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Ben Child
CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bengals are hitting the highway for Thanksgiving. Ideally, quarterback Joe Burrow would favor to be at residence.
Cincinnati is slotted for a Week 13 vacation recreation in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati’s division rival that has gained the AFC North in back-to-back seasons. And together with his workforce enjoying Baltimore in prime time for yet one more yr, Burrow had a tongue-in-cheek request for the NFL schedule makers.
“Taking part in in Baltimore for the fourth straight prime-time yr is not splendid,” Burrow mentioned after Tuesday’s voluntary exercise. “Possibly we will get a kind of in Cincinnati subsequent yr. Please.”
The Bengals have performed an evening recreation at M&T Financial institution Stadium in every of the previous three seasons. All of them have been defeats, together with final yr’s 35-34 loss in Week 10.
The matchup options the AFC North’s most profitable groups lately. The Bengals gained the division in 2021 and 2022 earlier than the Ravens took the division crown in 2023 and 2024. Baltimore has gained 4 straight video games in opposition to Cincinnati.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor echoed Burrow’s feedback and mentioned the workforce would favor to have extra prime-time video games at Paycor Stadium. This yr, three of Cincinnati’s 4 scheduled evening video games are highway contests.
Nonetheless, Taylor pointed to the workforce’s success in these conditions final season. Cincinnati gained three of the workforce’s 5 prime-time highway video games in 2024, and the coach mentioned the workforce is embracing the problem forward of this yr.
“Taking part in on Thanksgiving evening in a stand-alone recreation with the entire world watching, sitting on their sofa, is actually thrilling,” Taylor mentioned Tuesday. “It is why you are on this enterprise.”
Nevertheless it’s not simply the prime-time video games that Burrow desires. He additionally expressed a need for the Bengals to get a world fixture. Cincinnati missed out on enjoying the Dolphins in Spain this yr and are usually not slated to get a world recreation till 2027, Bengals government vp Katie Blackburn advised reporters on the NFL’s annual league assembly in April.
Burrow mentioned a part of the explanation he agreed to be featured within the Netflix present “Quarterback” was to broaden the league’s footprint internationally.
“To not have a stage like that could be a little disappointing,” he mentioned. “I really feel like I’ve consciously labored onerous to attempt to develop the sport internationally during the last 18 months or so. Hopefully in some unspecified time in the future in my profession we will go over there.”
