LA Rams We-not-me? Run it back rings awfully hollow right now

Screw Quan, show me the money

Money in professional sports has come to mean more than just money. It carries with it the connotation of respect, appreciation, and financial security. Money in the modern-day NFL carries with it a sense of worth, prestige, and the pecking order.

So imagine the reaction of Aaron Donald, a player that many have claimed ended the game and sealed the victory in Super Bowl LVI on the final play, seeing that after one season, quarterback Matthew Stafford is nearly among the Top-10 highest-paid athletes in the world, and newcomer Allen Robinson, who has never played a snap for the LA Rams made the list.

Money, it’s a crime, share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie

But steady trooper, defensive lineman Aaron Donald, whose presence on the football field is enough to catapult the careers of his teammates into lucrative NFL contractual deals, is not?

It’s your call how you perceive this issue. Are the LA Rams benefitting from the deeply discounted services of Aaron Donald, and he is merely trying to realign his compensation for the worth of his production on the field? Or is this another self-focused player, who talks about building a competitive roster, but in the end is more focused on his money than the success of the team?

Or it is just one of those gray areas where both sides have a valid point?

One thing is true, that’s the business of the NFL folks. If a player does not perform to his contractual expectations, teams will not hesitate to cut that player. In most cases, fans will either challenge the team as to why it took so long to cut the player who ‘sucks’, or will simply applaud the move as saving money to sign up the next player. So Aaron Donald is playing the only poker hand that has been dealt to him, and one that he has played before.

He will hold out until he gets paid. Period.