Assault: Baker Mayfield Explains His Perspective on the Thursday Night Football Incident

The bad news: this is the first Fri-YAY episode in six months that does not preview NFL or college football action. The good news: recurring guest Baker Mayfield is back on today's Pardon My Take. The Cleveland Browns QB joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter to discuss his team's disappointing 2019 season, how he can be better, how Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter can be better, and how he can clap back at Rex Ryan. Another interesting portion of today's interview included Mayfield giving his take on the Myles Garrett-Mason Rudolph clash back in November. Here's what the QB had to say:

Mr. Cat: You did a good move by being with Myles Garrett and being like, "Hey, we still got each other's back." Because I know that you got unnecessary shit after the whole incident. You did the interview right after, everything you said was completely correct. It was like, that was a crazy thing, can't have it. When you get back in the locker room, was Myles Garrett just sitting there like, "Whoops?"

Baker Mayfield: Yeah, kind of. I mean, he's quiet regardless, like he always sticks to himself. And to see him and, you know, he can't really express his sorrow for that. But you could tell. And so, the whole locker room was kind of in a frenzy at that point. Regardless, I had Myles' back no matter what. But in the game of football, everybody knows that can't happen. He knows that. That's why he addressed it and he's moved on. And so, I've talked to him since, and he's in a good place right now. He's ready to come back. 

Mr. Cat: It was crazy that you got any hate for that. I think that was just the blinded Baker Mayfield hate, because you basically were like, "Yeah, you can't hit the opponent in the head with your helmet."

Baker Mayfield: I guess it isn't in the rulebook that you can't do that. 

Mr. Commenter: It might be. We'll have to check. 

Mr. Cat: They might not have had the foresight to do that.

Mr. Commenter: Don't take your opponent's helmet off and hit him. I think if it's your own helmet, it's better. The fact that it was his helmet was almost like, that made it a little bit more disrespectful.

Mr. Cat: Credit to you for not going on the field. You wouldn't have been suspended in the NBA. That was smart.

Mr. Commenter: How close was it on the sideline? Because when all that goes down, it's like it's a full on brawl at that point. Are there people that are trying to run on the field? Like how close did that become to...

Baker Mayfield: There were people trying to run on the field because it was also like 10 seconds left in the game. So the clock, I think, was almost done. I think they let it run, but it should have been, so I think it was fourth down, well, we were supposed to go out there and take a knee right after. But they were like, screw that, everybody off the field.

Mr. Cat: Right. And we were about to record. And the only reason we didn't start recording was that I'm a degenerate loser. And I was like, I have the second half line. So we got to see how this ends. And then it happened. And we're like, well, good thing we didn't record because that changes everything.

Baker Mayfield: A little bit. It was a wild moment. Wild, wild moment.

Unless you've lived under a rock, you've probably realized by now that Baker Mayfield has been criticized for various things throughout the course of his college and early NFL career. But as Mr. Cat mentioned, he did absolutely nothing wrong during that TNF incident. Major props. Especially when facing the camera immediately in the moment, he said everything that needed to be said. Was Myles Garret out of line? Absolutely. Is Baker Mayfield still going to be there for his teammate? Absolutely. The 2017 Heisman winner is certainly trending in the right direction when it comes to dealing with off the field issues and/or handling the media. And it doesn't matter what team you root for, as an AWL, you've got to hope that he can turn things around in 2020.