Things haven’t always gone smoothly for Joe Burrow.
Before last season, the Cincinnati Bengals extended Burrow’s contract for five years and $275 million, making him the highest-paid football player at the time.
The 27-year-old was selected first overall by the Bengals in the 2020 draft after leading the LSU Tigers to the national championship in 2019.
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Joe Burrow of the Buckeyes warms up before a game against the Maryland Terrapins at Ohio Stadium on October 7, 2017 in Columbus. (Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
Before Burrow scored 60 touchdowns and over 5,600 yards to win the Heisman Trophy for LSU, he began his college career at Ohio State.
At LSU, it looked at times as if the quarterback had it easy on the field, but at Ohio State he was hardly used.
Over the course of his two seasons with the Buckeyes, Burrow only appeared in 11 games and completed 29 of 39 passes for 287 yards and two touchdowns. He began to doubt himself.
“Yeah, I mean, at Ohio State, I definitely questioned myself because I was like, ‘I train so hard in the weight room, I play really well in practice,’ and I felt like no one really took notice or saw the improvement or my performance in practice,” Burrow said during a recent appearance on “The Pivot.”
AARON RODGERS OF THE JETS EXPRESSES HIS REGRETS ABOUT THE STATEMENT “IMMUNIZED” IN HIS FAMOUS BIOGRAPHY
Quarterback Joe Burrow of the Ohio State Buckeyes signals during the Rutgers Scarlet Knights game on September 30, 2017 at High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
“I thought to myself, ‘Do I have a distorted view of myself and how I play or what kind of quarterback I am?’ Those three and a half years were definitely tough. I had so much confidence in the work I was doing off the field and the development I was going through, but I felt like not a lot of people had confidence in me at that point.”
“All I had, as we discussed earlier, was faith in myself and that the work I was putting in would eventually pay off, and thank God it did.”
When Burrow came to LSU, it seemed that the jargon in the bayou gave him the most trouble.
“I had no idea what the hell everyone was saying for the first two or three months, so I just said, ‘Yeah, you know.’ I had no idea.”
Burrows’ success in college carried over to the NFL.
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Joe Burrow of the LSU Tigers celebrates during the College Football Playoff National Championship game against the Clemson Tigers on Jan. 13, 2020 in New Orleans. (Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)
After suffering a torn ACL in his rookie year, Burrow led the Bengals to the Super Bowl in his second season, where they lost to the Los Angeles Rams. The following season, he led the Bengals to the AFC Championship, where they lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
The Pro Bowler suffered a season-ending torn ligament in his right wrist during a Week 11 game against the Baltimore Ravens last season. Burrow has been a full participant in this training camp.
The Bengals host the New England Patriots in the season opener on September 8 at 1:00 p.m. ET.
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