams got a discount
05:21for this.
05:22So I, the number didn't do anything to me.
05:24It didn't really, I didn't go, wow.
05:26I just, I just went, if anything, I went, wow, where'd they get it from?
05:30Under which mattress, which couch cushion, like what?
05:33And whose glove compartment?
