Back in October, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow made a comment about crowd noise in Baltimore, comparing it to SEC stadiums.
And folks about to watch him take on the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC title game at Arrowhead Stadium are not happy about it.
After that 41-17 whipping of the Ravens on the road, Burrow told NBC Sports’ Peter King the following: “We knew that they were gonna be jacked up for us to come in, and expecting to beat our ass. But we were ready for it. Playing in the SEC definitely, definitely helped. Gets way louder in the SEC than in any of these NFL stadiums.”
For whatever reason, former pro kicker Lawrence Tynes grabbed a clip of the quote on January 24 and helped it go viral:
To be fair, Joe has never played at Arrowhead. Having said that, he is in for a rude awakening.
There is no place louder in sports and it’s not up for debate. pic.twitter.com/OKJCHlZj09
— 𝗟𝗮𝘄𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗧𝘆𝗻𝗲𝘀 (@lt4kicks) January 24, 2022
Of course, anytime somebody says something is “not up for debate” it totally is. Arrowhead might get louder than SEC stadiums. But those SEC Statidums can sometimes hold 30,000 more people. Who knows?
Either way, Bengals players are rolling their eyes at how much of a storm this has kicked up:
Bengals LT Jonah Williams said that saying SEC stadiums can be loud and Arrowhead is loud aren't mutually exclusive. Said it's not a slight toward Kansas City.
— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) January 28, 2022
And Tyler Boyd, via ESPN’s Ben Baby: “I think a lot of the guys, and specifically Joe, is ready for that because guys like him and (Ja’Marr) Chase and guys who played in the SEC played against opponents where it was hundreds of thousands of fans in the stadium.”
And Zac Taylor, via Laurel Pfahler of the Dayton Daily News: “We’ve played in really loud environments before. I know this will be a different situation, and with that brings a different ramp up of crowd noise. We’ve been in the stadium. We’ve used our stadium speakers. I think it’s been really effective and allowed us to get good quality work and stress our communication so that we’ll be ready on Sunday.”
Bottom line? The outside noise (get it?) about this is pretty silly. The Bengals are confident in their prep, which included security guards apologizing to passersby during loud practices this week. They went 5-3 on the road this year and were the only undefeated team against AFC playoff teams. They went into Tennessee and won last week and hope to do so again, regardless of crowd noise or old quotes (or old pictures of Joe Burrow in a Chiefs helmet).
