Former NFL Star Aaron Donald In Hot Water After Posting Video Encouraging His Young Son To Practice Helmet-To-Helmet Collisions

Like father, like son.

Former Los Angeles Rams star Aaron Donald may have retired last March after playing 10 years in the NFL, but he’s still finding himself in the middle of some football controversy. That’s because the 34-year-old shared footage encouraging his son, Aaron Jr., to participate in helmet-to-helmet contact in the Donald family’s living room.

Now there’s nothing wrong with Aaron Donald wishing for his son – or any of his other three kiddos – to play sports. After all, Donald himself was an absolute beast in his professional career, racking up three Defensive Player of the Year awards, one Super Bowl, and being recognized as All-Pro eight times.

But this latest video, which shows he and his son in helmets and pads, has sparked some controversy. Obviously, no one is upset that he’s a father roughhousing and interacting with his son. The issue arises from how they are roughhousing, and specifically the fact that Donald was instructing his son to lead with his helmet.

You can even hear Donald’s wife, Erica, voice her concern when Aaron Jr. lowers his helmet and clanks into his father’s helmet:

“Not the head!”

That’s the main concern, with all of the talk around CTE and how the brutal sport of football can bring on the degenerative brain disease. You can even see Aaron Jr. hold his head after he hits his father for a third time. So now, what was supposed to be a look into the Donald family’s life has led some to be incredibly worried for Aaron’s son:

“Another Day at the Donalds.”

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A post shared by Aaron Donald (@aarondonald99)

As you can see, not the worst thing in the world… but there’s definitely cause for concern.

CTE, which stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, is often found in athletes, military veterans, and others that have a history of repetitive brain trauma. And the younger a person is when that the repetitive brain trauma takes place, the worse (and earlier in life) the CTE can rear its ugly head.

It’s a very serious situation, and many football players have to make the tough decision at some point in their career whether they want to continue flirting with CTE risk or not (recently, a Colorado player stepped away from football altogether because of repeated concussions). A number of retired NFL players have also taken very hesitant, or in some cases, a downright ban on their kids playing football at all…. Troy Aikman, Bart Scott, Kurt Warner, Brett Favre to name a few.

So at the end of the day, people aren’t necessarily upset at Aaron Donald. They’re more so worried for the health and safety of his son, and wonder if the child should be participating in helmet-t0-helmet living room rough housing. Many social media users flooded the comment section of Donald’s post with replies like these:

“‘How you get CTE so early?’ Oklahoma drills in the living room.”

“Pre-ordering CTE.”

“Love this but please don’t let that boy get in a habit of leading with his head like that.”

“Lil bro gonna have CTE by 11.”

“Head drills for the youngster is all bad.”

“He said ‘Hell naw I ain’t going harder, I seen what you do out there.'”

“Teaching CTE is wild!”

“Bro teach him to lead with the shoulder!”

Have to say that I mostly agree with those criticizing Aaron Donald. If anyone should know the serious risks of repeated hits to the brain, it’s him.The post Former NFL Star Aaron Donald In Hot Water After Posting Video Encouraging His Young Son To Practice Helmet-To-Helmet Collisions first appeared on Whiskey Riff.