Quarterback Joe Burrow is a phenomenon: In his second NFL season, the young star can seem to solve any problem and reaches for the Super Bowl. A cruciate ligament tear stops him almost abruptly.
As probably the best and definitely most successful quarterback of all time, Tom Brady not only had a great arm that he could always rely on. Above all, he was always there when it was needed. Often when no one really expected it. Brady knew when to rely on his team and when to take control himself.
Joe Burrow seems to have cracked open this special toolbox at a young age. The 25-year-old quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals sits with his legs apart in the blazing sunlight of the midday heat in Los Angeles on Friday and answers questions from the press as detached, calm and mature as if he had never done anything else. Mirrored sunglasses on his face, the Gatorade bottle always handy by his right foot. “Joe Cool” he is appropriately called. Just like the legendary Joe Montana, who was extremely successful with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s and 1990s.
“I like all my nicknames,” he explains to the media crowd and causes laughter. The youngster is doing well in LA, although he says he prefers the weather in his native Ohio. There he also learned the “small town Ohio mindset”, the small town mentality that always makes him work hard and fight.
His Bengals were therefore also traded as underdogs for too long. “In the beginning we liked to take it with us and pull ourselves up on it, but now it’s a bit boring to me,” says Burrow. When you see the quarterback talking, you know you’ve got a winner on your hands. “If you underestimate us, we’ll hit you,” he says, and probably everyone listening believes him.
Ultimate problem solver
The 25-year-old hardly gets bogged down and doesn’t seem at all excited ahead of the biggest game of his career. The finale that almost every kid in the US dreams of. As deliberately as Burrow speaks, so does he play; as if he had been handing out the balls in the best football league in the world for ages. This cool youngster looks set to take the lead in the battle to succeed Brady. It’s fitting that Burrow moved into the Super Bowl on the very weekend that Brady’s (then potential) retirement was making the rounds.
Sure, there’s this Patrick Mahomes. A genius at passing and running, it’s the high-flyer of recent years, the highest-paid NFL pro, that Burrow knocked out en route to the Bengals’ first Super Bowl in 33 years. And with the football intelligence and the skillset – the special tool box – that Brady had otherwise always leased for himself. Burrow, who didn’t want to play quarterback as a kid, is already the ultimate problem solver in his sophomore year in the league.
His team is 3:21 behind Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs in the Conference Finals. time to panic? No, “Joe Cool” first leads his team into overtime and then to an absolutely surprising success. Before the season, no one would have bet a penny on the Bengals.
In the terrific comeback victory over Mahomes, Burrow knows just like Brady when he can and must also rely on his team. The young Bengals team turns things around after a miserable first half and performs as one. Led by playmaker Burrow, of course.
When asked about his leadership style, the quarterback says his “key” is just being himself. “No matter what situation, no matter what circumstances”. He would never have sat down “and thought about what it means to be a leader”. The fact that this set of tools from the Brady case also comes naturally to Burrow is easy to buy from the self-confident young man.
“I play for the boys in the locker room and to win games,” says Joe Cool. He is what is known as a team-first player. And also because of that confidence, his defense against the Chiefs is doing what’s been an impossibility for three or four years and lets superstar Mahomes in the last five minutes of the first half, the full 30 minutes of the second half and every five minutes and 34 Seconds of extra time now three measly points. Mahomes usually needs less than a minute for this.
“He’s a Wizard”
Many knew that Burrow is good. In 2019, he won the Heisman Trophy for Best College Player. The Miami Dolphins reportedly offered the Bengals three first-round picks ahead of the 2020 NFL draft so that they could pick a player first, rather than fifth. Cincinnati declines. “We could have been offered 100 first-round picks and we wouldn’t have taken it,” said head coach Zac Taylor today. The Bengals already know that Burrow is a very special player. That he is “special”. Now they know.
“He’s the ultimate warrior, the ultimate competitor,” Safety Vonn Bell once ennobled his quarterback. “He always finds the guys in the right places at the right moments. He’s a magician. The game slows down for him and he always makes the right moves.” There are hundreds of these kinds of hymns of praise for Tom Brady. The greats can be recognized by their leadership skills, especially in the really big moments. Burrow seems made for it and wants to deliver again in the Super Bowl. “We knew he could be a special talent,” adds Bell, “and now we’re going to show that to the whole world.”
But even the youngster himself thinks it’s a little crazy that he’s able to perform so well in his second year. Cincinnati won just four games last season. “If I had been told before the season how it was going to go, I would have been very surprised,” Burrow told Sports Illustrated. His performance is even more impressive when you consider that the quarterback tore his cruciate ligament in his first season and will have to have surgery in December 2020. A shock for the Bengals, the injury meant the number one pick might never reach its full potential.
“These were long days with a lot of pain,” Burrow said on Friday in the Los Angeles sun. In the pre-season in May and June he can’t train fully yet. But the quarterback fights back. Maybe thanks to his small town mentality. He also brings this Brady-esque fighting quality to the field in the most important game of his career so far, throwing the important connection to the 10-21 against the Chiefs with a 41-yard touchdown pass before the break.
In the second half, Burrow soon finds rookie Ja’Marr Chase, with whom he gets along so well because they played together at varsity, for another touchdown. Again and again he makes the right decisions – including several important runs that lead to the decisive field goal and victory over the Chiefs in overtime – as otherwise only experienced playmakers can do in such important games. Burrow always finds a way, even if he’s not the most athletic of playmakers. In this respect, too, he resembles Tom Brady.
Coolness rubs off
The young quarterback’s self-confidence spreads to the team. His teammates know they can rely on their playmaker. “Joe Cool” also rubs off with its laid-back attitude and coolness. Days before the Super Bowl, some Bengals are racing in front of their team hotel in Los Angeles on rented e-scooters and joking around with fans.
Brady is gone. Will the new star in quarterback heaven be crowned in Los Angeles? Of course, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Mac Jones and a few other young stars are in contention, and veteran stars Aaron Rodgers and Mahomes are still two of the very best. The Burrow vs. Mahomes rivalry could become the dominant narrative in the NFL for years, if not decades. And the young Bengals team could become one of the dominators in football for years to come. The first decision will be made on Sunday.
The Bengals showed everyone what they and their quarterback can do with their fairytale season. If “Joe Cool” even wins the Super Bowl, the new “problem solver” will take the lead in Brady’s successor. A year after cruciate ligament surgery. In his second year in the top league in the world.
The 25-year-old has long been number one among the calm and easy-going playmakers. They all feel that in LA, even the opponents. “If you look up ‘cool’ in the dictionary,” LA Rams wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. says these days of Burrow, “you’ll find a picture of him with his Cartier glasses.”