Joe Burrow just said the thing most football fans don’t want to hear, even though it’s most truthful thing any player has said this year
Former LSU Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow dropped some truth that many football fans aren’t ready to hear.
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow went semi-viral on Thursday for his “now or never” comments about trying to win a Super Bowl this season.
Some fans took his comments to mean that if the Bengals can’t get it done this season, he may force his way out of Cincinnati. But I don’t think that was the intent of Burrow’s message. I think Burrow’s sole focus is on trying to win a championship this season, and he’s locked in on that goal. I don’t think he’s thought past this season and what it means for his career.
The far more compelling thing Burrow said came after those now or never comments. The former LSU standout was asked what it takes to win a championship.
“You’ve gotta have a really close-knit team,” said Burrow. “You’ve gotta have a team that trusts each other. You’ve gotta have a team that wants to go to war for each other and fight for each other. A [team that] wants to hang out off the field, wants to play games in the locker room, and wants to sit with each other at lunch and have deep conversations.
“You have to have great players and great coaches, obviously. But a lot of teams have great players and great coaches. That’s not necessarily what does it.”
Joe Burrow is spot on — the human element is what matters the most
In today’s world of NFL fandom (and sports fandom in general), there’s an obsession over analytics, metrics, and advanced stats that seems to often take precedence over actually watching the games. Those things are obviously an important part of the evaluation process, game planning, and roster building, but they’re a tool. They’re not the lens through which we should see the game.
Championships, as Burrow noted, are won by teams with chemistry, teams that care about each other – teams that are willing to do whatever it takes when the game is on the line. That’s not something any metric on a spreadsheet can ever accurately represent.
The human element is why we watch sports. The human element is what wins games.
Just because the analytics say a player should do something doesn’t mean they actually will. It depends on so many factors. How are they feeling that day? What’s their mindset? What are their mannerisms on the sidelines? Sometimes you see coaches make decisions that go against the analytics. Often that’s because they see something in a player’s eyes that day that changes their mind on a decision or points them in a different direction.
The human element is the most important part of the game. It’s why sports are compelling and completely unpredictable. (What’s with the obsession over predicting things correctly anyway?). And I think Burrow’s comments nailed that perfectly.
