© Sam Greene / USA TODAY NETWORK

Bengals center Ted Karras is tracking down the 2023 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award as the leader in the clubhouse and Joe Burrow helped drive some more votes his way with a post on X that Karras wrote himself.

The Cincy Hat founder discussed asking Burrow for permission on Thursday.

"I had to ask," Karras said about the gesture. "We're almost there to put us over the top. We got to win this charity challenge for the Village of Merici. $35,000 straight to their pockets, so Joe was kind enough, I had to muster up the courage because it's kind of a weird ask. 'Can you tweet for me, bro?' But that was really nice of him. Really got a lot of engagement. He said, 'Yes, but you have to craft it,' and he'll press send. And then he said DJ (Reader) had to film you doing it to expose the weirdness."

Always a fun time in the locker room with Burrow and his as Karras joked about Burrow's last tweet about finding aliens.

"I'd like to see them too," Karras said about extraterrestrials. "We haven't really talked about it. I guess you guys have probably talked about that, but let's refocus on the charity challenge. Aliens can wait."

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