NFL
The Baker Mayfield vs Tom Brady controversy explained: What did they say?
A series of comments from Tom Brady have made headlines recently, although the controversy seems to have been cleared up.
A back-and-forth between Baker Mayfield and Tom Brady has had many an NFL fan on edge after the two seemed to have opposing views regarding the latter’s time at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he played between 2020 and 2022 before retiring.
“The building was a little bit different with Tom in there,” Mayfield had said, referring to the atmosphere inside the team locker room with the NFL legend on the books, “Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, high-strung environment, so I think everybody was pretty stressed out. ... They wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football, for guys who weren’t having as much fun.”
These comments were made on the “Casa de Klub” podcast with Corey Kluber and Tyler Casagrande, and since then the media headlines have not stopped, with many seeing the cut-throat words as a jab at the 7-time Super Bowl winner.
Brady says ‘no apologies’ for Bucs ‘daycare’ comments
Brady himself was asked about the quotes from Mayfield on Sunday’s broadcast, and replied that “I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings. So, there was a mindset of a champion that I took to work every day. This wasn’t daycare. If I was going to have fun, I’d go to Disneyland with my kids.
“There’s a way to approach this game and it’s with the right mindset to try to push each other outside our comfort zone, and great teammates do that. You come, I have someone like [Rob] Gronkowski, I have someone like Evans -- there’s high expectations for us. We got to make sure we go out there and deliver.”
When his broadcast partner Kevin Burkhardt responded with the line that his “competitive juices are still flowing,” Brady came back in with, “still in there. No apologies.”
And now Mayfield has hit back. There’s no diss track and it’s certainly not fiery. In fact, the Tampa Bay quarterback rowing back somewhat, explaining that “I think a lot of that got taken out of context, and none of it was personal by any means”, cooling tensions. “It’s just what he demanded of the guys, and that’s the aura of Tom Brady. And that’s what he did to bring a championship here.
“Nothing personal, but yeah, talking before the game, he’s obviously happy for me and he knows the guys, so he knows how much I enjoy throwing to Mike [Evans] and Chris [Godwin] [because] he got to do the same. It’s fun to be able to talk about the same experience with a guy like that. He did it his own way and has seven rings. So, not much else needs to be said”. The next game for the Buccaneers is against the Falcons and will be played on Thursday October 3, with kick off at 8:15 p.m. ET / 5:15 p.m. PT. Watch the game live exclusively on Amazon.