Now that it's Super Bowl LVI week, you're going to hear a lot about Aaron Donald. NBC's Cris Collinsworth has called him the best player in the NFL. Many others will gush about Donald, who has his Los Angeles Rams just one win against the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday night from their first championship since the 1999 season when the team was in St. Louis. "We were down and out. A.D. rallied us," teammate Eric Weddle said after the Rams climbed out of a 17-7, third-quarter hole to beat the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC title game. Donald's pressure forced 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo into a game-clinching interception.
I don't know if Donald is the NFL's best player. Aaron Rodgers is pretty good. So are Jonathan Taylor and Cooper Kupp, Donald's teammate in Los Angeles. T.J. Watt should win the NFL's defensive player of the year award after matching the league record with 22 1/2 sacks.
But I do know this about Donald: He's the best football player to come from Pitt.
It's mind-blowing to write that sentence considering the incredible players Pitt has produced.
I go back to Tony Dorsett when he played at Hopewell High School. I never thought I'd see anyone better. I watched him win Pitt's only Heisman Trophy in 1976 when he led Pitt to its first and only national championship since 1937. He was the best college back of all time. I saw him become a Super Bowl champion and Hall of Famer with the Dallas Cowboys. His career was spectacular.
There have been so many other great players from Pitt. Nine have made the Pro Football Hall of Fame with Donald, Larry Fitzgerald, Darrelle Revis and perhaps LeSean McCoy to follow when they are eligible for induction.
How many quarterbacks — college or pro — have been better than Dan Marino? Russ Grimm and Jim Covert were terrific offensive linemen. Rickey Jackson and Chris Doleman were wonderful linebackers. Fitzgerald will be remembered as one of the finest wide receivers to play the game. Hugh Green and Bill Fralic were great players but aren't in the Hall of Fame.
And Donald is on top of that list?
Wow!
Donald was Pitt's most decorated player even if he didn't win the Heisman Trophy. His 2013 season was among the best of all time by a defensive player. He was honored with college football's two major defensive awards — the Outland Trophy and the Chuck Bednarik Award.
Donald has been even better with the Rams. He was the NFL's defensive rookie of the year in 2014. He is a seven-time, first-team All-Pro. Some think he could win the defensive player of the year award this season instead of Watt. That would make four in five seasons for Donald and break a tie with Lawrence Taylor and Watt's brother, J.J., for most in NFL history. He is a member of the NFL's 2010s all-decade team.
Donald will be in Canton as a first-ballot Hall of Famer five years after he retires.
A Super Bowl win is the one thing missing from Donald's career and would be the perfect topper. He and the Rams lost to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII after the 2018 season.
Not all of Pittsburgh will be rooting for Donald, of course. Clairton's Tyler Boyd — Donald's teammate at Pitt — is one of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow's favorite receivers. Pitt can't lose Sunday night, no matter the outcome of the game.
But you can bet Penn Hills — Donald's hometown — will be pulling for him. He routinely gives back to the community, running an annual football camp for kids as just one example. In 2019, he made a seven-figure donation to the Pitt Football Championship Fund. The university said thank you by naming part of its South Side training facility after him.
They really will say a lot of amazing things about Donald this week but nothing better than this: He never has forgotten where he is from.
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