The feud between Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield and FS1’s Colin Cowherd has reached a new peak.
Mayfield ripped into Cowherd in an interview with Complex.com, which published the story on Tuesday. Mayfield accused Cowherd of being a liar while throwing out “irrational opinions.” On Wednesday, Cowherd responded to Mayfield on his show, “The Herd.” That’s when Mayfield fired off a tweet in response to Cowherd’s latest jabs at Mayfield.
“By the way, this quote isn’t new,” Mayfield wrote Wednesday. “But I’m happy I could give you a new storyline! Also…. do you accept check for the rent I have in your head? Or is it still free?”
Mayfield’s frustrations with Cowherd go back to when the Browns made the quarterback the No. 1 overall pick in 2018. Cowherd wrote: “Marginal size and athleticism isn’t a NUMBER ONE pick.” And Mayfield responded: “Well it happened bud. Have a nice day!” That seemed to be the genesis of their beef. Eventually, Mayfield made an appearance on “The Herd” to go head-to-head with Cowherd. The Browns quarterback was particularly displeased at Cowherd’s suggestion that Mayfield was a bad teammate. The discourse has continued on Twitter into 2019, including Mayfield calling Cowherd “a donkey.”
But the recent bout with Cowherd has reached a new crescendo after Mayfield’s comments with Complex. So let’s revisit them:
“He’s supposed to bring out facts and he chooses to put out irrational opinions. People can say what they want, they can say I’m not really supposed to comment on this, but a liar is a liar and a guy that is really just full of it needs to be put in his place.”
And that prompted Cowherd’s response on radio and TV.
“Well, in fairness, I don’t think I would build a 20-year career based on irrational opinions, Does Charles Barkley have irrational opinions saying he thinks the Portland Trail Blazers are going to win the NBA championship or is Charles Barkley a wildly funny, entertaining opinionist on an NBA show? He is and so am I. … This is not big J journalism. I’m not in locker rooms 100 nights a year.”
Cowherd’s qualms with Mayfield went further, and the pundit criticized the quarterback for even engaging in this line of conversation. Cowherd pointed back at the great quarterbacks of the NFL — Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Joe Montana — and noted that they stayed out of conversations with media members. That argument isn’t exactly true because it ignores the fact that past quarterbacks haven’t had to brave the multimedia and social media environment that Mayfield is wading into in this new generation of NFL superstars. Players feuded with local columnists plenty, but there was no Twitter to bring the fighting to a broader audience.
