Every Bengals fan loves Joe and that includes me. I have a Burrow SB jersey that I got a couple weeks after the game. It was the first jersey I've purchased since I took a gamble on an Odell Thurman jersey on clearance in 2007.

I'm a Bengals fan. So Joe Burrow is my dude.

Joe is currently leading the best stretch of football in team history and it's only going to get better. As the wins and accolades start to compile, Joe's star will get bigger and bigger and it's gravity will increase.

Last year I saw a guy say Joe makes everyone better. Ok, no problems there, right? Another guy says our defense was/is a bunch of nobodies really, and Joe has elevated our defense to playing at an elite level.

That's where I draw the line.

What I'm driving at is this: Once a player's star gets this big or bigger, the praise almost starts to border on worship. Logical takes like great QBs make everyone better get amplified.

Poor Zac Taylor will never get any credit from the national media or even many of us, bc he didn't win while rebuilding this team for only 2 years. Every coach will be a product of Joe. Every good performance a product of Joe.

It reminds me a lot of Tom Brady. People always talked like he won without help, but if you go through each year he got a ring, you always see a top 8 defense. You always saw names like Gronk, Edelman, Dillon, Wilfork, Samuel, Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, etc. Great o-lines.

I also wonder if any Pats fans ever reminisce about their SB losers in 1985 and 1996. Is Bledsoe just a footnote in the history of Brady? I don't want to see that happen with our good old teams if/when we win one.

I also want to see all of our current good players get all the credit they deserve. Not just here, but in the national media, where I rarely hear anyone sing the praises of Trey Hendrickson or DJ Reader.

Zac Taylor is an afterthought despite helping to change the culture and finding a diamond like Lou. Mike Brown is still a cheap skate despite being aggressive in FA and building a practice bubble.

If you made it to the end of this, thanks for reading, and I appreciate your thoughts.

Meh..same as every president gets blamed for the price of gas or groceries or toilet paper or tennis shoes and no credit when things go right and it's a slow news cycle because things haven't gone to shit suddenly.. Talking heads have zero credibility anymore.. 

Not sure it was the same guy, but I heard someone the other day on Sirius NFL saying the same thing, that Joe makes the defense better. But, he went on to explain it in that the defense can play loose knowing Joe is going to ball out and if they make a mistake on D, Joe will score when they get teh ball back to him. It lets them play faster and looser than if they were worried about messing up and letting the other team score. I think there is some validity in that.

A couple of DJ Reader related comments.

When he and Hubbard were interviewing each other . . . paraphrasing here
"We have to go against Joe and the offense every practice. We're not worried about what the opponents throw at us."


CJ Uzomah interview last year
"Every time we come off the field in a punting situation, DJ is always already standing on the sideline, ready to go with his chinstrap on tight saying 'We got you' and that's a good feeling to have when you're coming off of the field already feeling like you let your boys down."

Honestly I don’t care (and I bet the players/coaches also don’t) who gets too much or too little credit just as long as the guys in the orange and black stripes are holding the Lombardi on Feb 12

(01-26-2023, 03:30 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Every Bengals fan loves Joe and that includes me. I have a Burrow SB jersey that I got a couple weeks after the game. It was the first jersey I've purchased since I took a gamble on an Odell Thurman jersey on clearance in 2007.

I'm a Bengals fan. So Joe Burrow is my dude.

Joe is currently leading the best stretch of football in team history and it's only going to get better. As the wins and accolades start to compile, Joe's star will get bigger and bigger and it's gravity will increase.

Last year I saw a guy say Joe makes everyone better. Ok, no problems there, right? Another guy says our defense was/is a bunch of nobodies really, and Joe has elevated our defense to playing at an elite level.

That's where I draw the line.

What I'm driving at is this: Once a player's star gets this big or bigger, the praise almost starts to border on worship. Logical takes like great QBs make everyone better get amplified.

Poor Zac Taylor will never get any credit from the national media or even many of us, bc he didn't win while rebuilding this team for only 2 years. Every coach will be a product of Joe. Every good performance a product of Joe.

It reminds me a lot of Tom Brady. People always talked like he won without help, but if you go through each year he got a ring, you always see a top 8 defense. You always saw names like Gronk, Edelman, Dillon, Wilfork, Samuel, Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, etc. Great o-lines.

