There’s nothing to see here.
That’s the conclusion from the NFL regarding the question of whether the Bengals had concealed a wrist injury to quarterback Joe Burrow before he suffered a season-ending wrist injury during the Week 11 Thursday night game at Baltimore.
The NFL has announced that the Bengals did not violate the injury report.
“The NFL reviewed all medical records, studied practice video from the week preceding the [Bengals’] Week 10 game against Houston and the Week 11 game against Baltimore, interviewed relevant medical personnel and Joe Burrow himself before arriving at its conclusion,” NFL employee Tom Pelissero posted on X. “No violations.”
Despite this conclusion, there has been no clear explanation regarding Burrow wearing a sleeve that extended past his thumb while traveling to Maryland for the game against the Ravens. Making the situation specifically suspicious was the fact that the Bengals posted video of Burrow wearing the wrap, before deleting it.
The NFL’s investigation hardly counts as independent or neutral. If the league had found that the Bengals had hidden the injury, the league would have essentially engraved an invitation for a class-action lawsuit by those who made legal wagers based on the assumption Burrow was healthy — against the Bengals for hiding the injury, and against the NFL for negligent failure to develop and to enforce an effective injury report.
Thus, while many will crow that this counts as complete and total exoneration of the Bengals, unanswered questions remain. Those questions will only be answered if someone does indeed file a lawsuit and secures the ability to conduct the kind of investigation that would be precisely designed to find the needle in the haystack.