Long, I know, but it's a great read:
I get it, Mayfield will probably always generate some vitriol from the traditional sports fan who believes the game was built on sportsmanship and butt slaps rather than dudes wanting to annihilate each other for fun. I understand that Mayfield’s chip-on-the-shoulder ways may not be for everyone, but it sure is for me.
Even if you can’t understand what has typically motivated Mayfield to play and act with such an edge, how can you not understand this? For years Hue Jackson held the Browns captive, ruling in a power-hungry, I’m-gonna-do-what-I-want manner that put the needs of the team last and himself first. You think refusing to play Duke Johnson all these years was the best thing for the team? You think keeping Nick Chubb behind Carlos Hyde was the best thing for the team? Tyrod Taylor starting over Mayfield? The list goes on and on and on.
I know why those things happened. Hue relished the power he had as head coach, something we saw on Hard Knocks time and time again. Any player who didn’t know their place sat. Everyone knows Johnson marches to the beat of his own drum. I bet that didn’t sit well with Hue. Rookies like Mayfield and Chubb needed to understand it was Hue’s way or the highway, and Hue’s way was to play veterans he liked over better players. Because that was what he wanted, and as he often reminded us, “I’m the head coach of the football team”.
But because he was a nice guy and very political about it, nobody called him on his BS. That ended with Mayfield. In an instant Baker saw right through his charade, and I bet John Dorsey did too, thought he operated at the whims of Jimmy Haslam and was more diplomatic in his approach.
Excuse Mayfield if he doesn’t adhere to the common quarterback approach here, but that’s exactly why the Browns drafted him. Hue was a fraud in Cleveland, consistently threw everyone under the bus and made excuses for the way things happened, then got fired and immediately did it AGAIN in multiple interviews. That was completely unnecessary, but Hue only cares about one person in this business: himself. Politically, he realized he had to take the reins and do anything he could to shift the blame off of his failures.
And guess what? That is completely Jackson’s right, just like it is his right to take a job with division rival Cincinnati after going scorched earth on his former team. And the old Browns probably wouldn’t have cared, no doubt whispering behind closed doors about how maybe Hue was the lucky one for getting out of here.
That ain’t happening anymore, not on Mayfield’s watch. Pissed off and motivated, the Browns smacked Cincinnati in the mouth during the first half on Sunday like the Browns haven’t smacked anyone in recent memory, maybe in my lifetime. After the game Mayfield’s position was clear: you’re one of us, bought in completely for what is best for the team, or you’re the enemy. Period.
THAT mentality has been missing from Cleveland for soooooo long. Losing, failure, firings, media bashings, former player and coach bashings, other players on other teams using them as a punch line…it’s gone on for years, and we just accept it because it’s the Browns. They’re a joke.
Sorry if Mayfield doesn’t share your sentiment. He’s not just there to play quarterback at a high level, although he’s doing that too now that Hue’s shackles are loosed from his offense. Mayfield is there to take ownership of the team, period. When they win, he’ll give credit to everyone else. When they lose, he’ll shoulder that blame completely. That’s all he did at Oklahoma, even though he was the solution and rarely the problem.
Mayfield is the anti-Hue. There is no charade with him, nothing fake, he says exactly what is on his mind, he gets pissed about slights that most of us would get pissed about too, he does something about those slights and then he tells you exactly why he did it. He’s about the team and the culture in Cleveland, and he doesn’t care if it makes Hue, or you, or me, or the media uncomfortable or offended. Where Jackson was obsessed with outside perception of himself, Mayfield couldn’t give a rat’s behind as long as the team is taken care of first.
Mayfield has captured the Browns locker room in half-a-season, something Jackson couldn’t do in almost three years. So excuse him if he’s pissed off that someone wanted to piss all over his franchise and call it rain. Excuse him if he won’t take it laying down like the last 55 quarterbacks that have suited up for Cleveland would have. Excuse him if he’s gonna demand excellence from his teammates on the field and pride in the Cleveland Browns organization off of it.
