Joe Burrow speaks out on gatorade bottle incident and doesn't give fans confidence

Joe Burrow squashed discussion around the wrist injury that prematurely ended his 2023 season amid a viral video of the quarterback struggling to pick up a water bottle.

The Cincinnati Bengals endured a horrendous start to the 2024 NFL season as the AFC North franchise were upset by the visiting New England Patriots . Cincinnati could only muster a single touchdown in the 16-10 defeat, with running back Zack Moss powering over the goalline.

Sunday was a miserable day for Burrow . He completed 21-of-29 passes for just 164 yards without a score, finding eight different receivers amid questions of Ja’Marr Chase ’s future; the receiver, who experienced food poisoning before the game, missed most of training camp in search of a new contract .

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Tee Higgins also missed the game as he picked up a hamstring issue, so Burrow had excuses for the disjointed offensive performance. However, a video went viral of the 27-year-old appearing to struggle to pick up a water bottle.

On Wednesday, Burrow was asked if the wrist injury that ended his 2023 season midway through the clash with the Baltimore Ravens continued to ail his game, preventing throws he would usually make. Bemused, Burrow said: “No, absolutely not.”

He hadn’t seen the water bottle video, which showed the quarterback sitting on the bench picking up the bottle to drink from. Fans on social media thought he picked it up in a peculiar way, leading to speculation over his wrist.

“I picked it up weird?” Burrow said while making a confused face before laughing. “I don't know, I drink water. I can't say I've seen that or know what anybody's talking about.”

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Throughout the season opener, Burrow was caught rotating his wrist on the field and grabbing it while on the bench. Back in March, Bengals head coach said the former Heisman Trophy winner was “right on schedule” with his rehab, which included learning to play piano.

“Hopefully I can get pretty good at that by next season,' Burrow told Complex Sports. “I guess it'll be pretty tough during the season, but it's helped my rehab too for my wrist, so that's something I want to get good at.”

Across his last four seasons, Burrow has thrown for 14,083 yards and 97 touchdowns on a 68 percent completion rate across 52 games. He led Cincinnati to Super Bowl LVI, falling to the Los Angeles Rams before signing a five-year contract extension worth $275 million in September 2023 - a deal which made him the then-highest-paid player in NFL history on an annual basis.

Burrow and the Bengals will look to get back to winning ways against the reigning back-to-back Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, September 15.

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