“He was upset”: When Joe Burrow opened up about his father’s reaction to missing LSU games and how it prompted him to give up coaching

Joe Burrow's father, Jimmy, made a huge sacrifice in the quarterback’s senior year at LSU. Having served as Ohio's defensive coordinator for 15 years, Jimmy saw his son’s youth and high school games. That went on after he committed to play at Ohio State.

However, after Joe transferred to LSU in 2018, the story changed. His coaching commitment with the Bobcats meant that Jimmy was unable to catch up with his son's games with his new team. The quarterback described how his dad felt, in a short ESPN documentary in December 2019.

“I know he was upset he wasn't at the games and wasn't able to watch some of them on TV, some of the big ones,” Joe said.

Jimmy himself explained how difficult the 2018 season was. Joe Burrow won the starting quarterback job at LSU and went on to have a brilliant season. However, Jimmy could only witness a few of the games.

“Last year was the toughest,” Jimmy said (0:13). “I was only able to go three games, none in Baton Rouge. I can't imagine if I'd never seen him play a game in Tiger Stadium.”

Ahead of the 2019 season, Jimmy made a difficult but bold decision about his life. He retired from coaching to get the opportunity to watch his son play his last season in college football. Joe’s mom, Robin, described how it was making that decision.

“Once we hit that point and he had time to sit back and really reflect on the fact that he'd only been able to go to three games, it was time to make a hard decision for him,” Robin said (1:48).

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Joe Burrow explains what his father's decision means to him

By retiring from coaching, Jimmy Burrow gave up his career to support that of his son. It's one of the biggest sacrifices any father could make for his son. Joe Burrow explained what it meant to him to ESPN.

“It means a lot now that he's at every single game,” Joe said (2:21). “We can talk about what happened on the field and he always makes sure to always ask me about my bad plays instead of my good plays. That's the old coach in him.

The goal behind the decision to retire from coaching was clear for Jimmy; he wanted to be part of his son's final season of eligibility in every aspect.

“The bottom line was just the opportunity to watch Joe play his senior year. I love coaching, but just to be a part of this at LSU with Joe was why I retired."

That season was a big one for Joe Burrow at LSU. The quarterback threw for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns, breaking the SEC record for single-season passing yards and touchdowns.

This won him the Heisman Trophy and a host of other awards, including the Manning Award, Maxwell Award and a host of others. The quarterback led the Tigers to the SEC championship and the national title undefeated.