They watched him as he languished at Ohio State, as he was carted off with his knee in shambles. Now, Robin and Jimmy Burrow are watching their son on the verge of a Super Bowl.
The biggest worry for the Burrows these days is figuring out exactly how they’ll squeeze Mike into a checked bag for their flight.
Mike is the family’s three-foot-tall stuffed Bengal tiger that sits on the hood of their rental car during pregame tailgate parties. He has developed a reputation as a talisman of sorts for Robin and Jimmy, the parents of the quarterback who has gifted the city of Cincinnati its first playoff victory in three decades and ended the NFL’s longest conference championship game drought.