Aaron Donald is once again on an NFL roster. The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, who retired after the 2023-24 season, signed a one-year, $20 million contract with the Los Angeles Rams, ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported. The future Hall of Famer cited the opportunity to play alongside Myles Garrett as a primary lure for his return.
Donald is not the first major sports figure to step away and then resume a decorated career. Michael Jordan’s 1995 comeback remains among the most famous: after retiring in October 1993 and spending a year in baseball, Jordan rejoined the Chicago Bulls in the second half of the 1994-95 season. In his first full season back, the Bulls won the NBA Finals and followed with two more consecutive titles, producing a second three-peat. Jordan later retired again, returned three years later to play two seasons with the Washington Wizards and retired for good in 2003.
Mario Lemieux staged one of hockey’s more remarkable returns. He retired in 1997 with eight All-Star nods and 1,494 career points after a career that included a 1993 Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis. Lemieux resumed play with the Pittsburgh Penguins in December 2000 and added 229 points over an additional six seasons.
Martina Hingis’s career followed multiple exits and returns. According to ESPN, her career profile was far from conventional. Hingis rose quickly as a teenage Grand Slam champion, reached No. 1 in 1997 after wins at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, then retired in 2003 at age 22 due to injuries. She returned in 2005, left again in 2007 amid a suspension, came back in 2013 and produced an accomplished doubles run before her final retirement in 2017.
Recent Olympic comebacks include Simone Biles and Michael Phelps. Biles removed herself from multiple events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for mental-health reasons, took an extended break and returned in 2023 ahead of the 2024 Paris Games, where she won three gold medals and a silver. Michael Phelps retired after the 2012 London Games, returned in 2014 and at the 2016 Rio Olympics added five golds and one silver, helping the U.S. 4×100-meter medley relay set an Olympic record.
