Joe Burrow wasn’t a fan of the “Why not us” mentality last season

A common motto for the Cincinnati Bengals during their magical run in the 2021 season was “Why not us?” Franchise quarterback Joe Burrow was not a fan of this. 

In just his second year in the NFL and his first full season as a starter, Joe Burrow led his Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl. While the end result was disappointing, no one would say the season as a whole was a disappointment considering this team won four games the season prior.

Burrow was a huge reason for why the team got to where it did. After a slow start to the season, fans soon started to see that 2019 LSU version of Burrow, especially in clutch time during the playoff run.

When the Bengals made it into the playoffs, something fans and the team heard a lot of was “Why not us?” Basically, this was asking people why couldn’t the Bengals go on to win it all?

Wide receiver Trenton Irwin appeared on “Getcha Popcorn Ready” with Terrell Owens and said that Burrow didn’t like this phrase or the whole underdog mentality that came with it.

"He said ‘Screw that thing’, like that ain’t us. That’s not — We don’t need to carry that with us."

Joe Burrow doesn’t consider the Bengals underdogs and never did.

It makes sense why Burrow would have this mentality. He had a historic season at LSU in 2019 that ended with the Tigers winning the National Championship and the quarterback winning the Heisman Trophy. He was the obvious pick to go first overall to the Bengals and showed why during just his second year in the league.

Irwin mentions in the segment linked above that Burrow never felt like the team lost games but that they ran out of time to come back and win. We did see a few examples of this, such as the Week 2 debacle in Chicago where the Bengals just got things going too little, too late.

It’s not a surprise to hear Burrow not believe in the “Why not us” mentality even with the team coming off a four-win season. This year, he’s likely even more against that whole motto and that’s one of the reasons why Cincinnati loves him.