Baker Mayfield and the Browns have experienced quite the up-and-down 2021 season, and they sit at 7–8 heading into the final two weeks of the year. The situation turned ugly this week, after Mayfield's wife Emily revealed that the quarterback has received death threats.
“The death threats, lies being told about my husband, and blatant DISRESPECT never ceases to amaze me,” she posted to her Instagram story on Tuesday.
During his Thursday press conference, Mayfield addressed the situation, saying that he's not worried about the threats from “keyboard warriors." Mayfield added he understands why his wife came to his defense online.
“It's just one of those things where we're in a world today in society where there's a lot of keyboard warriors that make empty threats and things like that," Mayfield said. "It's quite honestly ignorant when they go after people that aren't directly involved in football, and then when you talk about taking your own life, killing somebody or all that, to me, is ignorance."
"But I try not to listen to it 'cause those are not the people that I would listen to, whether it was good or bad regardless."
Mayfield says that he's not getting the organization or the authorities involved when it comes to the alleged threats.
“It's tough to tell your loved ones and your family not to defend you and look into that stuff. That's just human nature," Mayfield added. "But you have to take one day at a time and realize that your priorities, your family members, the people that truly matter to you, those are the opinions you need to listen to. It's just one of those things that, it's blown up to be a much bigger deal on the outside. It's not like it's anything new for us.”
Earlier in the day, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said that the team would step in if deemed necessary.
“People can and do say some crazy things out there,” Stefanski said. “If it rises to the level of that, certainly we can help address those type of things. Short of that, just in general and not specific to that, in general, there's a lot of noise out there.”
Cleveland hits the road to face Pittsburgh on Monday night.
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