Aaron Donald, who hung up his cleats after the 2023 NFL season, has etched his name in the history books as one of the most dominant defensive tackles the league has ever seen. One Super Bowl ring and three Defensive Player of the Year awards didn’t just fall in his lap. His grit, consistency, and the ability to keep his body in peak shape got him there.
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During his playing days, Donald would sit at 280 pounds with around 10 percent body fat. That’s wild! However, it definitely wasn’t always like that, especially for the younger version of him.
The eight-time First Team All-Pro recently penned a heartfelt letter to his younger self, specifically his 8-year-old self, to give him a few warnings and a bit of guidance. Back then, young Donald was deep in his superhero phase.
Donald was obsessed with the X-Men from Marvel Comics. He would also often wish he had powers like them so he could peek into the future and see whether he ever became a football player, perhaps mainly because he wasn’t the most physically fit kid at the time and had doubts about living up to his potential.
Donald was actually a little overweight, as his future self admitted, and he even kept his T-shirt on in the pool. He was hitting Wendy’s a little too often, which was the biggest culprit of his weight gain… But his love for football was also settling in.
He would tear up his math homework “into 20 little strips” to play paper football and then stash the scraps (behind the house phone) whenever his mom walked in the kitchen. So, more than anything, little Donald just wanted to know whether his dream of becoming a football player would ever come true. His future self says yes, but young Donald would need to change a lot along the way.
“Do I really play in the NFL some day? … That all depends. Are you going to stay off the dang Wendy’s double cheeseburgers??? Man, I know they’re good as hell. Those little square patties. That late ’90s Wendy’s. That Dave Thomas Wendy’s. Oh my gosh. I know they’re good, but come on, bro,” Donald penned (via The Player’s Tribune), before adding,
“You’re eating yourself out of the league before you’re even in the fourth grade!!! The Wendy’s got you wearing your T-shirt in the public pool, man. They’re trying to move you up in age groups in Pop Warner — not because you’re dominating, but because you just be falling on people and hurting them.”
Future Donald adds that if his 8-year-old self starts building real consistency, he’ll turn into an absolute “animal” by the time he reaches college. And he’ll be so dominant that people around him will try to slow him down and tell him to ease up so others can have a chance to shine a little in the game.
“Believe it or not, in the future they’re going to call you an animal. One of the hardest workers in football. You’re gonna go so hard in college that they’re going to hold you back from practice. From practice,” Donald penned. “Coaches will be physically taking your helmet and telling you to relax.”
Hard Work Pays Off 💪🏽 @PlayersTribune https://t.co/kLLOBQDfol
— AD_99 (@AaronDonald97) November 14, 2025
Aaron’s dad, Archie Donald, was a tall, muscular, ripped guy, so the NFL legend went on to tell his younger self to follow the superhero figure already living in his house.
And as we all know, he eventually did follow his dad’s path, grinding away in the basement gym. The rest, as they say, is history.
