Fitz On Sports: Baker Mayfield’s competitive spirit sparked hope in Cleveland
Let’s make one thing clear off the rip: This isn’t about the current quarterback situation in Cleveland. At some point, that will be addressed when more is known.
This weekend, that will not be the case.
Though if one name ever became an instant lightning rod in Cleveland, it was, and to a point still is, Baker Mayfield.
Looking back on his four years in brown and orange, nothing was ever quite simple. The coaching turnover, the injury in the fourth year and insert negative things here.
This piece is less about the negativity and more on the hope Mayfield provided.
Outside of 2007 (I do not count anything 2003 or prior for myself, as my memory can be a bit hazy), the Browns only had one winning season in my lifetime: 2020.
As a kid, teenager and young adult, you wanted to have hope the Browns would finally turn it around. This coach, that general manager, the new quarterback.
It was a November 1, 2015 game I witnessed at FirstEnergy Stadium that made me feel apathetic about the Browns for the next couple of years, and somehow it was always the Arizona Cardinals who seemed responsible for the misery (I promise there will be a deep dive into this someday).
Josh McCown and the Browns come out hot, and there’s hope like some other Sundays. Then, everything proceeded to be crushed, and my will and fire went dormant.
It never meant as someone who around the time of that game started to focus on wanting to build a career in sports media or related media fields that I’d give up completely on the Browns. But from that moment forward, my Sundays and the occasional Thursday Nights were spent noting who stays, who needs to be cut, and who doesn’t get on the team bus after that week’s game through 2017.
I was apathetic and had lost hope. Why invest so much energy into the clown show on the field any given Sunday? If you’ve ever read my ‘Where Things Stand: NFL Edition’ series, I wrote this up at one point during 2021 that applied to nearly my entire life as a Browns fan:
At this point, trying to ask, “Why do you keep doing this to me?” is akin to asking, “Why do I keep getting drunk?” and not realizing it’s a problem with alcoholism.
The hope to end it came with a second straight №1 overall pick, which the Browns used to select Mayfield. I was shocked and surprised. After initially being on the Josh Rosen train, I quickly warmed to Sam Darnold but wouldn’t be upset about Mayfield if he was picked. Mayfield seemed to provide a jolt to the arm for me. Could he finally be the one?
His rookie season was what I hoped to be the answer: Yes, at least that’s what I thought at the time. Before the Jets game when he came into relief for Tyrod Taylor, I remember him zipping the ball in a preseason game against the New York Giants. I’d never seen a football fly from a Cleveland quarterback’s arm like that.
While 2018’s momentum would be stalled in 2019, 2020 provided me with the most joyful year ever (a low bar for Patriots fans). For as much as things sucked with COVID, the Browns actually were good. They were a dirty hit away from taking out the Chiefs and going to the AFC title game (though let’s be real: Tom Brady would have picked the Browns defense apart in the Super Bowl).
Mayfield came out slinging in Game 1 last season before the labrum tear altered his entire career trajectory and saw him shipped to Carolina. I was never a “Baker Bro” as much as someone who empathized with Mayfield’s underdog story that felt familiar to me and wished he had one more year to prove himself in Cleveland.
No matter how you view Mayfield’s legacy, 2018–2021 were the best four years of watching the Browns in my near quarter century of life on this planet. He brought back my fire and passion, even during the rough patches. Mayfield gave me hope.
Whether or not Mayfield reads this, I have no clue, but on the off chance he does, let me say this:
Baker, if you read all the way to the end, thank you from the bottom of my heart for delivering hope and a competitive spirit again here in Cleveland. It may not have always been pretty, but you will always have my respect.
Editor’s Note: The Browns only winning season since 2007 was 2020. An earlier version of this column stated 2021 was the winning season.
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Sean Fitzgerald is an award-winning journalist, writer, sports reporter, voice over talent and co-host of The Weekenders Podcast with Mitch Spinell. Follow him on Twitter @fitzonsportsbsr for insights, articles and occasional livestreams, as well as weekly columns here on medium.com.
