Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield made some strong comments on former Bucs QB and NFL legend Tom Brady — or what was at least perceived as strong comments — but Mayfield indicated needs to just relax. He didn't mean it to come across as it sounded.
Mayfield made the comments on a podcast and addressed the matter after the Bucs whipped the Philadelphia Eagle by a 33-16 count on Sunday. Mayfield has been brilliant in the early season.
Anyway, back to the comments on Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl winner who served as an analyst for the game on Fox Sports.
"I think a lot of that got taken out of context, and none of it was personal by any means," Mayfield told reporters. "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."
ESPN broke down the situation this way:
Appearing on the "Casa de Klub" podcast with Corey Kluber and Tyler Casagrande just over a week ago, Mayfield took a playful jab at Brady. Speaking about the differences in their personalities, he said Brady's intensity made for a stressed-out locker room.
"The building was a little bit different with Tom in there," Mayfield said. "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."
When discussing the situation on Sunday's broadcast, Brady said, "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."
