Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow revealed how the burglary of his Ohio home last year impacted his state of mind off the football field.
Burrow, 28, found out about the burglary after entering the locker room at AT&T Stadium on December 9, just moments after the Bengals earned a much-needed 27-20 road win over the Dallas Cowboys.
“Of-f***ing-course this happened to me right now,” Burrow recalled during season 2 of Netflix’s docuseries Quarterback, which premiered on Tuesday, July 8. “When you’re on cloud nine, something’s gonna bring you right back down. It just felt like the kind of year that it was.”
The win over the Cowboys improved the Bengals record to 5-8 at the time, a slow start for a season that started with Super Bowl aspirations.
Burrow admitted all of the attention that followed the break-in made him “uncomfortable.”
“My life is very public and that comes with the job,” he said. “But there are certain parts of your life that are yours. Your house is one of those. When that gets violated, people find out where you live, all these different things. Not everybody’s failures at their job are in front of the whole world.”
Burrow added, “It’s a very vulnerable position to be in. I put myself in that position because I love it. I don’t like the other part of it.”
The quarterback’s rumored girlfriend, model Olivia Ponton, was at Burrow’s home at the time of the burglary and was responsible for reporting the incident to police.
Though Burrow and Ponton have never confirmed their relationship, they have continued to spend time together throughout the NFL offseason, including being spotted together in Miami in May.
Shortly after the break-in, Burrow commiserated about the fallout of the incident with then-Bengals defensive coordinator, Lou Anarumo. (Anarumo was fired by the Bengals after the 2024 season before being hired as defensive coordinator by the Indianapolis Colts.)
“That’s the only part I’m upset about,” Burrow said on the practice field. “All my business is out there. I got news vans camped out by the house. It sucks.”
Burrow added, “The whole world knows where I live now. That hasn’t been very fun to deal with.”
In January, four men were arrested in connection to the burglary at Burrow’s home.
According to a criminal complaint, the suspects were pulled over for a traffic violation when officers found “an old LSU shirt and Bengals hat, believed to be stolen from the December 9, 2024 burglary in Hamilton County.”
All four of the men pleaded not guilty to charges of participating in a criminal gang, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, obstructing official business and possession of criminal tools.
In February, the same four men were also charged with participating in a string of burglaries that targeted athletes like Kansas City Chiefs stars Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes, whose homes were both also burglarized while they were out of town.
All seven episodes of Quarterback season two are available to stream on Netflix.
