Quarterback drama starts long before first snap of Week 1
I’m sure Bengals fans collectively felt a wave of fear sweep over Cincinnati Thursday afternoon when Joe Burrow went down in training camp with an apparent calf injury.
As of press time, it’s still too early to tell just how bad the injury is and how long Burrow might be out.
Being a Chiefs fan, part of me hopes that Burrow is out for the season. Although I doubt that will be the case (Burrow gave a thumbs up while leaving the practice field), the Bengals have not been an easy opponent for Kansas City the last couple of years.
Mahomes and company put some of that to bed with a win over Burrow in last season’s AFC Championship game at Arrowhead before going on to win the Super Bowl, but Burrow is still a player I wouldn’t like to see against the Chiefs.
However, there is that small part of me as a sports fan that thinks it might be better for the game of football if Burrow returns healthy and ready to go for Week 1. The more stars in the league the better, and it makes any Chiefs against Bengals matchup extra tasty. I live for the drama in sports.
No matter if Burrow takes the field for Cinninnati or not, the National Football League produces one of the best — if not the best — sports products as a whole from top to bottom in the country.
I have to admit, for many, many years the NFL did not hold the same place in my heart as college football. College football drew me in with its unique campuses, stadiums and fan culture. (A college professor told me to never use unique in journalistic writing, and you may just have witnessed my first use of that word in print, ever. But unique is how I felt about so many of college football’s characteristics, so I couldn’t stop myself from using it.)
While to this day I think atmospheres, traditions and rivalries in college football are outstanding, nothing beats the parity of the NFL. Even the worst teams in the league can put up a fight on any given day, and it’s truly hard to win every week no matter the opponent.
How many times have you turned on any NFL game with any two teams playing late in the fourth quarter and one team is trying to make a game-winning drive happen?
Like Mahomes and Burrow, every quarterback in the league is under intense scrutiny, and the position makes or breaks a team’s season.
I recently spent time watching all of the Netflix show “Quarterback” with my dad and was impressed with the production.
Whether on purpose or with luck, or a bit of both, the show perfectly selected three different tiers of quarterbacks, and it illustrated to the viewer what life is like in the league for three different calibers of QB.
By following Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota throughout the season, viewers indulge the highest of highs at the position and the lowest of lows.
Going behind the scenes with athletes is always interesting. You truly see what makes some of the best athletes in the world tick, and without giving away too many spoilers, just how much effort they put into their game away from official practice times and their teams’ training facilities.
While I may not be the best television show critic of all time as I don’t watch too many shows on a regular basis (if anything I just rewatch “Stranger Things” again and again), I have to say “Quarterback” is worth a watch for any football fan.
Yes, it helps that my QB No. 1 is a huge part of the show and that he had quite the successful season, but even the parts showcasing Cousins and Mariota were intriguing and informational. There’s always a storyline in sports.
With cooler temperatures hopefully on the way and fall football just around the corner, may your quarterback — whether in high school, college or the NFL — stay healthy and have huge success. (That is, unless you’re Joe Burrow.)