After avenging their loss in last year’s AFC championship, the Chiefs had plenty to say Sunday following their 23–20 victory over the Bengals in the title game. Between Travis Kelce’s “Burrowhead my a--“ comment and some quips from Patrick Mahomes and his father, Joe Burrow and the rest of the Cincinnati locker room caught a number of stray shots.
However, the Bengals quarterback revealed that he had no problem with being on the receiving end of the trash talk after his team’s loss, explaining that there’s still plenty of respect between the two AFC powerhouses.
“I just think that’s what makes football fun,” Burrow said. “It’s all love at the end of the day. They know the respect that we have for them and we know the respect that they have for us. It’s an intense, emotional game and things like that are going to happen but I think that’s why the game is fun.”
Leading up to the rematch, the Bengals and Cincinnati mayor Aftab Pureval stirred the pot quite a bit, suggesting that playing the Chiefs on the road at Arrowhead Stadium was no challenge at all for the AFC North champs. The reality was far different as a number of self-inflicted mistakes—including two interceptions from Burrow and nine total penalties—ultimately sank Cincinnati’s chances of returning to the Super Bowl.
Though the Bengals may have come up short this season, Burrow maintains that the franchise is still on the right track to remain among the league’s contenders in the years to come.
“I feel very good about the direction that we’re headed in,” Burrow said after the game, via Bengals.com. “We’ve been in this game for two straight years. We have won one and lost one. Obviously, this one hurts but we will come back stronger.”
