LSU Football: How Joe Burrow is the football version of Michael Jordan

LSU football’s Joe Burrow has the same traits as another GOAT — Michael Jordan.

Former LSU football quarterback Joe Burrow is the football version of Michael Jordan — at least when it comes to competitiveness.

If you’ve watched ESPN’s The Last Dance — the recent documentary that covers Jordan’s career and final season with the Chicago Bulls — then you’re well aware of how competitive MJ could be.

Stories abound from his teammates of late nights spent playing cards, or intense matchups on the golf course. Whether it was pitching quarters against a wall with his security guards, or game six of the NBA finals, Jordan had the same insatiable desire to win in every situation.

Burrow has that same desire to win. Football, basketball, even ping pong — Burrow wants to beat you and he wants to beat you badly (it’s why he’s so good against elite competition).

This is illustrated in a recent story from The Athletic’s Brody Miller, who took some time this week to tell the “untold stories” from LSU’s championship season.

One specific story is about Burrow’s dominance in ping pong and the teammate that ended that dominance.

A couple of days before LSU’s matchup against Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl, Burrow had beat 10 consecutive teammates in ping pong in the team’s hospitality suite.

According to Miller, this is when punter Zach Von Rosenberg entered the picture. Rosenberg is a 29 year old former minor league pitcher. A wily veteran if you will.

Rosenberg beat Burrow four straight times. The Heisman Trophy winner stormed out of the room according to Miller.

Losing is never acceptable to Joe Burrow

A reporter somehow caught wind of Burrow’s defeat and asked him about it at the Peach Bowl media session the following day.

Burrow brushed off the loss by saying “That series isn’t over. Don’t worry about that. Talk to me after the game.”

Not only was Burrow mad he lost, he was also mad that reporters knew he lost.

From The Athletic:

"Media day soon concluded, and the team began heading back to the hotel. Burrow was not happy. He wasn’t happy about losing. He wasn’t happy that people now knew he lost at something. He went up to Von Rosenberg on the way out.“Why did you frickin’ tell Brody Miller about pingpong?”"

Maybe the reason Burrow went off against Oklahoma (493 passing yards, 7 passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown) was because he was still steaming over the ping pong matches he lost to Rosenberg.

Or maybe he’s just that good.

Either way, this is the exact same type of fire we see from MJ in The Last Dance. Just a pure, unadulterated hate for losing.

This is why Burrow was great at LSU. And it’s why he’ll be great in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Burrow refuses to lose. And he’s going to do everything possible to make his teammates feel the same way.

Just like Michael Jordan.