Baker Mayfield Had Simple Message About Flag Planting Incidents in College Football

Baker Mayfield is no stranger to planting a flag.

Former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield waves the school's flag after a win. / Adam Cairns / USA TODAY NETWORK

Saturday's rivalry week games in college football sparked a lot of controversy as multiple teams attempted to plant flags or celebrate on the opposing teams' logos at midfield. While flag-planting is nothing new in college football, it caused some big commotions on Saturday.

An NFL player who knows a lot about planting flags in college football is Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield, who infamously threw down the Sooner flag while playing for Oklahoma. When he was asked about what went down in college football on Saturday, he seemed open to keeping these celebrations alive.

“College football is meant to have rivalries," Mayfield said, via ESPN's Jenna Laine. "That’s like the Big 12 banning the ‘horns down’ signal. Just let the boys play.”

Baker Mayfield was asked about the four flag planting incidents during college rivalry weekend. It was something he did at Ohio State in 2017. “College football is meant to have rivalries. That’s like the Big 12 banning the ‘horns down’ signal. Just let the boys play.” pic.twitter.com/XCLmjvUrDQ

— JennaLaineESPN (@JennaLaineESPN) December 2, 2024

One example from this weekend is when Michigan planted their flag on Ohio State's logo. A huge brawl broke out, which resulted in police using pepper spray. The Big Ten dealt each of the schools a $100,000 fine after the scuffle.

Similar situations, yet not as drastic as pepper spray, happened after the Florida–Florida State and NC State–North Carolina games. A Texas celebration almost occurred on Texas A&M's midfield, but Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian stopped that from happening in order to control any chaos.

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