Don’t expect Joe Burrow to take a page out of Eli Manning’s book on draft night.
Burrow, the consensus top pick of the 2020 NFL Draft, met with the media Tuesday as the NFL Scouting Combine kicked off. The 2019 Heisman Trophy winner was bluntly asked if he’d play for the Cincinnati Bengals if selected No. 1 overall, and Burrow in his answer put the idea of a spurning situation to rest.
“Yeah, I’m not going to not play,” Burrow said, as captured by ESPN’s Ben Baby. “I’m a ballplayer. Whoever picks me, I’m gonna go show up.”
The hypothetical of Burrow rejecting the Bengals recently arose when the LSU product noted he has “leverage” heading into the draft. Burrow, however, insists he simply wasn’t trying to count his eggs before they hatched.
“The only thing that I’ve said is — I just didn’t want to be presumptuous about the pick, so that’s why I’ve been noncommittal because I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Burrow said. “You know, they might not pick me. They might fall in love with someone else. You guys kind of took that narrative and ran with it, but there’s never been anything like that from my end.”
Crazier things certainly have happened, but yeah, Burrow probably can start looking for houses in Cincinnati.
