American Football
Aaron Donald isn't alone: Six NFL legends who came out of retirement
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Aaron Donald decided that two years of peace and quiet were quite enough.
The three-time Defensive Player of the Year returned to the Los Angeles Rams on a one-year, $20m contract, giving Sean McVay a 35-year-old defensive tackle who was still among the NFL’s most disruptive players when he walked away in 2024.
He's the latest in a long line of NFL stars who couldn't stay retired. These six players discovered that unretiring can lead anywhere from a Super Bowl run to a brief, slightly surreal cameo.
Randall Cunningham
Ezra Shaw / Staff
Cunningham retired in 1996 after finding little interest on the free-agent market and returned to Las Vegas to run a granite business.
Minnesota Vikings coach Dennis Green persuaded him to become Brad Johnson’s back-up a year later, and when Johnson was injured in 1998, Cunningham produced the finest season of his career: 3,704 passing yards, 34 touchdowns and a 13-1 record as starter.
Minnesota finished 15-1 before losing an NFC Championship Game they appeared destined to win.
Deion Sanders
Having retired after the 2000 season, Sanders spent three years away before joining the Baltimore Ravens in 2004. He even wore No.37 to match his age, a level of commitment to the veteran gimmick rarely seen outside a testimonial.
Sanders was no longer quite Prime Time, but five interceptions and one touchdown across 25 games represented a perfectly respectable epilogue. Baltimore missed the playoffs in both seasons before he retired again in 2006.
Rob Gronkowski
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Gronkowski’s first retirement lasted only one season, largely because Tom Brady moved to Tampa Bay and apparently refused to enjoy himself alone.
Reunited with his old quarterback in 2020, Gronk caught two touchdowns in the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl LV victory over Kansas City.
Across two seasons in Tampa, he amassed 100 catches, 1,425 yards and 13 touchdowns before walking away again.
Ricky Williams
Williams retired aged 27 in 2004, travelled to India and studied yoga and holistic medicine before returning to Miami the following year.
He rushed for 743 yards and six touchdowns in 12 games, but another suspension and a spell in the CFL followed.
Williams eventually rebuilt his NFL career, playing four full seasons between 2008 and 2011. His best came in 2009, when he rushed for 1,121 yards and 11 touchdowns at the age of 32.
Marshawn Lynch
Lynch first retired in 2016, then returned with his hometown Oakland Raiders and rushed for 1,267 yards and ten touchdowns across 21 games.
Retirement number two arrived in 2019 but proved equally negotiable. An injury-hit Seattle persuaded him back that December, leading to three games and four touchdowns across the regular season and playoffs.
The production was limited, but Beast Mode scoring once more at a delirious CenturyLink Field justified the entire exercise.
Philip Rivers
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Rivers’ comeback was the strangest and most recent of the lot. Almost five years after his previous appearance, the 44-year-old left his high-school coaching job to answer an Indianapolis Colts injury crisis late in 2025.
He started three games, throwing for 544 yards and four touchdowns after 1,800 days away. Rivers could not rescue Indianapolis’ fading playoff campaign, but merely looking functional after that long in civilian clothes bordered on absurd.
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