“Hated Them”: Joe Burrow Admits Despising Ohio State and His Childhood Frustration With the Buckeyes

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Joe Burrow spent three years with the Ohio State Buckeyes, but it’s certain that they weren’t his first choice while growing up. As a kid, Burrow always wanted to play for Nebraska because of his family’s connection to the school, but the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback eventually committed to the Buckeyes in 2014.

While it’s true that Burrow transferred to LSU due to a lack of opportunities at Ohio State, he recently revealed that despite growing up in Ohio, he hated the Buckeyes. Burrow confessed his childhood feelings toward the Buckeyes during a conversation with Julian Edelman on NFL on FOX.

“No, hated them,” said Burrow when Edelman asked whether the Buckeyes were his favorite football program growing up. “Hated them when I was a kid.”

When Edelman further pushed Joe Burrow about his favorite squad growing up, considering he grew up in Ohio, the quarterback acknowledged that he wanted to play for Nebraska.

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“I liked Nebraska. I was a Nebraska guy,” said Burrow. “My dad played (at) Nebraska. Both my brothers played at Nebraska. A bunch of my mom’s family is from Nebraska. Her whole side of the family lived there. My dad coached there when my brothers were playing. So, I always wanted to play for Nebraska. And then when I got to Ohio, I always got jealous because my dad was a coach at Ohio U.”

Burrow’s dad, Jimmy Burrow, played defensive back at Nebraska from 1972-75. His two older brothers, Jamie and Dan, also played for the Cornhuskers, while Jimmy was on Nebraska’s coaching staff. Under his guidance, Dan and Jamie helped Nebraska to a berth in the BCS National Championship Game (Rose Bowl) in the 2001 season.

At the same time, the family was living in Nebraska while Joe Burrow was growing up. Subsequently, the family moved to Ohio when Jimmy took a coaching position at Ohio University.

Being a Nebraska fan, Burrow was certain to play for the Cornhuskers. However, he had become one of the best high school quarterbacks in Ohio. As a senior at Athens High School in 2014, he threw for nearly 4,500 yards and 63 touchdowns with only two interceptions.

In the process, he led Athens to the state championship game. He also won Ohio’s Mr. Football award before ultimately committing to the Buckeyes. But when Jimmy Burrow was asked why his son didn’t commit to Nebraska, Jimmy acknowledged that the program didn’t look appealing at that time for Burrow.

“I’ve been asked (that) a lot; he grew up a Nebraska fan and wanted to certainly go to Nebraska in (high school),” said Jimmy in 2023. “When I was there with Coach (Frank) Solich, he learned a lot about Memorial Stadium there.

“Things change, I guess, over the years, and the opportunity wasn’t there. We certainly had reached out to Nebraska during the Bo Pelini era. I knew just about everybody on the staff, and some of them really pushed hard for Joe, and some maybe didn’t, but it never really became an offer to play at Nebraska, so we had to move on.”

At Ohio State, Joe Burrow redshirted his freshman year. However, with the Buckeyes quarterback room being crowded, the quarterback struggled to find starting opportunities. Eventually, he transferred to LSU, where he spent two years, won the Heisman Trophy before the Bengals drafted him with the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Now, Burrow is playing in the seventh season of his NFL career.

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