Former Florida standout comes to Joe Burrow's defense regarding SEC vs. NFL debate

Joe Burrow’s quote comparing SEC stadiums to the NFL is going viral once again ahead of the AFC Championship. As fans react, a former SEC standout is rising to the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback’s defense.

Chris Doering, a SiriusXM host who played at Florida from 1991-95, strongly stood by Burrow’s comments. Doering also played in the NFL for seven seasons for the Green Bay Packers, Washington Football Team, Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers — all of whom he said have passionate fan bases.

That said, he agrees with Burrow’s statement that SEC stadiums are “way louder” than NFL stadiums. He explained his reasoning on his show Tuesday morning.

“He’s 100% accurate,” Doering said. “I mean, you look at the majority of the big-time stadiums in the SEC, they seat way more people than what NFL stadiums do and the majority of NFL stadiums are about entertainment. They have the music that they’re playing in the stadium. That’s different. In college, you’ve got 100,000 in the SEC, you’ve got the bands playing, you’ve got the cheerleaders leading things.

“I will say this. Kansas City is very similar to a college environment. I’d say maybe there’s five or six fan bases in the NFL that are similar to SEC fan bases. Kansas City would be one. … But the majority of the places you go in the NFL, it doesn’t have anything that can match the passion, the energy or certainly not the volume that the top six or seven stadiums in the SEC will give you.”

Remember. Burrow played his home games for LSU at Death Valley and road games at stadiums such as Bryant-Denny Stadium, Jordan-Hare Stadium and Kyle Field. He knows a loud environment when he sees one, and he’ll walk into another one on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

Joe Burrow reveals surprising advantage SEC has over the NFL

As Burrow and the Bengals get ready to head to Arrowhead Stadium, which is considered one of the top atmospheres in the NFL, he’s not worried about the crowd’s impact.

“[It] gets way louder in the SEC than any of these NFL stadiums,” Burrow said in October.

The comments resurfaced in the wake of the Bengals’ Divisional Round win over the Tennessee Titans last week. But former Chiefs kicker Lawrence Tynes posted a screenshot of the comments on Monday and had quite a message for the second-year quarterback.

“To be fair, Joe has never played at Arrowhead,” Tynes tweeted. “Having said that, he is in for a rude awakening. There is no place louder in sports and it’s not up for debate.”