GQ article on Ja’Marr Chase

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All told, it’s a good time to be Ja’Marr Chase, who tonight has braids peeking out from underneath a hoodie and a Louis Vuitton bag slung across his shoulder. He’s still in the afterglow of a sensational rookie season—a year in which he and his quarterback Joe Burrow, a fellow Louisiana State University alum, emerged together to become what might be the NFL’s most exciting next-gen duo, taking the once-dismal Bengals within a touchdown of a Super Bowl win. So, I say, gimme the real. Why’d the Bengals lose the Super Bowl?

“Joe ain’t give me the ball enough!” Ja’Marr says, laughing. As Ochocinco and Odell before him proved, ain’t nothin’ in the world like a receiver with some attitude.

Ja’Marr tells me that during the game, he didn’t get the same touches he had been getting all season. He sighs. “I don’t really know, man,” he says, his memories turning to the victorious Rams. “We had the game, but we playin’ against [three-time defensive player of the year] Aaron Donald, goddamn.” Ja’Marr twirls a glass in his hand and starts to sound contemplative: “What else can you do? This is the NFL. It’s only so much I can control.”

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He’s a perfect complement to Burrow, both as a player and as a friend. The night of the Super Bowl loss, Ja’Marr went to go check on his quarterback to see how he was doing. When Ja’Marr found him, Burrow looked despondent, like he’d never leave his room. Ja’Marr had seen Joe like this before. They’ve been close since they were LSU superstars who led the Tigers to a national championship during Ja’Marr’s sophomore year. In fact, the two are so close Ja’Marr occasionally takes the role of Joe’s personal shopper. “Joe literally won’t buy his own clothes,” he tells me. “He always asks me to shop for him and drop it off at the house. He’s not really into fashion like that, he cool with his li’l khakis and skinny jeans.”

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Ja’Marr eventually decided to attend LSU, his father’s first choice for a school, which had the added bonus of being close to home. But after that championship season, the world went on lockdown and Ja’Marr made the choice to sit out his last year of college ball mostly due to COVID concerns. He and his family didn’t want to risk anything happening to him before the NFL draft.

Ja’Marr was miserable, sitting on Jimmy and Toeleah’s couch, grimacing every time LSU lost on television. By week three of the season, Ja’Marr told Jimmy he was opting back in, and Jimmy damn near barricaded the door. “All he wanted to do was play. He had to think about tomorrow,” Jimmy says. He thought Ja’Marr was being childish, jeopardizing his chance at a pro career.

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