Old Photo of Joe Burrow in Chiefs Helmet is Going Viral

The quarterback’s father shared the childhood picture ahead of the second straight AFC championship game between the budding rivals.

For the second year in a row, Joe Burrow and the Bengals will make their way to Kansas City with the hopes of taking down the Chiefs in the AFC championship game and advancing to the Super Bowl. If the third-year quarterback is able to get to the job done against Patrick Mahomes once again, it would only add to the remarkable start to his NFL career. 

However, an old photo of Burrow that surfaced Friday showed that his younger self might have once dreamed of playing for the Chiefs on a national stage rather than against them. 

Jimmy Burrow, Joe’s father, took to Twitter on Friday to share an older photo of his son, well before he became a Heisman Trophy winner and the franchise quarterback of the Bengals. In the picture, Joe is wearing a Chiefs helmet.

“Joe watching an Iowa Barnstormer game with his Mom,” Jimmy Burrow wrote. “Won’t be wearing that helmet Sunday. Who Dey.”

While the photo may catch loyal Bengals fans off-guard, Burrow and his family have made it perfectly clear that they are now steadfast members of “Who Dey” nation. 

In fact, since Burrow came into the league as the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft, he’s owned the Chiefs. Cincinnati has beaten Kansas City three times in a row, including in last year’s AFC championship game which was also on the road at Arrowhead Stadium. 

Though the Bengals have begun to affectionately refer to the Chiefs’ home stadium as “Burrowhead,” Cincinnati has won each of its last three meetings with Kansas City by just three points. Burrow and co. will look to make it four straight victories this Sunday when the two teams meet with a spot in the Super Bowl on the line. 


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Zach Koons
ZACH KOONS

Zach Koons is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about Formula One. He joined SI as a breaking/trending news writer in February 2022 before joining the programming team in 2023. Koons previously worked at The Spun and interned for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He currently hosts the "Bleav in Northwestern" podcast and received a bachelor's in journalism from Northwestern University.