It was a little more than two years ago that a past Bengals quarterback great met a future Bengals quarterback great.
In December 2019, after LSU’s Joe Burrow picked up the Heisman Trophy in New York, Burrow went to CBS’s “NFL Today” studios, where Boomer Esiason gave Burrow a slightly less coveted possession.
“I gave him the Bengal helmet on the show and I said, ‘Go fix our dysfunctional family,’ or something like that — and, lord, he did it,” Esiason, the WFAN morning host, reminisced during a phone conversation.
On Super Bowl Sunday against the Rams, Esiason will be rooting for the Bengals to go one step further than the franchise ever has before. Thirty-three years ago, after an MVP regular season, Esiason’s Bengals lost to Joe Montana in the “John Candy” game — in which Montana coolly asked in the huddle “Isn’t that John Candy [in the stands]?” before the final game-winning 92-yard touchdown drive to win it with 34 seconds left. It was the second Super Bowl loss for Cincinnati, which had been defeated by Montana’s 49ers following the 1981 season.
Tom Brady was 4 years old in 1981, becoming a Montana and a 49ers fan. In Burrow, Esiason sees shades of Brady.
“This Joe Burrow kid is on a different level than everybody,” Esiason said. “He is really a special, special player — and maybe a better person to play the position. He has Tom Brady calm. I don’t say he is Tom Brady. He has about 20 years to catch him, but he plays with a Tom Brady calmness and competitiveness. That is truly what sets these guys apart.”
In Esiason’s view, the Bengals have had some very good quarterbacks since he left. Guys like Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton have had their moments, but Burrow is a franchise-type who can change fortunes for a decade or two.
“Quite frankly, very few guys come along like Joe Burrow,” Esiason said. “He’s Ben Rothliesberger for the Steelers. He’s Tom Brady for the Patriots. He’s Justin Herbert — I believe is in his class — for the Chargers. He’s Russell Wilson for the Seattle Seahawks. He’s Aaron Rodgers for the Green Bay Packers. He’s everything you desire in that position. His personality is infectious. He doesn’t shy away from anything. He does have an air of arrogance that is required to be a top-level player.”
When Esiason thinks about his Super Bowl season, which included being named the league’s MVP, there is an appreciation for the experience, even if the outcome went the wrong way.
Esiason remembers the week after winning the AFC Championship, being in Cincinnati and the joy throughout the city. The anticipation for the Super Bowl was felt everywhere he went, just positivity and encouragement.
Though the Bengals have had the reputation of being a poorly run franchise, Esiason said they do things just as the Steelers, who have a tradition of being winners, do.
His best recent example of how the Bengals are like the Steelers, with their family ownership to Esiason, is how they kept coach Zac Taylor after two losing seasons.
Taylor told Esiason during an interview for CBS’s pregame show that he felt he would be let go.
“I said, ‘You don’t know the people you are working for,’ ” Esiason said.
Esiason, 60, will not be at the game in Los Angeles, which has been a topic on his top-rated morning show with Gregg Giannotti, as well as with WFAN’s afternoon show with Craig Carton and Evan Roberts.
Since there is a three-hour difference, Esiason doesn’t think it is best for the show to be in L.A. It would mean opening it at 3 a.m. after the game.
He also doesn’t comprehend how the guys on his show and in the afternoon think he would possibly be the one handing over the Lombardi Trophy when Anthony Munoz is a former Bengal.
“It’s not my Super Bowl,” Esiason said. “It’s Zac Taylor. It’s Joe Burrow. It’s Eli Apple. It’s Mike Brown. It’s 33 years since I’ve been there. Then I hear Craig [Carton] and Evan [Roberts] talking about me carrying out the Lombardi Trophy if they win the game, saying, ‘It’s got to be Boomer.’ I’m like, ‘Are you guys, idiots?’ There are five or six guys who played in both Super Bowls in the ’80s for the Bengals and one of those happens to be Anthony Munoz, the greatest left tackle and our only Hall of Famer. That’s the guy, if the Bengals win, who is carrying that damn trophy.”
Esiason may not be the greatest player in Bengals history, but he is on the list. This run by Burrow and these Bengals has rekindled something inside of Esiason.
“I forgot how much of a Bengal fan that I still am,” Esiason said.
Artmotion U.S.A
