Cleveland Browns: Maybe Baker Mayfield isn’t a raging jerk

There was no shortage of fingers being pointed at Baker Mayfield when he grew tired of Tony Grossi but maybe the Cleveland Browns quarterback isn’t the bad guy after all

Baker Mayfield is a polarizing figure and the Cleveland Browns understood this when they took him first overall in 2018. They knew he was going to speak his mind and that being a cookie-cutter quarterback with the scripted answers wasn’t in his DNA.

While they were fine with this, there were plenty who were not — most of which resided in the media. And it was hard to find anyone more outspoken against Mayfield than long-time Browns beat reporter Tony Grossi.

The feud between Grossi and Mayfield started before Cleveland even selected the Heisman Trophy winner. Grossi famously stated he would be done if the team took Mayfield over Sam Darnold and Baker called him on that more than once.

Grossi, who never took well to Mayfield being selected, also hated being called out by Mayfield. This was evident in his line of questioning as he was always seemed to try and ask questions that got under Mayfield’s skin.

This came to a head back in October when Grossi actually asked Mayfield if he was happy with a drive that didn’t score points. Baker got fed up with Grossi, called it the “the dumbest question you could ask” and then stormed off.

Baker took a lot of heat for that as he was called immature. Of course, no one cared that Grossi asked a bad question and did interrupt Mayfield at least twice while he was trying to respectfully answer. At the time, we at DPD said Grossi got what he wanted as it appeared he was trying to get Mayfield to snap so he could point a finger and once again claim he was the wrong pick.

It worked as hardly anyone outside of Cleveland defended the quarterback. It was unfair to Mayfield and now four months later, we finally have proof that he may not be the raging jerk Grossi has painted him to be.

During the NFL Scouting Combine, Grossi decided to once again rail on the Browns for taking Mayfield. Not knowing he had a live mic in front of him, he started rattling off quarterbacks they could have had instead of Mayfield then used a derogatory word to rip the Browns quarterback.

It wasn’t long after this that Grossi was suspended and has since issued an apology. In that apology, he shared an epiphany he had that maybe he had something to do with the bad relationship between himself and Baker.

Um, do you think?

The fact that it took Grossi finally getting in trouble to realize he has been antagonistic is alarming. Not only should he have realized his part in this years ago, but those outside of Cleveland should have as well.

Grossi’s disdain for Mayfield was unfounded. Proof of that came in his audio clip from Tuesday when he ripped the quarterback’s height and openly pined for taller quarterbacks, which included Deshaun Watson.

For those unaware, Watson is 6-foot-2. Baker is 6-foot-1.

In short, Grossi’s frustration has never been rooted in anything other than a personal dislike for Mayfield. He’s painted him in a poor light and all we can hope is that if he is allowed to continue to cover this team that things will change.

And maybe if that happens, the rest of the world will see that just because Mayfield doesn’t answer every question in a boring fashion doesn’t mean he’s a jerk.