Joey cool! BURROW A BATTLER
LIKE some of the namesakes that went before him – Namath, Montana, Theismann – Cincinnati’s No.9 is no ordinary Joe.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, the baby-faced assassin who admits to a resemblance to Macaulay Culkin when asked who could play him in his life-story movie, has been through a lot to reach the greatest stage tonight.
Leading out the Bengals at SoFi Stadium to take on the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI will place the 25-year-old in exalted company but it has been a long and challenging road.
Raised in a rural, poor area of Ohio, he was cast out of his dream college job at Ohio State University.
Unwanted by the team, he began to consider a career in finance before moving south to Louisiana State University when he showed OSU what they were missing by winning a national championship and being awarded the Heisman Trophy as the best player in college football.
In April 2020, Cincinnati made him the first pick in the NFL draft but 10 games into his professional career he wrecked his left knee, tearing the ACL and MCL, and damaging the PCL and meniscus, in the latest challenge to his mental fortitude.
Fifteen months after lying on a surgical table to repair the damage, he is 60 minutes away from lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
“I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Burrow said on Friday as he put the finishing touches to his preparation for tonight’s movie-script showdown under the gaze of the Hollywood sign.
“It helped me become a better player. There was a lot of adversity, mentally and physically.
“It helped me focus on a lot of different things in my hips and my core that helped my throwing motion become more refined.”
It is typical of the young player’s mindset. Get knocked down, find a way to turn it to your advantage. Suffer a loss, go looking for a gain.
For one so young, it seems his background has made him well-adjusted for whatever life throws at him and has taught him many lessons.
“In rural Ohio, where I’m from, there’s a lot of poverty and hungry people. You don’t really realise that that’s what you’re seeing when you’re growing up because you’re a kid,” he said.
“But when you reflect on it, it sticks out in your mind as a really sad moment. The things you go through help form who you are.
“When you think about successful NFL quarterbacks, it’s paramount to keep that even-keel personality and attitude.
“The game is a microcosm of life and if you have these super-high highs and super-low lows, you’re not going to be successful on a consistent basis.
“I try to portray calmness in certain situations. As a quarterback, there’s times where you need to be this fiery leader and there’s times when you need to be a calming presence.
“It’s a quarterback’s job to understand the different situations that require different things.”
Now, after witnessing poverty, rejection from his dream college, and a knee injury that would have dispirited lesser men, Burrow has one more thing he wants to achieve.
“We have a great fanbase that is behind whatever we do,” he added. “They were behind us the last two years when we were terrible and they’re behind us this year when we’re at the top. We want to bring it home for them. A big reason I work as hard as I do is to get the fans what they want.”