Joe Burrow wants to set the record straight: He was not dealing with a wrist injury before the Cincinnati Bengals faced the Baltimore Ravens on “Thursday Night Football.”
“This is a completely different thing,” the star quarterback told reporters Friday afternoon, per ESPN, after the team deemed his wrist injury season-ending.
The injury to Burrow obviously is a brutal hit to the Bengals and their Super Bowl aspirations. But it was made worse when the National Football League reportedly opened an investigation into Burrow’s injury as many questioned whether or not it was preexisting.
Photos surfaced of Burrow appearing to wear something on his right wrist ahead of the game against Baltimore. And upon further examination, a video posted by the team Wednesday also appeared to show Burrow wearing something during the team’s trip to Baltimore. The Bengals social media account deleted the video.
Burrow, however, denied it being linked. He called it a compression sleeve and said it had nothing to do with his wrist. Mind you, Burrow was not listed on the team’s injury report ahead of the Week 11 contest.
“It’s not uncommon for guys to wear compression sleeves on a plane because when you go up to that altitude, things can swell up,” Burrow told reporters. “Football, you have a lot of bumps and bruises. This is a completely new injury.”
The league has penalized teams for similar actions in the past. And with the NFL in a well-documented relationship with sports betting operators, keeping an honest injury report has become crucial for the integrity of the game.
