Joe Burrow's Pro Bowl statement gives Bengals fans the last laugh

The discourse around Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals has gotten weird lately.

Multiple reports linked Burrow to a blockbuster trade with the Minnesota Vikings, who fired their GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah not long thereafter. It's no secret sticking with J.J. McCarthy as their quarterback burned the Vikings, as Sam Darnold preps to play in the Super Bowl.

I've always maintained that Burrow is safe in Cincinnati for one more season at least. If the Bengals miss the playoffs a fourth straight time, well, that's another story. Sorry to say.

Good news for Who Dey Heads: Burrow set the record straight as best he could when he pulled up to represent the AFC squad in the 2026 Pro Bowl Games.

Joe Burrow confirms he's happy with Bengals to quash rogue trade rumors

When asked by ESPN's John Sutcliffe whether he was honestly happy in Cincinnati, Burrow delivered a strong answer in which punctuation and vocal intonation are most definitely critical to grasp:

"Yeah I am. I think everybody has bad days right? [...] Sometimes, they fall on press conference days. So that's how it goes sometimes."

Burrow was for sure referencing the now-infamous press conference he gave during the 2025 season. In the midst of that "bad day", Joey Franchise questioned aloud whether football was fun and implied he wasn't a lock to finish his career in a Bengals uniform.

Hence my skepticism that Burrow will "NEVER" be traded. Just think about some of the seemingly ridiculous rumors that fly around, only to be confirmed as true months or even years later.

Like for instance, pretend it's March 2020. Woof, I know. Imagine if someone from the future came back and told you the following, 100% truthful statement: "About 2.5 years after Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski lead the Bucs to a Super Bowl win, UFC president Dana White will reveal on live TV that he helped broker a deal for Brady and Gronk to play for the Las Vegas Raiders before they went to Tampa Bay, only to have Raiders head coach Jon Gruden go back on it at the last minute."

Following me? Now think about all the madness that doesn't get fully reported by the Adam Schefters and Ian Rapoports of the world.

Here's an odd in-betweener, if you will: The Athletic's Vikings beat writer, Alec Lewis, answered a question about a hypothetical Joe Burrow trade, indicating Minnesota would do everything it took to get him. That is, if Burrow were to become available in the first place.

Lewis could've laughed that off. But like...there's this massive blame game about the McCarthy/QB decision flying around Vikings headquarters in the aftermath of Adofo-Mensah's firing. It almost feels like Lewis was acknowledging that the possibility has been floated around.

Not saying the Vikings have actually made a call to the Bengals about a Burrow trade. Just thought it was strange that Lewis didn't dismiss the notion outright, given that he's such a reputable Big J Journalist and all.

Good thing us Bengals fans don't have to worry about any of that jazz until 2027 at the earliest! Ha! HAHA!

Then again...Joe Burrow is kinda nerdy. He did his own Joker makeup for Halloween in an obvious tribute to the late, great Heath Ledger's Clown Prince of Crime.

But I'm sure Burrow knows that one of the most renowned Joker origin stories all starts with having "one bad day." As written by Alan Moore in Batman: The Killing Joke, the Joker drops this bar:

"All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.”

Yo I'm about to get wayyyyyyy in the weeds with this if I keep on. I'll take Joe's words at face value for now. NO TRADE! Let's stop talking about it!