Here's Why Joe Burrow Can't Be the Face of the NFL

Joe Burrow has entered into rooms where the loud buzz from Face of the NFL conversations can be made out if one presses a glass against the door and really focuses. The Cincinnati Bengals quarterback has done everything but win the Super Bowl in his second professional season and he may very well do that. His star has skyrocketed and the next two weeks will be an appropriate celebration of an extremely confident and accomplished football players. Having said all that, Burrow will not be the face of the league even if he beats the Los Angeles Rams by four touchdowns.

For one, because Patrick Mahomes still exists. And for reasons brought to the marketplace by Marcellus Wiley on yesterday's Speak For Yourself. See if you can follow it because we all struggled a bit.

"You've got to have some signature and you've got to have some brand moments as well," Wiley said of the requirements for this intangible honor. "Here's where he loses it. Be real. Joe Burrow has sold us on his Ohio connections. I'm a guy from Ohio and now I'm back in Cincinnati, Ohio and that's the brand. Here you go. Except, I've been noticing some beef on Twitter that the people of Ohio are claiming him from Ohio State and then he abandoned them to go to Louisiana and said 'I don't know why they're claiming me.' Wait a minute. There seems [to be] some holes in this branding. There seems to be some holes in the game."

Burrow was born in Iowa and moved to Ohio when he was nine. He seems to like the state a lot. It is unclear what him selling his Ohio connections look like. He did transfer to LSU. Perhaps that precludes him from being the Face of the NFL. Does anyone know how any of this works?