JD Vance Snubbed By Bengals Players In ‘Humiliating’ Viral Video As Joe Burrow Says VP Left With ‘Swiftness & Efficiency’

Vice President JD Vance got a chilly reception from his favorite NFL team this week, as a viral video showed most Cincinnati Bengals players walking right past him during a surprise visit to practice.

Vance, an Ohio native and longtime Bengals fan, stopped by the team’s facility at Paycor Stadium on Oct. 21, after a busy day of events in the Cincinnati area, including a press conference at the FBI’s Cincinnati field office on a new SNAP fraud task force. Arriving with a motorcade and a large entourage, he toured the locker room and shook hands with head coach Zac Taylor as players came off the field.

Vance controversially backed an ad by Vivek Ramaswamy during his trip that highlighted the estranged mom of his Democratic opponent disputing the rape allegations made by her daughter against her stepfather.

The awkward moment came as practice wrapped up. Charlie Clifford, sports director for NBC 5 in Cincinnati, posted footage of Vance standing beside a walkway as players filed past him toward the locker room.

“JD Vance greets Bengals players on the way out,” Clifford wrote.

In the clip, player after player walks by without stopping. Only one pauses to shake the vice president’s hand before Vance eventually turns and leaves. The video racked up more than 2 million views within hours.

Critics online were quick to pounce. Political commentator Krystal Ball called the scene “humiliating,” while journalist Pedro L. Gonzalez wrote that just “one guy on the entire team” acknowledged the vice president standing a few feet away.

Not every clip told the same story. Other footage from the visit showed Vance greeting Taylor and tight end Drew Sample, and it remains unclear whether the players deliberately snubbed him or simply headed inside after a long practice. Neither Vance nor the Bengals have commented on the video.

Star quarterback Joe Burrow added fuel to the fire with a carefully worded answer when reporters asked whether he met Vance.

“We did not, we did not,” Burrow said. “He came with everybody and left with swiftness and efficiency before the end of practice, so I didn’t get to.”

Burrow said he didn’t even know Vance would be there until team owner Mike Brown told him on the sideline. He then steered the conversation back to football, saying the sport “brings a lot of people together” and that he enjoys when people come out to “watch greatness,” before quickly clarifying he meant the whole team.

Many fans read between the lines. Burrow has spoken out on social issues in the past, including support for racial justice and abortion rights, though he also drew criticism from the left for posing with President Donald Trump alongside his former Ohio State teammate Nick Bosa, an outspoken Trump supporter.

The visit came as Vance has been crisscrossing Ohio ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms, where Republicans are fighting to hold the governor’s mansion and a Senate seat in his home state.

Whatever the players’ intentions, it likely wasn’t the hometown welcome the vice president was hoping for.