Joe Burrow needs to emulate Tom Brady in one particular way

After Sunday’s win over the Raiders, a lot of time was spent on the presence of a sideline in the face of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. After Thursday night’s loss to the Ravens, and specifically while going through the aftermath of the game on Friday d. PFT Live with Rodney Harrison, a light flickered regarding another way Burrow should begin to express his displeasure.

In short, Burrow needs to be more of an asshole when calls don’t go his way.

Many criticized Tom Brady for incessant whining and complaining and ultimately calling policies. But guess what? It worked. By wearing down the officials to not flag wrongdoing against him, they knew – even if it was on a subconscious level – that there would be a cost for not taking care of #Tommy.

Burrow, on the other hand, is cool. Reassure. Overall. He doesn’t confront the officials after bad calls. This makes it difficult for him to get good calls.

It came to a head last night when he was clearly hit in the head on the fateful two-point conversion attempt. Burrow didn’t give a hoot about it. He never does. And maybe that’s why he doesn’t get called.

Remember when ref Ed Hochuli allegedly told Cam Newton he’s not old enough to make certain calls? It’s not just age. It is willingness to engage, angrily if necessary, with them that ultimately decides whether to remove a yellow flag and drop it.

Put Brady in Burrows’ shoes in last night’s game. The officials missed a flagrant facemask foul on the quarterback early in the final Cincinnati drive. Burrow didn’t say a word about it. Brady wanted lost his shit.

Brady would have confronted the referee and yanked even more violently on his own face mask to demonstrate what had happened. And Brady wouldn’t have let it go at any point on that drive.

After every game, he would have had something to say to umpire Clete Blakeman. Pointy or sarcastic or snarky or even funny. And that would have forced Blakeman and his colleagues to take a closer look when, for example, Brady (Burrow) took a forced hit to the head on the two-point play.

This is why some coaches and players work with officials. While it may be counterproductive at some point, there is a way to pin them just enough to shame them into doing a better job next time. Brady’s approach worked. Burrow’s, based on what we saw last night, is not.