Opinion: Joe Burrow is keeping company with the greats who never won it all.
Joe Burrow is in fine company − for now.
In his fifth season as the Bengals' starting quarterback, Burrow had one of the best statistical years of any quarterback in NFL history. He set Bengals' records and led the league in passing attempts (652), completions (460), passing yards (4,918) and touchdown passes (43). On top of all that, Burrow recorded the highest single-season passer rating in team history (108.5), good for third in the NFL, and highest completion percentage (70.552), which was fourth in the league.
But Joe Cool had something in common with all of us fans − he watched the playoffs on TV. That's something you know he badly wants to change this season.
Here's something else "Joe Brrr" should be watching with a sense of urgency − the company he keeps. Many great NFL quarterbacks fell short of winning a Super Bowl, the sport's pinnacle. Jim Kelly led the Buffalo Bills to four consecutive Super Bowls in the 1990s, but never won. Warren Moon played 23 seasons in the NFL and the Canadian Football League and is statistically one of the greatest quarterbacks in football history. While Moon won five consecutive Grey Cups in the CFL, he never even made it to a Super Bowl in the NFL.
Oh yeah, you can have a lot of success and still not win a championship ring. But winning a Super Bowl is what every great professional football player works for at the end of the day.
Burrow's stats belong in Canton, but his legacy needs a title
Burrow led the Bengals to Super Bowl 56 in 2022, where the team lost a heartbreaker to the Los Angeles Rams, 23-20. Again, Joe, you’re in fine company – for now.
Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton went to the Super Bowl three times in four years during the ‘70s with the Minnesota Vikings, but was never able to win a ring. The Bengals' Anthony Munoz, a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest offensive linemen in NFL history, lost two Super Bowls to the San Francisco 49ers in 1982 and 1989. And who could forget Dan Marino, one of the most prolific passers in NFL history? Marino − the godfather of the forward pass − lost his lone Super Bowl appearance in 1985, also to the 49ers.
Here's something for Burrow to note about Marino: His Super Bowl appearance came in a season in which he threw for 5,084 yards (the first player to do that) and 48 touchdowns. Marino, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005, did play in two other AFC championships, but never ended up making it back to the big show.
While Burrow holds the highest career completion percentage in NFL history (68.6, minimum 1,500 passing attempts ) and his 152 career TD passes are the third-most ever in a player’s first five seasons, winning it all has eluded him. Still, Burrow can at least say he's been to the big game, which is more than Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson can say, despite their elite talent.
Allen's MVP award last season placed him on the list of the top 30 players in NFL history who have yet to win a Super Bowl. Jackson, one of only 11 players in NFL history to win multiple league MVP awards, was already on that list. Burrow hasn't made it there yet.
Maybe this is the year that Joe Burrow starts hanging with a new crowd - the one with all the Super Bowl and league MVPs. That's the kind of company both he and Bengals Nation would welcome with open arms.
Andy Furman is a member of the Enquirer Board of Contributors. He also talks sports nationally on Fox Sports Radio, serves as PR coordinator for The Point/Arc in Northern Kentucky and writes for the Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Burrow doesn't want to finish career in the Hall of Almost | Opinion
Category: General Sports
