The 2023 NFL regular season kicks off tonight with the Detroit Lions taking on the Kansas City Chiefs, the defending Super Bowl champions, in Arrowhead Stadium. Yes, we’re strong believers in the rigging of professional sports for maximum TV ratings/revenue, and we’re not the only ones—even if something like this is presented as pure farce. We’re more interested in the little tweaks here and there that shape it all.

With that being said, we’re keeping an eye on the Joe Burrow Agenda, officially, in 2023. We don’t care enough to watch every Cincinnati Bengals game from start to finish, but since the quarterback himself entered the league, there’s been a driving force behind the scenes to elevate him to the top of the hype machine—sort of like the NFL did once, and still does … really, with Eli Manning. It’s too obvious.

The Los Angeles Rams’ immense talent prevented the Bungles from winning the NFL title in 2021, and last season, we could argue the circumstantial moments of both the Damar Hamlin Incident and the moronic decision of Joseph Ossai hurt the Burrow Agenda as well. We confidently predict that nothing will stand in the way of the league powers elevating their chosen Golden Boy to the level of Super Bowl champion soon.

Remember, this was a guy who was downright mediocre as a college starting quarterback in 2018 before somehow miraculously turning one of the all-time great passing seasons in 2019—conveniently at the same time his school was to “host” the College Football Playoff title game. His performance/production increased almost 52 percent from one season to the next, which is inexplicable to anyone with brains. Rigged? Yep.

Then, he hits the NFL with this huge regional following, playing for the relatively hapless Cincinnati franchise. Suddenly, we’re supposed to buy into the marketing hype that this rookie QB suddenly makes the Bungles a Super Bowl contender? Nope. He got injured in his rookie season, anyway, posting just a 2-7-1 record, and in his second season, Burrow got better, of course, but he still topped the NFL in sacks taken.

That hurt him in the Super Bowl against the Rams, when he couldn’t muster a comeback despite being handed a gift touchdown by the officials. In his third season, Burrow regressed a bit back to the mean production level we should expect from him for the duration of his career—which is still good/high, but hardly outstanding or “the best” in the league at anything … except being overhyped by the league itself.

Cincinnati opened as the second favorite to win the Super Bowl this season, showing that some bettors are zeroing in on the NFL’s agenda. However, the lines have shifted since then, and now the Bengals are just the fifth-best favorite to win it all. Why? Because there are four distinctly better teams on paper out there: Kansas City, Philadelphia, Buffalo, and San Francisco. Cincy has to go through at least three of those teams.

In the AFC playoffs, beating the Bills again will be tough without more help from the officials, and beating the Chiefs obviously requires some skullduggery as well; we remember that weird collapse benefitting the Bungles in the 2021 AFC Championship. We doubt Patrick Mahomes will do that sort of disappearing act ever again. Then, there is the Super Bowl itself, where the Eagles or the 49ers have vastly superior rosters.

Still, maybe it’s smart to lay down some bets on the Joe Burrow Agenda trajectory finally hitting pay dirt in 2023. But with +1100 odds, why not throw down $100 on our hunch and suspicions here and see if it pays off for you in February 2024? You can send us a finder’s free as you count your winnings. Let us know.