Bengals’ Joe Burrow Explains His Reversal on Appearing on ‘Quarterback’ and What To Expect

CINCINNATI – Speaking with the local media for the first time since minutes after the Cincinnati Bengals’ 19-17 victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Jan. 4, quarterback Joe Burrow field questions about some predictable topics.

Those included stumping for extensions for wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins and his reaction to seeing those get done; his thoughts on defensive end Trey Hendrickson’s contract situation; his rare healthy offseason; and his plans for a 2025 encore.

But the topic that drew the most attention was his appearance in the upcoming second season of the Netflix series “Quarterback.”

Burrow’s desire for privacy ever since he entered the league and his previous rejection to appear on Season 1 of the show led to a lot of surprised reactions when Netflix announced that he would be featured in Season 2, which debuts in July.

Why the change of mind?

“They caught me on a good day,” Burrow quipped.

More seriously, however, was the fact that the ask came from someone Burrow has great admiration for – Peyton Manning, the show’s executive producer.

“A big part was Payton (Manning) being involved in it,” Burrow said. “I have a lot of respect for him, obviously. What he did, does, is as a person – when that guy reaches out to you and asks you to do something ... most of the time I'm going to say ‘yes.’”

Burrow said Manning’s pitch was that it was a high-reward, no-risk scenario.

“Only positive things could come out of it,” Burrow said. “He's going to protect me, protect our team, protect our organization. I have trust in him for saying that and trust that he's going to do that. I probably wouldn't have done it if he wasn't involved, but I have a lot of trust and faith in him to not do anything that would hurt me or the team.”

In addition to Burrow, the newest season of "Quarterback" will feature the Detroit Lions Jared Goff and the Atlanta Falcons Kirk Cousins, who also starred in Season 1 while playing for the Minnesota Vikings.

The show will chronicle each quarterback’s 2024 season.

Another selling point for Burrow was that the "Hard Knocks" cameras already were going to be chronicling everything, so it didn’t feel like anything extra and made the secret easier to keep.

One difference between "Hard Knocks" and "Quarterback" is the attention paid to the burglary at Burrow’s house in December.

The Bengals nixed any mention of it in "Hard Knocks," but that was easier to deal with given that the show was focused on all four teams in the AFC North Division.

The team also had a degree of editorial control with "Quarterback," but because it focused on just three players, it would harder to ignore such a major storyline from Burrow’s season.

And the expectation is that the incident will be addressed on the show.

“That was definitely a curveball I didn't quite expect throughout the whole process, but the people involved in it, working on it day to day, were great and weren't too intrusive,” Burrow said. “I worked with some good people with that.”

Burrow had his final sit-down interview for the show last week, and he said he’s already watched screenings of the first several episodes to give his input.

Is it any good?

“I guess that's for you guys to decide when it comes out,” he said. “I don't know. I probably won't watch it when it comes out, but hopefully you guys like it.”