I also wonder if any Pats fans ever reminisce about their SB losers in 1985 and 1996. Is Bledsoe just a footnote in the history of Brady? I don't want to see that happen with our good old teams if/when we win one.

I also want to see all of our current good players get all the credit they deserve. Not just here, but in the national media, where I rarely hear anyone sing the praises of Trey Hendrickson or DJ Reader.

Zac Taylor is an afterthought despite helping to change the culture and finding a diamond like Lou. Mike Brown is still a cheap skate despite being aggressive in FA and building a practice bubble.

If you made it to the end of this, thanks for reading, and I appreciate your thoughts.

ZT and the Bengals coaches get plenty of positive run in the media.

And the defense WAS. bunch of nobodies. DJ Reader even pointed out a really cool fact: Only 1 first rounder gets meankngful snaps on D.... And, if I recall, not 1 guy on the Bengals D got a 2nd contract from the team that they were first with.

^ That = nobodies, in general. But now.... NOW they're all somebodies. And it's awesome to see.

The HC, DC, OC, & assistants are highly thought of.

Sorry, my man, I just don't agree with the side of the fence you're falling on here. The entire org has done an A+ job with the turn around since ZT was hired.

(01-26-2023, 04:30 PM)PDub80 Wrote: Sorry, my man, I just don't agree with the side of the fence you're falling on here. The entire org has done an A+ job with the turn around since ZT was hired.

This.

What I resent is what I heard for about 20 minutes on New York Sports Radio 660 AM yesterday, about how impressive all his ex-girlfriends are in terms of his prowess.

Nope, there's nothing I resent about JoeyB.... nothing at all....I am not jealous, I am not jealous, I am not jealous.  Actually, I admire his self-control and faithfulness to the other Olivia, his long time girlfriend....

(01-26-2023, 05:21 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Nope, there's nothing I resent about JoeyB.... nothing at all....I am not jealous, I am not jealous, I am not jealous.  Actually, I admire his self-control and faithfulness to the other Olivia, his long time girlfriend....

Well, that shows how much those WFAN 660 talk show host know. They were saying Joey B broke up with her. I may have wasted 20 minutes listening to those idiots blow smoke. They are the one's talking about a mountain lion attacking their chickens in New Jersey (!), only to modify it to maybe it was a bob cat, to maybe it was a fox. Lord, their entertaining, and a popular sports show, but I'm probably dumber every time I listen to it.

(01-26-2023, 05:26 PM)Nepa Wrote: Well, that shows how much those WFAN 660 talk show host know. They were saying Joey B broke up with her. I may have wasted 20 minutes listening to those idiots blow smoke. They are the one's talking about a mountain lion attacking their chickens in New Jersey (!), only to modify it to maybe it was a bob cat, to maybe it was a fox. Lord, their entertaining, and a popular sports show, but I'm probably dumber every time I listen to it.

Who, Olivia Holzmacher? I hadn't heard that, but she still has pics of them on her Instagram. Olivia Dunne is crushing on him hard, so who knows.

Nope, just checked, his girlfriend was in Buffalo with him and shared a game suite with Logan Wilson's wife.

(01-26-2023, 05:32 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Who, Olivia Holzmacher? I hadn't heard that, but she still has pics of them on her Instagram. Olivia Dunne is crushing on him hard, so who knows.

Nope, just checked, his girlfriend was in Buffalo with him and shared a game suite with Logan Wilson's wife.

Find out who Joe is with now, tonight on Paycor Place.  

(01-26-2023, 05:48 PM)George Cantstandya Wrote: Find out who Joe is with now, tonight on Paycor Place.  

I tell you what, I Googled to find out, and what I found is kind of scary for them. He and his girlfriend both need to get off Social Media, there are a slew of unhinged, and I mean UNHINGED, women coming after him and sending her not so nice messages. I sincerely hope they are traveling with bodyguards. 

(01-26-2023, 04:22 PM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: A couple of DJ Reader related comments.

When he and Hubbard were interviewing each other . . . paraphrasing here
"We have to go against Joe and the offense every practice. We're not worried about what the opponents throw at us."

