Joe Burrow might have headed north for his NFL career, but he's still well aware of the love he's receiving these days from his forever home down south.
The former LSU champion and now Bengals quarterback has heard stories of Tigers fans sitting at a basketball game engrossed on their cell phones, but not scrolling through social media. They were streaming Bengals games and cheering louder for the small screen than the live action in front of them.
"It means a lot to me that the people in Baton Rouge are still supporting me the way they did when I played for them," Burrow said this week, on track to become the first former Tigers QB to start in a Super Bowl.
And there's been a lot for Tigers fans to love whenever the Bengals take the field, with Burrow slinging passes to fellow Tiger Ja'Marr Chase throughout his record-setting rookie season. Another member of that title-winning Tigers squad, Tyler Shelvin, lifted Burrow onto his shoulders after a victory in the AFC Championship over the heavily favored Chiefs, calling back to the celebration after the Tigers beat Alabama in that ascendant 2019 season. That win came over another former teammate, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, illustrating just how impactful that Tigers squad has been in just a few short NFL seasons.
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"I said 'aye, you're gonna be the greatest receiver to ever do this. ... Don't let anybody tell you nothing different," Edwards-Helaire told Chase on the field after the game, calling back to a conversation the pair had in Mexico. "Go get you a ring, bring that back home and handle business."
Burrow and the Bengals will be facing off with the L.A. Rams and a few other former LSU stars -- WR Odell Beckham Jr. and OL Andrew Whitworth -- in Super Bowl 56, though the LSU fans will likely be watching this one on big-screen TVs as they root on an Ohio team in a game that marks just another step in the ever-growing Burrow legend.
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