After his Thanksgiving heroics, it was a real crashing back down to earth experience for Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow in Week 14. His team lost 39-34, a defeat which put the 4-9 Bengals on the brink of a third straight season without playoff football.
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And, not to pile on here, but Burrow was also outplayed by his Buffalo Bills counterpart on the day, Josh Allen. Burrow had four TD passes, but he also had two silly interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown. And following the game, Burrow has been giving off very cryptic, Andrew Luck-early retirement type vibes in his press conferences.
Joe Burrow’s presser today felt very reflective — and at times, a bit dark:
"If I want to keep doing this, I have to have fun doing it. I have been through a lot. If it's not fun, then what am I doing it for?"
Later on: "There's just a lot of things going on right now."
(via… pic.twitter.com/L84tVy9r5a
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 10, 2025
Burrow talked about the fact that he was weighing and wondering if he even enjoyed playing football anymore. And that if he didn’t, he might have a decision to make. It was all very mysterious. And if you’re a Bengals fan, it was about as worrisome as anything anybody within the team could have said. Bengals great Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, however, couldn’t understand how Burrow could be complaining about his situation.
“He said he was dealing with stuff not only on the field, but off the field as well, so I think it’s a combination of both. … But hold on, the Bengals gave you a king’s ransom to be able to play on that playground too. They gave you Ja’Marr [Chase], they gave you Tee [Higgins], they gave you an offensive line. I mean, come on now. They’ve done everything they’re supposed to do on their end, too.”
As Shannon Sharpe said earlier on this episode of Nightcap, it’s a lot easier to deal with stuff off the field when you’re winning on the field. When you’re having problems at home and at work, that’s when you start getting despondent like Burrow seemed to here. Sharpe tried to explain why he believes Burrow might be falling out of love with the game at the moment.
“We know from records, we can read, his house was broken into. That robs you of peace. That robs you of security. Would I be surprised if he isn’t going to move, if he hasn’t moved already. Probably.”
While Burrow was in Dallas playing against the Cowboys last December, his home in Cincinnati was burglarized. The four thieves have since been arrested for stealing over $300k in jewelry, but the damage was done to Burrow’s psyche.
Even more bothersome to the QB was that the woman he was dating at the time, Olivia Patton, was revealed publicly. It was reported everywhere when the incident happened that she was at home at the time and made the 911 call. The cat was out of the bag.
But as Burrow said, it’s not just off-the-field issues, but on-the-field ones too. And as Sharpe posited, Burrow’s near-constant injury problems through his first five years in the league must be exasperating.
“Being injured. I mean, think about it. He missed part of his rookie season. ACL. He missed part of another season. Fractured hand. Last season, he started the season dealing with that calf injury. This year, he missed 9-10 games. And we not winning! We’re not. Well, ya’ll not, ain’t no we, I ain’t a part of this, that’s ya’ll. (Laughs)”
With the Pittsburgh Steelers at 7-6 in first place in the AFC North, the Bengals are just three games behind. So not technically eliminated. A healthy Burrow and company will have to hold on to that sliver of hope as long as they can.
