Baker Mayfield is used to the criticisms by now. He’s heard them all for years, well before he became the celebrated quarterback of the Cleveland Browns. Yet it’s still something he’s asked about all the time.
The latest to pose the question about how the noise might bother Mayfield was ESPN’s Keyshawn Johnson in a taped segment aired just before Monday Night Football. Johnson knows all about that type of criticism from his days as the No. 1 overall pick in the draft as a New York Jet.
Mayfield’s answer started off standard enough, but then it turned.
“I mean, there’s no manual on how to do certain things. I’m just going to be myself,” Mayfield said when Johnson interjected. The former wideout talked about how QBs need to stand tall and not ruffle feathers.
Mayfield wanted to hear none of that.
“I think that’s a load of BS (twice). I’m going to be who I am. I think for me to play at the top level and what I need to do for this team, of why I was really brought here to Cleveland. I have to be that.”
Mayfield continued,
“I don’t have to put on a face and act like I’m okay with everything, the world is all sunshine and rainbows. It’s not. There’s going to be criticism and that’s all fair.”
What does bother Mayfield is the criticism without a face or accountability.
“People can put a name or a description to what they want without ever actually having an interaction. That’s when I have to draw a line and think, ‘does it really matter what they think’…sometimes I have to take the high road.”
