Cleveland, OH (92.3 The Fan) – Baker Mayfield added another trophy to his case Wednesday night, but he doesn’t plan to forget the one he won’t be adding.
Mayfield was named the Professional Athlete of the Year at the 19th annual Greater Cleveland Sports Awards held at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Cleveland, but he’s still not thrilled that he lost out to Giants running back Saquon Barkley for the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award that was voted on by the Associated Press.
“I’ll use it as motivation,” Mayfield said. “But the more important thing is winning football games. Yeah, it’s more frustrating than anything because Saquon, that’s my guy and he’ll hold it over my head forever. But you know what, I’ll use that as motivation, and I’ll be better in the long run.”
Mayfield will uphold his end of the friendly bet between them and buy a commemorative chain for Barkley.
“It'll say ‘quads’ on it. Not ‘Sa-quads’ but just ‘quads,’” Mayfield said. “The two extra letters in there cost a little bit extra money, so we'll stick with just 'quads.’”
Although Mayfield lost out on the NFL hardware, it didn’t diminish his appreciation for the honor he received Wednesday night.
“It's really special,” Mayfield said. “Now that this is my new home and being able to actually live here and say that I'm part of the family here in Cleveland, it's pretty special. So to be able to win professional athlete of the year here is something I hold dear to me.”
Former Browns quarterbacks Bernie Kosar and Paul McDonald presented the award to Mayfield.
Kosar is beloved to this very day, and despite not being able to lead the Browns to a Super Bowl, he is symbolic of how long it has been since the Browns have been legitimate contenders and relevant on the NFL landscape.
Mayfield has spoken with Kosar about what it was like in the late 80’s and early 90’s in Cleveland when the Browns were winners and he’s anxious to play his part in returning the team to glory.
“He’s mentioned what it’s like,” Mayfield said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun when we start turning this thing around, what he was doing when he was playing, so he did a great job of describing that, but he also does a great job of just saying he’s there for me if I have any questions to bounce off of him, or just any questions at all about the town, what it was like the process of going through a rookie year. He was always there and he’d pick up the phone at any time, and [I’m] so thankful for that because he’s obviously the best quarterback to ever play for the Cleveland Browns, and so that’s something that’s pretty cool for me to be able to call him and get advice from him.”
After leading the Browns to 7 wins in 14 games – 13 starts – expectations for the Browns are at an all-time high, at least since the team returned in 1999 and the expectation that they’ll end the NFL’s longest playoff drought this coming season.
“That should be the expectation. It shouldn’t be that the whole town goes crazy over one win on a Thursday,” Mayfield said, referencing the 21-17 win over the Jets that ended a 19-game winless streak and sent the city into a celebration that featured free beer from ‘Victory fridges.’ “It should be the expectation that we need to be competing in the playoffs every year. That’s the fun part about it, but you know what the fans can get really excited, but we set our own expectations within the building and I’ve always believed that, and you have to live up to your own standards. You set that and you live to that every day.”
The 7-8-1 finish was the best for the Browns in over a decade and Mayfield bonded with new head coach Freddie Kitchens, who took over as offensive coordinator mid-season and helped Mayfield and the offense turn the season around.
“I believe in Freddie and I think everybody else does around here too,” Mayfield said.
“That was their decision to make and I trusted them to do whatever was best for the team, they would choose that and it just so happened that it was Freddie. So obviously, I trusted him during the year and we had some success and it was comfortable for me.”
Mayfield, who set a new NFL rookie record once held by Russell Wilson and Peyton Manning (who threw 26 in 16 games) for touchdown passes with 27 of them in just 14 games, is a superstar in the making as evidenced in his appearance in the NFL’s 100 two-minute commercial that aired just before halftime of the Super Bowl.
In the spot Mayfield teased Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to “get out there, old man” so Brady took off his (at the time) five Super Bowl rings and told the Browns’ QB to “hold these.”
“Obviously, being a part of something like that is very special. Some of the names in that, if you told me last year that I would be a part of a commercial like that, I would've told you you're absolutely lying,” Mayfield said. “So to be able to be a part of a commercial with legends like that and actually be next to Tom Brady, no matter what you think about it, that's the greatest of all time. So to be able to actually hold those rings -- and they are heavy, those were the real rings, they are heavy -- it's something fun.”
It was an experience Mayfield won’t forget.
“Getting to talk to him a little bit and just get to know him and just be around like that, his presence is something that you feel as soon as he walks into a room,” Mayfield said. “That's the kind of stuff you admire and I want to have when I finish playing.”
Mayfield will see Brady again this fall. The Patriots and a visit to Foxboro are on the schedule.
But first there’s a lot of work to do this offseason – for Mayfield and the Browns.
First comes free agency, followed by the offseason program and, of course, the draft before camp and high hopes this fall.
Mayfield is ready.
“The excitement's real and it should be,” Mayfield said. “That's our goal, to set our expectations and live up to that hype, but it's our own hype that we're building up. We've shown what we can do at times, but we need to be more consistent and we need to win more games, that's just plain and simple and that's competing for the division and the playoffs every year.”
