Bengals Joe Burrow Says He Has Dealt With Memory Loss After Big Hits

Head trauma in the NFL has been a major talking point for years, but it's under the microscope again after Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's terrifying Week 4 injury against the Bengals. Speaking of which, Cincinnati QB Joe Burrow recently shared his own experiences with head injuries.

After a discussion of Tagovailoa's injury while a guest on The Colin Cowherd Podcast, Burrow talked about times he has blacked out from hits or even suffered memory loss.

"I mean, it's scary," Burrow said when asked what was going through his mind while the Dolphins QB was being carted off the field. "Everybody knows the profession that we do is a dangerous game.

"That's always a possibility, but then when it happens you kind of just collectively hold your breath, and one hope that he's okay, and two, that they can get him to a hospital safe."

Joe Burrow Says He Has Had Experienced Concussions In The Past

"Have you ever had your bell rung?" Colin Cowherd asked the 25-year-old, third-year quarterback.

"Yeah," Burrow said with a chuckle. "For sure. I think everybody has who plays this game."

Burrow then delved into his personal experiences with head trauma and what it was like. However, he was insistent that he doesn't experience the long-term effects of traumatic brain injuries.

"I've never had any lasting effects from concussion. I've been hit and forgot the rest of the game before. That's happened a couple of times," he said. "But I've never had one where I had headaches for like a week."

Burrow went on to say the league can put as many rules in place as they'd like but they'll never be able to fully do away with the inherent risks associated with playing professional football.

"You have 300-pound men running 20-miles-an-hour trying to take your head off while you're standing still trying to ignore it," Burrow said. "It's part of the game, I think, part of what we signed up for. You're gonna have head injuries, you're gonna tear your ACL, you're gonna break your arm.

"That's the game that we play; that's the life that we live."

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Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.