Mayfield is NOT every other quarterback or every other player. Don’t ask him to be. This is what will make him great.
https://thedraftnetwork.com/2018/11/27/draft-class-heroes-dont-ask-mayfield-to-change/
I get it, Mayfield will probably always generate some vitriol from the traditional sports fan who believes the game was built on sportsmanship and butt slaps rather than dudes wanting to annihilate each other for fun. I understand that Mayfield’s chip-on-the-shoulder ways may not be for everyone, but it sure is for me.
Even if you can’t understand what has typically motivated Mayfield to play and act with such an edge, how can you not understand this? For years Hue Jackson held the Browns captive, ruling in a power-hungry, I’m-gonna-do-what-I-want manner that put the needs of the team last and himself first. You think refusing to play Duke Johnson all these years was the best thing for the team? You think keeping Nick Chubb behind Carlos Hyde was the best thing for the team? Tyrod Taylor starting over Mayfield? The list goes on and on and on.
I know why those things happened. Hue relished the power he had as head coach, something we saw on Hard Knocks time and time again. Any player who didn’t know their place sat. Everyone knows Johnson marches to the beat of his own drum. I bet that didn’t sit well with Hue. Rookies like Mayfield and Chubb needed to understand it was Hue’s way or the highway, and Hue’s way was to play veterans he liked over better players. Because that was what he wanted, and as he often reminded us, “I’m the head coach of the football team”.
But because he was a nice guy and very political about it, nobody called him on his BS. That ended with Mayfield. In an instant Baker saw right through his charade, and I bet John Dorsey did too, thought he operated at the whims of Jimmy Haslam and was more diplomatic in his approach.
Excuse Mayfield if he doesn’t adhere to the common quarterback approach here, but that’s exactly why the Browns drafted him. Hue was a fraud in Cleveland, consistently threw everyone under the bus and made excuses for the way things happened, then got fired and immediately did it AGAIN in multiple interviews. That was completely unnecessary, but Hue only cares about one person in this business: himself. Politically, he realized he had to take the reins and do anything he could to shift the blame off of his failures.
And guess what? That is completely Jackson’s right, just like it is his right to take a job with division rival Cincinnati after going scorched earth on his former team. And the old Browns probably wouldn’t have cared, no doubt whispering behind closed doors about how maybe Hue was the lucky one for getting out of here.
That ain’t happening anymore, not on Mayfield’s watch. Pissed off and motivated, the Browns smacked Cincinnati in the mouth during the first half on Sunday like the Browns haven’t smacked anyone in recent memory, maybe in my lifetime. After the game Mayfield’s position was clear: you’re one of us, bought in completely for what is best for the team, or you’re the enemy. Period.
THAT mentality has been missing from Cleveland for soooooo long. Losing, failure, firings, media bashings, former player and coach bashings, other players on other teams using them as a punch line…it’s gone on for years, and we just accept it because it’s the Browns. They’re a joke.
Sorry if Mayfield doesn’t share your sentiment. He’s not just there to play quarterback at a high level, although he’s doing that too now that Hue’s shackles are loosed from his offense. Mayfield is there to take ownership of the team, period. When they win, he’ll give credit to everyone else. When they lose, he’ll shoulder that blame completely. That’s all he did at Oklahoma, even though he was the solution and rarely the problem.
Mayfield is the anti-Hue. There is no charade with him, nothing fake, he says exactly what is on his mind, he gets pissed about slights that most of us would get pissed about too, he does something about those slights and then he tells you exactly why he did it. He’s about the team and the culture in Cleveland, and he doesn’t care if it makes Hue, or you, or me, or the media uncomfortable or offended. Where Jackson was obsessed with outside perception of himself, Mayfield couldn’t give a rat’s behind as long as the team is taken care of first.
Mayfield has captured the Browns locker room in half-a-season, something Jackson couldn’t do in almost three years. So excuse him if he’s pissed off that someone wanted to piss all over his franchise and call it rain. Excuse him if he won’t take it laying down like the last 55 quarterbacks that have suited up for Cleveland would have. Excuse him if he’s gonna demand excellence from his teammates on the field and pride in the Cleveland Browns organization off of it.
Mayfield is NOT every other quarterback or every other player. Don’t ask him to be. This is what will make him great.
https://thedraftnetwork.com/2018/11/27/draft-class-heroes-dont-ask-mayfield-to-change/
