NFL can't prove Bengals hid Joe Burrow's wrist injury
On top of a tough loss, the Cincinnati Bengals (5-5) are also dealing with some controversy when it comes to Joe Burrow's wrist injury.Burrow left the Bengals' matchup against the Ravens early after injuring his right wrist in the first quarter of the game. The injury wasn't a result of a controversial hit or play, […]
On top of a tough loss, the Cincinnati Bengals (5-5) are also dealing with some controversy when it comes to Joe Burrow's wrist injury.
Burrow left the Bengals' matchup against the Ravens early after injuring his right wrist in the first quarter of the game. The injury wasn't a result of a controversial hit or play, however. In fact, the hit that many believe contributed to the injury was legal and completely innocuous.
The controversy stems from a video released Wednesday that showed some kind of brace/sleeve on Burrow's right wrist as the Bengals got off the team bus. The video immediately prompted a lot of back-and-forth centered around whether or not the Bengals hid the injury, since Burrow wasn't listed on Week 11's injury report.
All of this is likely to prompt the NFL to look into things. The league did just that when the Atlanta Falcons didn't make any mention of Bijan Robinson's illness before the team's matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Ultimately, the NFL found no wrongdoing, as the Falcons' defense/justification was they thought Robinson would play, even though he admitted he began to feel unwell the Saturday night before the game.
That will be the same case for the Bengals and Burrow
There aren't enough details to prove the Bengals hid any kind of injury. According to nine-year veteran and former Super Bowl champ/four-time All-Pro, Mitchell Schwartz, Cincy's obligation to report any kind of injury stems from whether or not Burrow was officially treated for his injury. And even if he was, the NFL won't have an easy time determining what qualifies as treatment.
"That was the first I saw anything about it," Bengals head coach Zac Taylor told reporters after the game.
No player is 100% at this point in the season, but the Bengals didn't have to list Burrow on the injury report unless he was treated for the wrist injury. If teams were required to put players on reports simply because of injury, then every single injury report would have dozens, if not all 53 players, on every single report.
That obviously makes zero sense and would make things extremely complicated. No one wants to deal with that.
So, with that, on top of the perfect fallback in the aforementioned Jadeveon Clowney hit, the Bengals have plenty working in their favor to where it'll be a big surprise if any discipline is attached to Burrow's injury.
