When Smathers reveals he’s read the Lord of the Rings books, Burson reminds him that author JRR Tolkien was a friend of CS Lewis. On that rock-solid foundation, they forged a connection like his Burrow-Ja-Marr Chase.
“Sam was reading it as I was writing it,” Burson says. “He fact-checked and gave me feedback. We continued to do it together and we got it done last summer.”
A 1980 Athens high school graduate who left to be a sportswriter before sanity prevailed and returned him to the classroom a quarter century ago, 60-year-old Burson ponders a book about Athens County celebrities. A senior at Athens High School when Burson was a freshman, Maya Lin rose to international fame as an undergraduate at Yale University when she designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Atul Gawande, a surgeon and now Deputy Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. Just to name two. As Burson saw, Burrow would be in the sports section of the book.
But a few interviews about Barrow with his parents Robin and Jimmy, Smathers, and two coaches who have seen him do it all in football, basketball, and baseball with Fred Gibson and Jeff Skinner. After doing the book, Burson wrote The Only Joe Lee Burrow book. This was confirmed in subsequent interviews with some 60 people.
“Anecdote,” says Burson.
Smathers, who spawned Athens’ youth football program in a garage still named “The Dog Pound,” snapped one day in Barrow in sixth grade. Burrow, who had already taken Athens to uncharted heights, was also the quarterback on the scout team, and Smathers was looking to prime the defense for a stiff competition from Nelsonville. But Burrow saw how he could beat defenses, and when he won easily, Smathers said, “Will you play the card I gave you? I can’t do it,” he scolded.
“Holy shit,” Smathers said now. “Nobody can do that.”
The Smathers wanted to make sure Robin and Jimmy got the classy, classy book they wanted. I also made sure Burson was on the same page and saw everything that was printed.
“Sam and I really wanted their blessing,” Burroughs’ Burson says. “
A move from Ohio State to LSU and the Bengals’ magical Super Bowl run has plenty to satisfy any football junkie. But it’s Burrow growing up in the tiny melting pot of Athens that gives sportswriters and edge rushers a sense of incomprehensible childhood.
There’s so much Burrow stuff that you almost need a Superluminal Time Travel to keep track of it. (This is Burrow’s 2019 response to a reporter’s question about what his recent Google searches are, the book says.)
But Burson and Smathers put everything between the two covers.