Baker Mayfield is leaving the college hijinks on campus.Now that he's in the NFL
Chris Ivory Jersey , the brash quarterback who became a household name at Oklahoma as much for throwing touchdown passes as taunting opponents, intends to
clean up his act.
"I'll be very competitive, but the other stuff, obviously it can't happen," Mayfield said. "I know that."
A day after the Cleveland Browns made Mayfield the surprise No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft, the 23-year-old spent part of his introductory news
conference discussing how he has matured and learned from past on-field
incidents that made him more polarizing and could have soured teams from wanting
to select him had they gotten the chance.
His Heisman Trophy-winning season was speckled with foolishness.
Before facing Texas Tech, the school where he began his college career, he entered the stadium in Lubbock wearing a T-shirt that had "TRAITOR" written on
the front. He also famously celebrated a road win at Ohio State by taking a
victory lap and attempting to plant a Oklahoma flag at midfield in the
artificial turf.
But those paled in comparison to his actions during a game at Kansas. Reacting to the Jayhawks' captains for refusing to shake his hand before the
game, Mayfield returned to the sideline following a TD drive, ripped off his
helmet, grabbed his crotch and screamed expletives toward Kansas players.
Oklahoma punished him by not allowing him to start his final home game in Norman and coach Lincoln Riley stripped him of his captaincy against West
Virginia.
Looking back
Ha Ha Clinton-Dix Jersey , Mayfield said he regrets the "stuff" he did and that going forward he has to redirect his emotions.
"That was absolutely over the top," he said. "But there's a fine line. You need to be competitive, but a lot of that you can internalize and use that as
motivation to drive you. You don't have to show it all the time. ... I can use
that for behind the scenes when nobody's around, the film, the hours you put
in."
Mayfield also learned from an arrest in February 2017, when a night out with friends in Fayetteville, Arkansas, turned into an arrest for public
intoxication, disorderly conduct and fleeing.
The Browns did extensive vetting of the incident, so much so that general manager John Dorsey said he knew what Mayfield had ordered from a food truck
before his run-in.
Dorsey felt comfortable enough with Mayfield to make him his signature pick, the fresh face of a franchise in perpetual rebuilding mode.
"He is very mature. He is very smart
http://www.dallascowboysteamonline.com/damien-wilson-jersey ," Dorsey said. "We all learn from our mistakes. I have learned from my mistakes in
the past, too. I am better today than I was a year ago. I have no problems with
a young man being allowed to understand the mistakes he makes, and let's move
forward."
Mayfield says he's done just that.
"I do not think I would be sitting right here unless I had made those strides," he said. "Without those mistakes, later on down the road I might have
had slip ups, but now I can learn from them and be able to move forward."
The NFL has passed a new rule for this season that says any player who initiates
contact with his helmets is subject to ejection after an in-game video review
that will be decided in New York.
Al Riveron, the league’s head of officiating, said a foul can be called regardless of where on the body – not just the head or neck area – that one
player hits another with his helmet. The rule is not position-specific, so
offensive players will be subject to the same criteria as defensive players.
”This is about eliminating unnecessary use of the helmet,” Riveron said Tuesday at the NFL spring meetings.
If a player is ejected, Riveron and his staff in New York will use network camera angles to determine if the ejection is necessary. He promised that games
will not become ”an ejection fest” every week.
”Immediately when I learn in New York that there’s an ejection
Clayton Geathers Jersey , I will ask the network to give me everything you’ve got,” Riveron said. ”I will take a look at it, I will rule on it and I
will say yes, he’s ejected, (or) no, leave him in the game.
”Play will stop, and we will expedite it. That’s why we won’t have the referee come over and we’re not going to get the replay official involved,”
Riveron said. ”The only way the replay official will be involved is he will call
it and immediately tell the command center, we have an ejection on `No. 22
White.”’
Atlanta Falcons CEO Rich McKay, the head of the league’s competition committee, said the league had conference calls and a webinar with every
coaching staff in the league last week to tell them to begin teaching a
new
Quenton Nelson Jersey , safer technique.
McKay said the rule passed after the league looked at tens of thousands of examples on film to determine how to reduce concussions. Contact that’s made by
leading with the helmet no longer has a place in the NFL.
”We have always learned don’t put your neck at risk and everything else,” he said. ”Now we’ve taken it a step further and said that we need to teach it out
of the game and put a rule in and get it out of the game.”
The rule applies to linemen, too. They can no longer lower their helmets to initiate contact.
”It’s a culture change, and it’s something that we take full responsibility” for, Riveron said. ”Prior to training camp we will have position-specific videos
done by head coaches such as offensive line play, defensive line play, defensive
backs, linebackers, special teams, runners. Why? Because this rule is
all-inclusive for all players in all parts of the field.”
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