I always forget about the fact they practice against each other during the week.  I do wonder how much this plays an actual role vs it just being one of those things people say. 

(01-26-2023, 06:22 PM)Sled21 Wrote: I tell you what, I Googled to find out, and what I found is kind of scary for them. He and his girlfriend both need to get off Social Media, there are a slew of unhinged, and I mean UNHINGED, women coming after him and sending her not so nice messages. I sincerely hope they are traveling with bodyguards. 

And jealousy rears its ugly head.... In the next episode of Paycor Place!

(01-26-2023, 06:22 PM)Sled21 Wrote: I tell you what, I Googled to find out, and what I found is kind of scary for them. He and his girlfriend both need to get off Social Media, there are a slew of unhinged, and I mean UNHINGED, women coming after him and sending her not so nice messages. I sincerely hope they are traveling with bodyguards. 

I don't really pay attention to celebrities personal lives but I bet it is pretty typical for them to have all kinds of crazy people on their social media and elsewhere.  Probably goes with the territory and something celebs have to learn to deal with.  Not saying that it's right for people to treat them that way though. I imagine they and many other celebrities as well as a lot of very high paid people do have people hired to look out for that kind of stuff. 

I knew this would be misenterpreted, and the responses have been about what I expected, unfortunately.

1. I'm not saying Joey B doesn't make the team (including D) better. I am attacking extreme takes. Reader, Hendrickson, Hubbard, JB3, etc are all very good to great players and would be with or without Joey B. Does Joe help them? Of course. They are also good players and can't be replaced by some scrubs.

Same goes for many of our offensive players and coaches. We have an elite QB with a lot of good pieces and coaching around him. Hence our success.

2. Yes, I agree the entire org has done a fine job putting this together.

3. I don't want our history to be forgotten. I also want to appreciate players other than Joey B. Tbh, I think Joe himself would agree with my take.

Yeah, some of our players get love, but let's be honest, hardly anyone who isn't a huge fan knows who guys like Hendrickson and Reader are. We have a lot of players who should be national names with how key they are to our success.

Joe is just so amazing that he is usually all that gets talked about. Does he deserve it? Absolutely. I just hate when stars get so big that people lose their minds and forget that it's a team game.

It kinda reminds me of how Chad got all the love but no one knew about Willie or some of the other great players we had. Or how Atkins had a HOF career in relative obscurity. People knew about AJ Green though.

(01-26-2023, 03:30 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: Poor Zac Taylor will never get any credit from the national media or even many of us, bc he didn't win while rebuilding this team for only 2 years. Every coach will be a product of Joe. Every good performance a product of Joe.

ZT is a second banana for sure, but that's hardly the end of the world.  I've compared Burrow & Taylor to Hall & Oates, or Simon & Garfunkel, or the rest of the Beatles & Ringo.  Oates/Garfunkel/Ringo can always be the butt of jokes because they aren't Hall/Simon/Paul-John-George, but the fact is that they we part of something huge, they've seen the top of the mountain, and their biggest sin is not being on the level of the main guy.

With that being said, I do think Burrow is so good that it'll be hard to evaluate damn near anyone.  We will see how long we can keep this band together, but I have a suspicion some of our players who take big bucks to go to middling or bottom-tier NFL teams are going to suspiciously return to earth a bit.  It's all good, Burrow can get his teammates paid and he can elevate the FAs that come in.

As for ZT?  Well, as long as Burrow keeps telling people that he's the best coach on earth and they collect championships, he'll be collecting awards and laughing all the way to the bank like John Oates.

(01-26-2023, 06:22 PM)Sled21 Wrote: I tell you what, I Googled to find out, and what I found is kind of scary for them. He and his girlfriend both need to get off Social Media, there are a slew of unhinged, and I mean UNHINGED, women coming after him and sending her not so nice messages. I sincerely hope they are traveling with bodyguards. 

We need to hook Burrow up with a woman who will value our salary cap and keeping the team together over having an extra $200 million or so.  I have a feeling that woman might be hard to find.

(01-26-2023, 07:03 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: I don't want our history to be forgotten. I also want to appreciate players other than Joey B. Tbh, I think Joe himself would agree with my take.

Meh. There’s plenty I’d like to forget.

Weird thread.