Burrow on conversation with 7-time champ Brady: ‘You try to emulate a guy like that’

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said he hopes he can have as long and successful of a career as retiring quarterback Tom Brady.

Burrow enjoyed speaking with Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion, earlier this week when he went on Brady’s “Let’s Go!” podcast. The former Tampa Bay Bucs and New England Patriots quarterback shared some of his experiences with Burrow, who is preparing for his first Super Bowl.

The Bengals play the L.A. Rams in Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13 in Los Angeles.

“It was fun,” Burrow said Thursday in his first interview with local media since Sunday’s AFC Championship. “It’s fun to hear him talk about plays in the past. He remembers every little detail about everything that’s happened in his career. ... Obviously you try to emulate a guy like that. He’s had a great career, and I hope to get there someday.”

Burrow was 5 years old when Brady won the first of his seven Super Bowl rings and said on the podcast he was inspired after watching Brady endure a hard hit by then-Bills defensive back Nate Clements during the 2004 season.

“You got up so fast, and I saw that and I was like, I want to be like that,” Burrow recalled on the podcast. “I just remember that vividly and trying to model myself after that.”

Brady repaid the compliment by praising Burrow for the way he has handled pressure this season. He has taken a lot of hits, including 63 sacks, but never seems rattled.

“I love it,” Brady said on the podcast. “I love it. There’s very few ways to display toughness from a quarterback because we don’t play at the line of scrimmage, we don’t block, we don’t tackle. We don’t have to go hit anybody, but the way that we can show our toughness is you can stand in the pocket and make throws. And sometimes you get the sh-- knocked out of you and you gotta get up and just go onto the next play and you don’t want to ever show anyone ‘man, he really got me good on that.’ I think what I love about Joe’s game is he does just that. He gets knocked down, he gets up and he’s ready for the next play.”

Asked about those comments specifically Thursday, Burrow said he has to be tough in order to make plays for his team.

“He’s exactly right,” Burrow said. “It would be stupid for me to run down the field and block somebody. Part of the value of a quarterback is being on the field for all the snaps in the season, not missing any games. So you got to be able to protect yourself. But you know, sometimes you got to sit in the pocket and you know a routes going to come open and you’ve got a defensive lineman like Chris Jones or Jeffery Simmons bearing down on you, and you have to stay in there and make the throw. That’s part of playing the quarterback position. I think not only just doing that, but when you get up you don’t complain, you don’t have bad body language when you get up. You just get up and go on to the next play. I think people appreciate that.”

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