By STEVE KING
If you’re a regular visitor to Browns Daily Dose — and we obviously hope you are; thank you for that, we are very appreciative — then you know that I am a big Baker Mayfield guy.
It’s a no-brainer to me to be that way, because he proved last season in leading the Browns to the AFC playoffs for the first time in 18 years that he is the franchise quarterback for whom they have looked so long and hard. The fact some fans at FirstEnergy Stadium were booing him during, as he was struggling, and afterward as he walked off the field following, an ugly 13-10 victory over the winless Detroit Lions on Sunday, is absolutely ludicrous. The guy was really banged up heading into the game and got more as the afternoon wore on, but he gutted out, and has gutted it out for a number of weeks after the injuries started to occur, because he’s the starting quarterback — he’s the guy, he’s the face of the team and he gives the Browns the best chance to win, even when he’s far from 100-percent healthy — and he doesn’t want to let the club down. I want that kind of guy — and in this case, Mayfield — quarterbacking my team every day of the week.
But when you are that guy, you have another responsibility. And it is to be the spokesman of the team — all the time, in every situation, win or lose, good or bad.
A quarterback is to his team what the president is to the country, in that no matter what he says — about anything, ANYTHING, anytime, anywhere — matters. With all due respect, it doesn’t matter all that much what the left tackle says, even when that player was future Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Thomas — or what the right guard says, or the tight end or the defensive tackle or the strong safety or the punter or any other player. Why? Because they don’t play the most important position — by far — in team sports, quarterback.
So, then, when the quarterback walks off the field following the game without saying anything to anybody, and then abdicates his NFL-mandated responsibility to meet with media members, as Mayfield did on Sunday, then he is doing a great disservice to both his team and the organization overall.
This is the first time he has done this, so it is not some type of chronic problem, but it is a good reminder for Baker Mayfield going forward and he needs to understand that.
And I know he does.
