Aaron Donald’s NFL return came together at the same time he was fighting a very personal battle in court.
In late July, the Rams star filed papers asking for his ex, Jaelynn Blakey, to remove her French bulldog from her Los Angeles home. Donald said the dog was a threat to their children and sought sole physical custody of daughter Jaeda, 13, and son Aaron Jr., 10, until the pet was gone.
The filing came just days before Donald confirmed he was ending retirement and coming back at 35. In court, he alleged the dog had bitten his daughter’s mouth in September 2023, later bit Blakey’s niece, and then bit his son in the face in March 2026. He included photos of the alleged injuries with the papers.
Donald also said Blakey had agreed to get rid of the dog after each incident, only for the children to later tell him the pet was back. His filing said the dog returned sometime between March 20 and June 26, 2026.
He wrote that Blakey “did not tell (Donald) the dog had returned to her home.” He added that the children said she told them “not to run (their) mouths” by telling him.
Blakey pushed back hard. She denied the dog was dangerous, said the children were not afraid of it, and rejected the claim that she told them to lie.
In her response, she said Donald was “taking away the family pet whom lived with us since 10 weeks old.” She described the dog as her emotional support animal and said losing it would devastate her youngest daughter, who lived with the pet full time.
That fight was resolved by August 3, when a stipulation showed Blakey had removed the dog. The former couple then agreed to return to their previous co-parenting plan.
Donald and Blakey never married. They split around his 2016 move to Los Angeles with the Rams.
Meanwhile, the football side kept moving. Donald is now married to Erica, and they share two children.
He ended a two-and-a-half-year retirement and signed a one-year deal to join forces with Myles Garrett. Reports put the base value at $20 million with incentives that could push it higher.
After the announcement, Donald joined a light Rams practice. Sean McVay still hasn’t committed to him being ready for Week 1 in Melbourne against the 49ers, saying the ramp-up looks good but the team will handle it day by day.
For Donald, the timeline was simple enough: the court case ended with the dog out of the house, and the comeback sent him back onto the practice field. Erica had already spent weeks teasing the return online. Now the contract and the court record sit side by side, and Donald is back at work.
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Aaron Donalds return to the Rams came during a stretch when his attention was split between football and a personal dispute that played out in court. While he was coming out of retirement and signing a one-year deal to rejoin Los Angeles, he was also filing papers over a French bulldog at the home of his ex, Jaelynn Blakey, arguing the situation posed a safety concern for their children.
The dispute centered on claims that the dog had bitten his children and Blakeys niece, and it eventually ended with the dog being removed. With that matter settled, Donald and Blakey returned to their previous co-parenting plan, clearing one off-field issue even as his comeback with the Rams sent a very different kind of message about what he still had left to give on the field. [Read more 🡒]