Joe Burrow will start at quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals against the Atlanta Falcons at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid on Sunday, an NFL regular-season game set for 3:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. UTC), AS reported.
The 29-year-old from Ames, Iowa, is the brightest name among the 106 players who will compete in the Spanish capital, and he arrived this week with the Bengals training in Las Rozas. He called the trip “a dream come true,” telling AS that Madrid is “an incredible city” and that traveling while playing football is exactly what he has always wanted to do.
League-best numbers head to the Bernabéu
Burrow brings the NFL’s most productive passing season to Madrid. Through seven games, the fifth-year starter has thrown for 2,115 yards, fourth in the league, with a 73% completion rate and 20 touchdown passes — the best marks in the NFL in both of those categories — while leading Cincinnati to a 5-2 record, AS reported.
His head coach, Zac Taylor, the only coach Burrow has had in the league, put the case plainly. “As a player, he is the best passer in the world,” Taylor said. “People will see him on this stage on Sunday. He has tremendous talent, he is an incredible leader for the team.” Taylor added that the staff tries to put the ball in Burrow’s hands and let him make plays, with talented players around him and an offensive line that gives him time.
Burrow himself pointed to the group around him as the key to the hot start. Great players and coaches come first, he said, and then the trust: everyone cares about each other, wants to go out and play at a high level for their teammates, and wants to get better every day. “You have to care about the others and trust each other if you want to achieve great things,” he said.
A week in Madrid: the Prado, the Palace, and a new audience
Burrow has already put the week to use. On Wednesday he visited the Museo del Prado, wandered around the city, and met some fans studying abroad near his hotel, the Palace. He dined out in the evenings. “In home, every day is the same for us,” he said. “Wednesdays are Wednesdays, Thursdays are Thursdays, and so on until Sunday. Then you play the game and start all over again. It’s good to have new faces and a different environment to explore.”
Asked whether an experience like this makes him realize he is a global figure, Burrow demurred. “I’m not sure I’d go that far,” he said. He hopes the sport grows enough that NFL stars become global stars at that level, and he thinks the league is on the way: the NFL is playing a record nine international games this season, he noted, and the league is trying to make the game more accessible to a global market. “There are a lot of rules, so it’s hard to understand everything,” he said, “but I think we’re trying to make the sport more accessible.”
On Sunday he will play in a stadium he has known since childhood, when he followed soccer, played FIFA and watched matches around the world. “I’m excited to play at the Bernabéu,” he said. “I think it’s going to be very exciting for me, and I’m looking forward to experiencing what that atmosphere is like.”
From LSU stardom to the No. 1 pick, dated in order
Burrow’s arrival in the NFL came with rare expectations. At Louisiana State University in 2019 he went 15-0, won the national title, captured the Heisman Trophy as college football’s MVP, and set a pile of records with his passing numbers — and the image of him smoking a cigar after the championship made him a mass phenomenon.
The Bengals, a franchise that had long been stuck in the middle, took him with the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. The Ohio native was coming home. Cincinnati quickly found the gem they had drafted — not without suffering, because in 2020 the young quarterback tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during his rookie season.
He came back big. The following season he carried the Bengals to their first Super Bowl since 1999, and his connection with Ja’Marr Chase — a teammate from LSU who joined him in Cincinnati a year later — immediately became the best in the NFL. With 90 seconds left in Super Bowl LVI, the championship ring was already being sized for Burrow’s finger, but the Los Angeles Rams spoiled the party in Cincinnati.
The injuries and the mental toll in between
Since that near-miss, injuries have repeatedly interrupted Burrow’s path back to the final. In 2023 he injured his wrist, tearing a ligament, and last year he hurt a toe. “Then you start thinking: ‘Come on, man, what’s going on?'” he said.
Asked whether the pain was more mental than physical when he was at the best point of his career, he answered without hesitation: “It’s always more mental, without a doubt.” The 2020 knee injury came when he was 23 and had never lived through anything like it. “You just take one step after another,” he said. Football is a physical sport, he added, and injuries happen; you try to reduce the odds, but you can’t obsess over it, or you won’t play well. He counts on the medical and strength staff around him to get him back, “and that’s all you can do.”
Chess, piano and Lego behind the throwing arm
Off the field, Burrow’s interests are wide: travel, fashion, American football, soccer, basketball. He tries to act as an ambassador for the sport and carry it to the world. Asked whether some of his hobbies help him on the field, he paused before answering. Chess, he said, can help with his ability to process information and his critical thinking. He started playing piano after tearing a wrist ligament a couple of years ago and wanted to regain dexterity; at first it helped with that, and then he simply loved it. Lego? “I don’t know, maybe Lego is just fun,” he said, laughing.
Sunday in Madrid, then the road to February
Sunday’s game is the eighth of the season, roughly the midpoint, and there is plenty of football left. The goal is obvious: the Super Bowl. Burrow said the MVP conversation comes when you are part of a great team — you have to win games and keep playing at a high level. AS reported that the next Super Bowl is set for February in Los Angeles, and the question of whether Burrow could also star there remains open.
He also left the door open to another stage entirely. Asked about playing flag football at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, Burrow said he would love to. Winning an Olympic gold medal has always been a dream, he said, even though he has never seriously played an Olympic sport. Doing it in football “would be incredible.” The format is still not fully clear — in the past the Games have coincided with the start of the NFL season, and moving them up a couple of weeks has been discussed — but the ambition is on the record.
Questions readers are asking about the Madrid game
Cincinnati faces Atlanta on Sunday at the Santiago Bernabéu, with kickoff at 3:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. UTC); in Spain the game airs on DAZN and Cuatro, AS reported.
Through seven games he has 2,115 passing yards (fourth in the NFL), a 73% completion rate and 20 touchdown passes, both league-leading figures, with the Bengals 5-2.
Will Burrow play at the 2028 Olympics? He said he would love to play flag football in Los Angeles in 2028, but the details of how the Olympic schedule would fit the NFL season are still unconfirmed.
The next confirmed checkpoint is Sunday at the Bernabéu, where the league’s best passer this season will play in front of a new audience — and where the question of whether he can get back to the Super Bowl in February will still be waiting.
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