It hasn’t even been a year since Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow suffered an ACL injury during his rookie season, and he’s already back and making an impact in Year 2.
But Sunday’s Week 5 loss to the Green Bay Packers did have Bengals fans (and everyone, really) holding their breath. During the second quarter, Burrow tried to run for a first down on a third-and-long play. Instead of sliding, he tried to stretch the run for extra yards and took a huge hit in the process. Though Burrow would eventually return to the game, it was impossible for Aaron Rodgers to ignore that hit.
welp, Joe Burrow was just in a car crash pic.twitter.com/WiXChKidxa
— Christian D'Andrea probably does not own a brewery (@TrainIsland) October 10, 2021
The two quarterbacks had a brief conversation in their postgame press conference. And in his regular appearance Tuesday on the Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers revealed that he told Burrow that he needed to slide.
"I'm a Joe Burrow fan & I enjoy the way he goes about his business.. I told em after the game he's TOO damn talented JUST SLIDE" ~@AaronRodgers12 on playing against @JoeyB for the first time pic.twitter.com/gxFYX0Epqn
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 12, 2021
Rodgers said after some jokes about LSU coach Ed Orgeron:
“I will tell you the thing that I told him, which I’ve told other quarterbacks from time to time: Slide. Slide. I said, ‘You’re too damn talented, you got so much in front of you to accomplish in this league. Just sometimes you gotta slide. I would’ve said the same thing to Andrew (Luck). You know, Andrew initially got hurt in Indy being Superman and running guys over and stuff.”
While I’m sure that Burrow has heard that advice from his coaching staff, it probably does mean something special coming from Rodgers. He’s been in the league for 17 seasons. He knows what it takes to stay on the field, and clearly, he wants a similar future for Burrow.
Let’s hope he takes that advice to heart.
