CLEVELAND — For his part, Baker Mayfield has done his best to avoid the spotlight this offseason.
But on Tuesday, the former Cleveland Browns quarterback found himself in it anyways.
Appearing on the "Around the NFL" podcast, NFL Network analyst Cynthia Frelund revealed a conversation she had with the now-Carolina Panthers quarterback following his team's preseason matchup with the Buffalo Bills last Friday. In doing so, Frelund shared that Mayfield had some choice words when it came to the Panthers' Week 1 matchup vs. his former team.
"It was on the field after the game against the Bills, preseason Week 3. And I went up to him like, 'I'm so excited to see you.' I was like, 'go kick some butt, especially Week 1. I cannot wait,'" Frelund said of Mayfield. "And he used some expletives and I was like, 'I just hope you're ready.' He's like, 'I'm going to [bleep] them up.'"
You can hear the clip in the video player below.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mayfield addressed the comment -- which he said he never made. Rather, the No. 1 pick of the 2018 NFL Draft admitted to having a conversation with Frelund about his excitement for the upcoming season, but not in a manner in which he derided his former team.
"She said, 'I hope you go take it over' and was obviously descriptive and I said, 'yeah, me too,'" Mayfield said. "That's the extent of it. It's obviously a bigger story because I haven't given the media what they've wanted me to give them this year and this offseason, so this is what they think that I've said and it's not. So take it and run with it, but I know what I did and our team knows what I said, so it's alright."
Frelund backed up Mayfield's version of events while explaining the situation on the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show on Tuesday.
"I shouldn't have shared a private conversation, although I stand by the fact that I'm pro-Baker. I hope he succeeds. I hope he has a great career in Carolina," Frelund said. "I walked up to him after the game. He looked great. Everything looked like he was happy. He's having fun, God forbid. And I'm like, 'I hope you have a great season. I used some expletives like 'F them up.'
"I know Baker's spicy and he's been spicy his whole career dating back to college. I said that and then he just kind of agreed with me. And I said, 'start it off strong, go.' And in fairness, as a woman, especially in the media, I would like him to beat his old team for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is it feels like a poetic story. It feels like a lot of athletes face their former teams and it's like, 'go show them that they were wrong.' Like, get out there and be positive. There was nothing negative."
Regardless of how it happened, it did take long for Mayfield's alleged comment to make its way back to Cleveland. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Browns All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett admitted that his team will use the jab -- perceived or real -- as fuel for the Week 1 matchup.
"I know he has that swagger, that confidence that borders on arrogance in some people’s eyes,” Garrett said, according to the Associated Press. “But he’s always played with a chip on his shoulder, and I think we have as an organization as well. So however he feels or goes about it in his mind scape to prepare for the game to play us at the highest level for him, it’s whatever.
“Of course, we’ll use it. It will be motivation. It will be fuel. But at the end of the day a guy is going to do anything he can to try and get one thousandth of a percent better, and if it takes that to hype him up or us using it to hype us up, it’s all going to add to the fire for both teams.”