Why Bengals’ Joe Burrow Turned Down Season 2 of ‘Quarterback’

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said Netflix asked him to star in Season 2 of ‘Quarterback,’ but he declined.

“If you guys know anything about me, you know media is not exactly my favorite thing to do,” Burrow told the media Wednesday after the first practice of training camp.

“The process of doing that show is very intense. There’s a lot of time that you have to put into that, time that I’m not ready to give right now. Everybody knows that I’m a very private person, especially in my personal life, so that’s a window into a personal life that I’m not quite ready to share yet.”

Joe Burrow Declines Netflix’s ‘Quarterback’

The words “right now” and “yet” in that quote are significant, because Burrow did say he would consider appearing on the show in the future. He didn’t give an exact timeline, but it’s obvious he’s grown weary from the barrage of questions about where contract negotiations stand for a deal that should make him the highest-paid player in NFL history.

Add that to the fact that he and the Bengals are coming off an AFC Championship Game loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on a field goal at the gun one season after coming within 85 seconds of winning Super Bowl LVI — or two seconds if you want to count time needed to throw to a wide-open Ja’Marr Chase on the final play of the game — and it’s easy to see why Burrow has interest in committing time to anything other than getting his hands on a Lombardi Trophy.

“We’ve been up there, we’ve been in those tough moments, so we know the things we have to do and the things we have to change throughout our process to get there,” Burrow said.

The first season of ‘Quarterback,’ which featured Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins, and Atlanta’s Marcus Mariota, has drawn critical acclaim and quickly becoming Netflix’s No. 1 show after debuting July 12.

There is one Bengals player in the locker room who appeared on the show quite a bit — left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., who played for the Chiefs the last two seasons.

Brown said Mahomes never told him about the production as it was happening. After the Chiefs beat the Bengals to get to the Super Bowl, Brown said he noticed Mahomes was even more excited than normally he would have expected.

“I was trying to figure out why. I didn’t know the whole season had been documented,” Brown said. “But I haven’t watched it yet. I heard it’s pretty cool. I need to take a little time to watch it.”

Burrow, however, said he has no plans to check out the series. Asked why not, he responded, “Would you watch a show about Hobson,” referring to legendary Bengals.com reporter Geoff Hobson. The quick reply drew a huge roar from the large contingent of media on hand for the first practice of camp.