Aaron Donald Superfan Rich is VERY Disappointed That #99 May Not Be Playing Week 1 vs 49ers

Sports are supposed to be the simple part. Scoreboard. You have more points or you don't. Then Sean McVay went and complicated the show's favorite certainty.

For a month, "Is He Back Yet?" was a running segment built on the belief that Aaron Donald was coming back. The only question was the yet. Two or three weeks in, the faith got tested, and at least one voice on set admitted to wavering. Then Donald came back, press conference and all, and Les Snead came on the show grinning "like a Cheshire cat. A Cheshire Les."

Now the twist. Donald might not play week one, and McVay was asked whether there is a scenario where Donald doesn't go to Australia if he isn't ready.

"Oh, yeah. Absolutely. That could be a possibility," McVay said. "I wouldn't rule anything out yet."

His reasoning was that the Rams have already been operating without Donald. "If he's able to go, great. If not, that's kind of how we've been operating as is." And if Donald isn't ready, McVay said he "absolutely wouldn't have him playing Australia unnecessarily."

Rich had three words, and he said them respectfully. "What the hell?"

"The segment was called, 'Is he back yet?'" Rich said. "Not I'm not ruling anything out yet."

The pushback came fast. Donald signed a contract, so technically he's back. Rich wasn't buying the technicality, pointing out that Donald said he was coming back for all 17. The room countered with logistics. It's a 16-hour flight, and older joints get tight on a flight that long.

Rich eventually made his peace with it. "Listen, I get it. We're marathoning. We're not sprinting." Donald has been out for two years, and the Rams were planning on not having him anyway.

What still delights Rich is how this happened at all. Snead said that during his pursuit of Myles Garrett, he never imagined one of the benefits would be what Rich described as "a pilot light going on underneath 99." Garrett gets acquired, Donald starts posting on Instagram, and McVay calls him into the office. Come on down, the bit went. "You're the next contestant on Is He Back Yet?"

Even the timeline got a laugh. The call came two weeks ago, and then it took two more weeks to actually make it the yet.

The trade math got its own moment. Jared Verse plus a first, second and third round pick, for Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald, because you have to include Donald in the transaction. The analogy that won the room: "That's like winning the Powerball on a Monday and then turn around on Friday and win Mega." Same gas station, naturally. In Thousand Oaks.

Somebody on set imagined the view from the 49ers, who have been psyching themselves up for Donald only to hear he might not be on the plane. "It's mental warfare."

And since Donald is basically an Avenger anyway, the last question was the obvious one. "Shouldn't he be able to teleport himself to Australia?"