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Baker Mayfield and Tom Brady don’t have any beef. At least, not according to the Tampa Buccaneers signal caller.
Brady seemingly took a shot at Mayfield on Sunday while calling a game between the Bucs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Earlier in the week, Mayfield told former Cy Young winner Corey Kluber that Tampa Bay brought him in to help out the vibes in the team’s locker room.
“The building was a little bit different with Tom in there. Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, high-strung environment, so I think everybody was pretty stressed out,” Mayfield said. “They wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football for guys who weren’t having as much fun.”
Brady, being Brady, didn’t seem to take that comment to kindly. Instead, he quickly fired back during the broadcast.
“I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings,” he said. “There was a mindset of a champion that I took to work every day. This wasn’t day care. If I wanted to have fun, I was gonna go to Disneyland with my kids.”
Brady’s broadcast partner, Kevin Burkhardt, then prompted him to continue.
“There’s a way to approach this game. … There’s high expectations for us. We have to make sure we go out there and deliver,” Brady said.
Most interpreted that as a shot back at Mayfield. But it appears Mayfield wasn’t bothered.
“I think a lot of that got taken out of context, and none of it was personal by any means,” Mayfield said after a 33-16 victory over the Eagles. “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.”
Mayfield is an easy-going guy. And he gains nothing from starting a feud with the guy who brought a Super Bowl back to Tampa Bay. So this is probably the smart play.
But I’m not so sure Brady didn’t take things personally.