Yes, the family of Joe Burrow does see the irony in where the star LSU quarterback landed for his NFL career.
For one thing, there was no better place for the Ohio native to revitalize a franchise than Cincinnati. Growing up a Saints fan, it's fitting that his NFL team's chant is the "Who Dey," not unlike the Saints' famed "Who Dat." And of course, the Bengal tiger is the same mascot Burrow repped in college.
The Burrow family is now the proud owners of a stuffed Bengal tiger. They put up a poll online to decide what it should be named, said Jimmy in an interview on SportsTalk this week with Bobby Hebert and Kristian Garic.
The overwhelming response: Mike.
Listen to Jimmy Burrow's full interview in the player below. Can't see the embed? Click here.
"So we have Mike the Bengal now. We can disguise him as Mike the Tiger also," Jimmy said, having himself played in the NFL and coached the Ohio Bobcats for 14 years. "It’s kind of funny that it ended up that way. But we do like the cat fans.”
But for the Burrows, the similarities between Joe's 2019 title Tigers and the 2021 playoff Bengals run a little deeper. There's obviously the return of the Burrow-Ja'Marr Chase combination that led to NFL records and eye-popping statlines in most weeks. But it's also a scenario where Burrow and his team bounced back from a lackluster season with some positives to become one of the NFL's most exciting teams.
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There's no question Burrow and Chase, a Metairie native, as well as a handful of other Louisiana and Saints connections will have New Orleans pulling for them in the playoffs. That's especially true with the Saints narrowly missing out on a playoff dance card on the final day of the season.
It's been an interesting ride that's run squarely through the coronavirus pandemic. Joe moved back into his parents basement during draft prep, and his father recalls hearing Joe begin to install the Bengals' offense before moving out. Two years, once major knee injury and a lot of thrilling performances later, the legend has continued to grow. It doesn't hurt that Ed Orgeron and Zac Taylor, respectively, put forth top-level coaching jobs to help those teams arrive in the hunt for a title.
"The good thing is there’s a lot of character guys on the Bengals, there were a lot of character guys on LSU, and certainly a lot of great athletes on both of those teams. If you have that, and Coach O did a great job, Zac Taylor’s doing a great job, so all of a sudden you’re in the hunt. You’ve got a chance. What's hard to believe is there’s only two games until the Super Bowl. That’s still kind of hard to wrap my head around that.”
Jimmy Burrow said the family and Joe will be very much looking forward the the Saints-Bengals matchup coming in 2022 at the Caesars Superdome. But first things first: Joe's new cats have a showdown with the top-seeded Tennessee Titans on Saturday in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs. But one way or another, this is the team that snapped a three-decade playoff drought, and the legend of Joe Burrow has officially grown from Baton Rouge to Cincinnati.
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“It’s just unbelievable. We were so happy," Jimmy said. "We had a lot of family members there and friends, and of course all of the Bengal fans. Long overdue.”
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MORE FROM JIMMY BURROW
ON ED ORGERON'S FIRING
“Just Joe and our whole family, we were disappointed. I mean, we didn’t know the ins and outs of what was going on, and so we only know what Coach O did for Joe and did for our family and did for LSU, and that was to win a national championship," Jimmy said. "And he’ll always be special to our family. Joe will always say that he loves Coach O and what Coach O did to take a chance on him is huge for where he is today. So we were disappointed. We’re always going to support LSU because that’s a big part of our family. It will be forever and ever.”
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WAS THE 2019 LSU THE THE BEST COLLEGE TEAM EVER?
"They say, ‘well what do you think about Coach O and not coaching and here, there, whatever.’ And I just say, ‘I know one thing. Coach O is always going to be remembered as the head coach of the greatest college football team that ever has been.’ So that’s a pretty good legacy to leave, whether he coaches again or not. Phenomenal. Just look at the NFL. … It really wasn’t fair. And most of those games played out that way, too.”
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