The entire NFL community celebrated the possible return of Aaron Donald for the Los Angeles Rams’ Week 2 game against the New York Giants. But the fans didn’t expect Troy Aikman to announce Donald’s name when he wasn’t even on the field.
The blunder happened when the Giants’ quarterback Jaxson Dart passed the ball to Malachi Fields in the first quarter of the game. While Aikman noted Tyler Davis maneuvering through the offensive line to attack the quarterback, he mistook Davis for Aaron Donald.
“Now here’s a look at Aaron Donald and his quickness,” Aikman said on live TV. “He’s able to give pressure inside.”
Of course, in late August 2026, Donald signed a one-year, $20 million deal with the Rams and came out of retirement. With 12 solo tackles, four sacks, and one fumble recovery in seven games against the Giants, per StatMuse, he would have been a pretty good asset for the Rams. However, during the play, he wasn’t on the field.
When Aikman said Donald’s name, the fans were left in utter confusion. The clip generated mixed reactions on social media, with some fans questioning Aikman’s focus.
“yeah that threw me off ha!” one fan wrote in the comments section after BrickCenter shared the clip on X.
“I was also confused when I heard that,” another fan commented.
Meanwhile, another fan was confused about the Rams defender’s jersey number.
“Thought the same thing 🤦 like when did he change his number to 90?!” the fan wrote.
Davis was the one who pushed through the offensive line, wearing the number 90. It wouldn’t have been much of a concern had the defender worn a number 99 jersey (Donald’s jersey no.).
Another group of fans slammed Aikman for his repeated mistakes on live TV. In 2025, Aikman mistakenly referred to Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy as US Congressman Kevin McCarthy.
“Yeah, he’s an idiot. That’s why I stopped watching telecasts of games years ago,” a fan wrote.
A few others decided to attack the former Cowboys quarterback for his massive contract with ESPN.
“Same guy demanding eleventy billion dollars to call these games,” one fan commented.
Aikman signed a five-year, $90 million deal with ESPN back in 2022. That keeps him on the analysts’ desk till the end of the 2026 season. And he’s yet to sign a contract extension with the network. But he also admitted that his future with the network is uncertain. After all, he has never had to wait till the last season to sign a contract extension in the past.
As he navigates the uncertain final stretch of his ESPN deal, inventing ghost appearances by Aaron Donald on Monday Night Football is the absolute last thing his negotiation portfolio needs. Nevertheless, he’ll have to clean up his calls before the noise from the fanbase becomes impossible for the network to ignore.