Baker Mayfield abruptly ended, then exited, his press conference Wednesday after becoming frustrated by an exchange with a reporter who asked: “the dumbest question you could ask.”
Tony Grossi, a reporter with 850 ESPN in Cleveland, asked Mayfield a question about a two-minute drive before halftime in the Browns (2-5) 27-13 loss to the Patriots (8-0) Sunday. Specifically, Grossi asked the quarterback about “lack of urgency,” on the drive because of “a lot of time between snaps.”
“Well when the penalty happened, then we were behind the chains,” Mayfield said, before becoming visibly aggravated. “No, no, no — stop saying ‘but.’ I just told you, the clock was running and we had a penalty. You want to give them the ball back? No. You don’t play. You don’t know it. That’s just plain and simple.”
Grossi finished his part in the exchange by questioning if the 24-year-old was happy with the drive (which did not end in points for Cleveland), and that seemed to be the final straw for the QB.
“Was I happy with the drive? No. We didn’t score points,” Mayfield said. “That’s the dumbest question you could ask. What? Jesus, Tony.”
The radio station employee and the Browns QB have a familiar relationship, though not exactly an agreeable one. Mayfield criticized Rossi for drawing a comparison between 2019 NFL Draft first overall selection Kyler Murray and NFL flameout Johnny Manziel by tweeting about Rossi, “He also said he would retire if the Browns drafted me. So does anything he says have truth to it? Couldn’t be any more wrong.”
Mayfield tweeted about Wednesday’s exchange, writing “Everybody wants to hear the truth until they actually get it…. I am who I am and always have been. Don’t call it emotional when it’s convenient and then passion when it fits. I care about winning, so yeah I’m frustrated. If I was to act like it’s okay to lose, then y’all would say that I’ve gotten complacent. My sense of urgency is at an all-time high. And if I offend anybody along the way… that’s too bad.”
