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“Means a lot,” Burrow said later Saturday in a news conference. “I work really hard to perform well on the field and think a lot about how I handle myself and how I can be the best me for this organization. And so to be rewarded for that, it means a lot to me. But, a lot more to do. “
Burrow can still feel the fit he felt when he met the Bengals two months before the 2020 draft. Mike Brown and head coach Zac Taylor led a contingent that took just 18 minutes to sell him on the franchise.
“As soon as I met with Zac at the combine,” said Burrow of when he felt at ease with the Bengals. “I saw his vision immediately, saw how he verbalized his vision and there were a lot of people in the room as well. Mr. Brown, Katie, Troy (Blackburn), everybody. And the vision was very clear. After that meeting, I was bought in. I was ready to, to be the best me I could be for them. I’m going to continue to do that.”
Burrow wore his Athens High School playoff sweatshirt, “because that’s kind of where it all began.”
Mike Brown, meanwhile, beamed as he wore his Bengals tie preparing to get on the plane for Cleveland. The old Ohio quarterback who played his ball at Shaker Heights had his guy.
“Great fit,” Burrow said.
Maybe the only fit. Bengals founder Paul Brown stared down from the library wall, first from a frame recognizing him as a coach on the NFL’s 100th anniversary team. Then from a photo when he presented Bill Willis to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But before all that, quarterback Paul Brown, like Joseph Lee Burow, transferred from Ohio State.
There was a reason, Burrow revealed Saturday, why he was drawn back home after winning the Heisman Trophy at LSU.
“I had some unfinished business in Ohio. My one athletic failure so far in my opinion is my time at Ohio State,” Burrow said. “I didn’t get to play. To come back and kind of redeem myself in that way has been important to me.”
That’s why Paul Brown came to Cincinnati from Cleveland. Unfinished business after the Browns fired him.
“I wouldn’t change my, my life, my story for anything,” Burrow said. “You never know how it’s going to work out.”
Certainly, Athens’ last-minute loss to Toledo Catholic Central in the 2014 state title game more than lingers.
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