LA Rams Aaron Donald comes out swinging in joint practice with Bengals

They say that a picture is worth 1000 words, so the video footage of LA Rams All-Pro Aaron Donald that is going viral is likely telling a small novel’s worth of narrative. But whose narrative?

After all, it’s not just what the story is that is being told, but why is it being told in that way? From every Tweet with an embedded still photo to the videos of a small segment of time, you are seeing only part of the story. That part is the headliner, the image of one of the NFL’s elites in the most shocking and compromising position available.

Images of Aaron Donald with Bengals helmets in his hands will certainly tell a story that many Cincinnati Bengals fans want to share: Aaron Donald is a hot-headed NFL player who should be disciplined after today’s events.

And the images that are flooding social media about Aaron Donald right now are both shocking and compromising.

We know that the strategy surrounding the offensive coordinator strategy against blocking Aaron Donald inevitably comes down to two against one, three against one, and even four against one. And in the heat of battle, many players will follow the rules while multiple Gametime cameras are trained on their every move, make decisions and shortcuts to circumvent those rules when they are fighting for a roster spot, fighting to remain committed to a multi-year and multi-million dollar contract.

LA Rams News: Nobody knows what triggered Aaron Donald

A poke in the eye. A punch to the stomach. A low block to cut out a defender’s legs that oftentimes leads to damage that is so severe that many months of medical intervention are needed to walk without assistance once more.

We don’t know what transpired before LA Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald was triggered at the LA Rams – Cincinnati Bengals joint practice today. But my oh my, we certainly have a deluge of video from the event after it happened.

Of course, you will be bombarded with still photos too. But as we learned from a past fracas at a bar in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, images do not tell the story unless you get complete photographic evidence of the entire event. Right now, that is not the case.

But we don’t like to wait for ‘proof.’ Thanks to an army of smartphones, we are all able to generate our own imagery, tell our own tales, and push everything out to the court of public opinion to force anyone interested to deliberate on a one-sided tale.

We know that Rams Aaron Donald was the hero for the team in Super Bowl LVI. That makes him public enemy number one to the Cincinnati Bengals fans who recorded videos and snapped still images of the Rams joint practice today.  So if you are looking for an objective, level-headed assessment of today’s events at the Rams-Bengals joint practice, you will be disappointed.

The cameras started rolling when Aaron Donald reacted.  But until we know all the facts about what transpired leading up to that point, let’s not jump to conclusions.