ESPN analyst Booger McFarland has come out with a staunch defence for Los Angeles Rams star Aaron Donald following footage that emerged during practice. 

We are into the final stretch when it comes to the start of the NFL season, with teams playing their final preseason game this week, the last chance to get rid of all the kinks and get systems figured out before the games count for real in just a few weeks' time.

For the Los Angeles Rams, their final preseason game sees them take on the Cincinnati Bengals, a rematch of last season’s Super Bowl where the Rams came out victorious to claim the second Vince Lombardi Trophy in the team’s history, and leaving the Bengals still searching for their first.

And given how feisty things can sometimes get in joint-practices, combined with the potential animosity that could be in the air from the Bengals after seeing their dreams ruined last season, there was always a chance that things could have boiled over between the two ahead of their game this weekend.

But nobody could have envisioned what Aaron Donald was going to do. 

A different kind of ‘helmet to helmet contact’

Things got a little feisty yesterday as the two teams brawled towards the end of practice, and as usual, there was some pushing and shoving that you’d associate with fights that happen in training camp, but Donald took things to a whole new level.

In footage that has gone viral, Donald can be seen swinging two helmets, both of which belong to Bengals players, and using them as weapons:

The footage is somewhat reminiscent of Cleveland Browns defender Myles Garrett swinging Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph’s helmet against him during the 2019 season:

Garrett was suspended indefinitely for his actions (which ended up being six games), and that has got some people talking about whether or not Donald should receive something similar, although NFL reporter Tom Pelissero claimed that a suspension isn’t likely to be forthcoming, at least not from the league anyway:

Which seems to be something that Booger McFarland is OK with.

What has he said?

Taking to Twitter, McFarland explained that he didn’t agree with the idea of punishing players for what happens in joint-practices, noting that it might well be a Pandora’s box that people don’t want to see opened:

A sentiment you can sort of understand, but you feel in an incident like this, where something far more serious could have happened, that it might be something that the league might want to take action on in the future. Whether or not the rule is going to change though, is a different matter.