Baker Mayfield has issued a forceful denial.
On an NFL Media podcast, Cynthia Frelund said she approached Mayfield after a preseason game against the Bills and told him to “kick some butt” Week 1 when his Panthers play the Browns, who traded him away this offseason. To this, Frelund said, Mayfield responded he was going to “f–k them up.”
Speaking to reporters at Panthers practice on Wednesday, Mayfield called fake news on the report.
“First, I didn’t say it,” Mayfield said. “Obviously, everybody’s going to write whatever story they want. There’s history that I played there the last four years. I’m an extremely competitive person. Everybody knows that. If I wasn’t wanting to win it would be a really big issue, me being quarterback here. I want to win in everything I do. That will never change.
“Now, that is not how I phrased it. That’s not even what I said. So I’ll just leave it at that.”
Before the denial, the story had already spread far and wide. Mayfield’s former teammate and Browns’ star pass rusher Myles Garrett weighed in, saying he understands Mayfield’s competitive fire. Nonetheless, Garrett intimated that the Browns would use these quotes as bulletin board material.
Barring another witness stepping forward to corroborate one side or the other, this one seems destined to be a she-said-he-said case until the end of time.
Obviously, Mayfield would love to do what he’s accused of saying he’d do. Even before he was shipped out of town, he talked about feeling “disrespected” by the communication of the Browns organization.
“Yeah the respect thing is all going to be a personal thing, but yeah, I feel disrespected. 100 percent,” Mayfield said on a podcast in April.
“Because I was told one thing, and they completely did another. That’s what I’m in the middle of now. And you know what? Okay. I got my taste of it, because I’ve had four different head coaches in four years. A bunch of different coordinators.”
The Panthers are 2.5-point favorites against the Browns in Week 1.