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Baker Mayfield Continues Feud With Colin Cowherd After Browns’ Historic Win

In Monday’s Hot Clicks: Baker Mayfield’s latest shot at Colin Cowherd, Nickelodeon’s NFL broadcast and more.

Dan Gartland

Maybe it’s time for Colin Cowherd to shut up about Baker Mayfield

Baker Mayfield’s most longstanding rivalry isn’t with anybody in the NFL—it’s with Fox Sports radio blowhard Colin Cowherd.

Cowherd’s disdain for Mayfield dates all the way back to the quarterback’s days at Oklahoma. Before the 2018 NFL draft, Cowherd pointed to a 2017 video of Mayfield running from police in Arkansas as the reason why he should be “undraftable.” After the Browns decided Mayfield was not only draftable, but worthy of being the top pick, he appeared in-studio on Cowherd’s show wearing a hoodie with the word “undraftable” on the front. In that interview, Cowherd talked down to Mayfield and tried to paint him as a bad teammate. Mayfield put Cowherd in his place.

Before Sunday night’s game against the Steelers, Cowherd took a few more potshots at Mayfield and the Browns. “The Steelers are going to roll,” he said. In a take straight out of 1994, Cowherd also said that Mayfield wearing his hat backward during his Thursday video conference with reporters was evidence that he’s “not quarterbackial.” Going a step further, Cowherd said a “guy that [wears his hat backwards] never gets it.” 

Well, it was the Browns who rolled in Pittsburgh, behind a three-touchdown game from their backward-hat-wearing QB. Mayfield addressed the media after the game with his hat on facing forward but quickly realized his mistake and flipped it around in a not-so-subtle nod to one of the most joyless men on sports radio.

This isn’t the first time Mayfield has responded to Cowherd directly. In 2019, he started selling anti-Cowherd T-shirts on his website.

It’s tough to tell just how serious Cowherd’s rant about Mayfield’s hat actually was. On the one hand, the host is a sour man who was dead serious when he attacked John Wall in 2010 for dancing before his NBA debut. On the other hand, he delivered the whole hat spiel with a smarmy grin on his face.

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Cowherd’s rant just reeks of desperation. He clearly doesn’t like Mayfield and now that all his semi-valid concerns about him—that he’s undersized and had a brash personality in college—have turned out to be of little consequence, Cowherd has to find a new angle so he can keep this bit going. The problem for Cowherd is that Mayfield is squeaky clean now: He just had the best season of his young career and led his team to its first playoff win in 27 years. Even worse for Cowherd, Mayfield isn’t afraid to make him look like a fool when he turns out to be terribly wrong. 

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Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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