Essendon forward Matt Guelfi has revealed how he wound up having dinner with NFL star Joe Burrow at popular Melbourne restaurant Nobu.
The superstar quarterback was in Victoria in January to check out the Australian Open and the Bomber thought he’d try his luck and send Burrow a message on Instagram.
The NFL star replied and the pair, along with teammate Jayden Laverde, ended up getting dinner together.
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Guelfi says he was quite nervous when he checked his phone and saw the response.
“I saw he was in Melbourne so I thought I’d throw out a message, thinking nothing of it, thinking he wouldn’t reply,” Guelfi told Nine’s Players.
“I’m at training and I get off the track and he’s replied to me and I’m absolutely shitting myself. I was thinking about everything I was going to do … trying to act cool, not give too little, not give too much.
“He was like, ‘yeah, we’ll get a feed’ and stuff, so we went to Nobu, me, him and Jayden Laverde, and I was trying to act cool.”
Burrow signed a $424m AUD contract in 2023 with the Bengals, and led them to a Super Bowl appearance in 2021.
“He (paid the bill),” Guelfi added.
“It was funny. Me and Jayden got up to get our credit cards out and he’s like ‘boys, come on’, pulls out his American Express card.”
Matt Guelfi had dinner with Bengals QB Joe Burrow. Getty
As for what they discussed at dinner?
“He’s a massive gamer. He streams (video games). He can’t go out much in Cincinnati because it’s a small town,” Guelfi added.
“He said when he wants to watch a movie, he has to book out a whole movie theatre.
“That’s why he loved Melbourne because not a heap of people knew him. There was one guy who came up to him, but that’s about it.”
Guelfi has played 110 career games for the Bombers, including his first of the 2025 season against Richmond last Friday night.
