Joe Burrow gets brutally honest about battle with his own 'football mortality'

While I am not saying that Joe Burrow is planning on walking away from the game here soon, you have to wonder how much longer the starting quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals is going to play. Surely, if it were up to him, he would play into his late 30s or early 40s as any franchise quarterback worth his weight in salt. However, a second season-ending injury has him question his own mortality.

Burrow's knees have taken a beating over the last four years. The former god-level quarterback for the LSU Tigers has been a top-three passer in the NFL ... when he is healthy. While his rookie season ended with a ghastly knee injury, another one robbed us of another playoff-caliber year out of The Geauxt last fall. When he can stay on the field, the Bengals have been a top-four team in football.

Listen to this quote he put out there to the local media on Tuesday, and tell me he is not in pain.

"Whenever the injuries start to stack up your football mortality kind of comes into the back of your mind. So, that’s definitely something I’ve thought about and something I have had to fight through."

I hate to say that Carson Palmer may have been right, but this AFC North franchise breaks people.

The only thing we can hope besides a clean bill of health for Burrow is that he can keep his head.

Joe Burrow grows increasingly aware of his own football mortality

This is the type of crap that ended Andrew Luck's career before his 30th birthday. Like Burrow, Luck was a No. 1 overall pick coming out of college. What he did at Stanford has not been replicated since. Although Jayden Daniels just won a Heisman Trophy at LSU, Burrow will go down as the greatest player in Tigers football history, more so than even the late, great Billy Cannon. He was that incredible.

Of the eight seasons I have covered college football professionally, I have not seen a quarterback like Joe Burrow. For as much fun as Baker Mayfield, Lamar Jackson and Caleb Williams were, Burrow did extraordinary things leading LSU during his two years there. The fact he took the Bengals from a doormat into a Super Bowl contender in only two seasons is the stuff of legend. We always have that.

Unfortunately, you have to wonder how much more of a physical beating his body is going to be able to take. The Bengals have already paid him handsomely, but are not doing their part to keep his receiving corps intact. Tyler Boyd is gone. Tee Higgins is pissed. And Ja'Marr Chase wants a new contract. All the while, Cincinnati's former offensive coordinator Brian Callahan works in Nashville.

Very rarely do you get a bona-fide star like Burrow in this league. It would be a shame to waste him.