Joe Burrow stunned the football world last week after making concerning comments about his long-term commitment to playing professional football.
Burrow entered the league in 2020 but has dealt with numerous injuries during his budding career. He tore his ACL and MCL in his left knee during his rookie season, suffered a torn ligament in his right wrist in 2023, and missed several games this season with a turf toe injury.
“If I wanna keep doing this, I have to have fun doing it. I’ve been through a lot and if it’s not fun, what am I doing it for? So, that’s the mindset I’m trying to bring to the table,” Burrow said.
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There are surely going to be ups and downs throughout a football career, but the comments even took Burrow’s former coach, Ed Orgeron, by surprise.
“I never heard Joe sound like that, so it did strike me, yeah,” Orgeron said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital. “But Joe’s going to bounce back. Joe’s a fighter. He might have had a bad day, so somebody might have told him something that p’d him off on the way over there. I don’t know, but I do believe he’s a fighter and I do believe he has a lot of football left. I do believe he’s going to fight through it.”
Orgeron and Burrow will forever be attached, as Burrow transferred to Orgeron’s LSU and went on to win the Heisman Trophy and a national championship on one of the greatest college football teams of all time. He parlayed all of that into becoming the No. 1 pick five years ago and earning a lucrative NFL contract.
But Orgeron said he does not want to cling onto his former quarterback, unless he feels he needs to.
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“I do believe that if I feel like I got to reach out to him, I will. But I know there’s probably 25, 30 people that saw that, a million that wanted to call them, 25 or 30 that are really close to him and maybe have reached out to him. But if the time comes, when we have to talk, if he needs me, I’m always going to be there,” he said.
“I text him once in a while. I’m not one that hangs on the coattails of my players. I wish him well. We text maybe twice a year, but if I texted him right now and he’s not practicing, he’d answer me in 30 seconds.”
Burrow’s Cincinnati Bengals were officially eliminated from playoff contention Sunday after getting shut out at home by the Baltimore Ravens. Burrow was 25-for-39 for 225 yards and two interceptions in the 24-0 loss.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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