Joe Burrow Still Has His Senior Bowl Jerseys, Even Though He Never Came To The Game

MOBILE, Alabama - Joe Burrow always dreamed of playing in the Senior Bowl.

Even though he won the Heisman Trophy in 2019 and was the consensus, presumptive No. 1 pick for months before the 2020 NFL Draft, he considered coming to the premier college all-star game until the final week before reporting day.

On Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, LSU and Joe Burrow beat Clemson for the national championship. On the next Friday, the Tigers visited the White House. On Saturday, there was the national title parade in Baton Rouge. On Sunday, players reported to Mobile for the Senior Bowl.

"He called me that Friday night after the White House visit," Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy said this week as he prepared for Saturday's Senior Bowl (2:30 p.m., NFL Network). "He spoke for about a half hour. I didn't push him at all because he was obviously going to be the No. 1 pick."

As a junior quarterback at LSU in 2018, Joe Burrow was considered a late round pick for the 2020 NFL Draft. (Getty Images).

Joe Burrow Had A So-So Season In 2018 At LSU

And the Cincinnati Bengals took Burrow with the first pick in April of 2020.

But the previous summer when Nagy met Burrow at the Manning Passing Academy in Hammond, Louisiana, Burrow was still considered a fourth round pick in some circles. He finished only 65th in the nation in passing efficiency in 2018 as a junior with a 133.3 rating.

"We were just hoping to get a Senior Bowl invite after his junior season," Burrow's dad Jimmy Burrow said at the time. The Burrows also considered petitioning the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility at LSU in 2020. He had played in only four games at Ohio State in 2017.

Then, Burrow compiled one of the greatest seasons in college football history for a quarterback in 2019. Burrow set the college record for efficiency at 202 on 402-of-527 passing for 5,671 yards and a Football Bowl Subdivision record 60 touchdowns.

Joe Burrow Had A Senior Bowl Request In 2020

So, when Burrow called Nagy that Friday night, he said, "Jim, if you would've told me back in June when we first met that I'd be turning down a Senior Bowl invite, I would've told you, 'You're crazy.' But my life is completely different now."

Then, he asked Nagy a question.

"Do you have my jersey?"

The Senior Bowl makes the jerseys for all prospective players before they agree to come because it is a long process. So, yes, somewhere in Mobile, there is probably a Senior Bowl 2023 jersey for former Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett.

"We have to do that well in advance," Nagy said. "So, in the slim chance we were going to get Joe, we had some made. So, we sent him his practice jersey and his game jersey."

So, in case the whole NFL thing doesn't work out for Burrow, he's got that going for him. What a door prize it could have been for the Senior Bowl had Burrow not made a future wardrobe decision.

"Well, it would be a collector's item, if we had it in the building," Nagy said. "But he wanted them. So, they're somewhere up in Ohio right now."