Baker Mayfield rips NFL draft analysts for criticizing first-round picks
Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield has a message to all those people ripping NFL draft picks: If you haven’t played the game, you can’t have an opinion on the game.
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Mayfield took NFL draft analysts to task Thursday night in a message meant to inspire players drafted in the first round.
All these NFL analysts still crack me up... Just bringing guys down and saying what they “can’t do”... When we all know they aren’t even athletic enough to play checkers. Congrats to everybody who got drafted tonight, keep making people proud and proving people wrong!
— Baker Mayfield (@bakermayfield) April 26, 2019
Mayfield’s criticism is a type of gatekeeping you typically see in sports. It’s a way for those within the game to tell others their opinions don’t matter unless they took the field.
When applied to any other job, that line of thinking is ludicrous. Can only directors have opinions on movies? Should accountants be allowed to comment on which video games they enjoy? Is a plumber limited to talking about pipes every waking moment of their life?
Of course not. Fans and analysts are allowed to form opinions on their favorite teams and players. Being able to share and debate those opinions is what makes fandom fun.
In order to give themselves motivation, athletes rely on this idea that no one believed in them. Despite winning a million championships over the past decade, the New England Patriots still claimed that was the case after winning Super Bowl LIII.
That’s the same thing Mayfield is doing here. And while some picks will be universally panned and the occasional hot-take artist will say a first-round player was a seventh-round talent, the reason these players are being selected that high tells you the overwhelming majority of analysts do believe in them.
Even Mayfield — who was drafted No. 1 overall — ignores all the positive comments in favor of the negatives. Because of that, he’s a fiery, outspoken competitor who plays with a chip on his shoulder and fights back against bad analysis. Those attributes don’t just make Mayfield one of the most entertaining personalities within the game, they also make him successful.
In a world where all that goes away, Mayfield loses the traits that define him.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
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