Baker Mayfield SI - Super Bowl 58

  • 8 months ago
Former Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield talks to Sports Illustrated at Super Bowl 58 Radio Row.
Transcript
00:00 Mid-season edition, Patrick Mahomes wasn't really doing what he was supposed to do for me this year.
00:05 Then I looked, I was like, Baker is eating. I seen him at the American Century hitting drivers down
00:11 the fairway and Baker is dropping dives. So we have Baker for the rest of the season. Baker Mayfield,
00:16 how we doing baby? Doing good. And you must've caught just maybe the two drives I hit down the
00:21 middle there at American Century. Bro, bro, bro. That was the most nervous I've ever been. I bet.
00:26 So many people around there. I will say the funny thing is, I think, you know, we play in front of
00:30 a hundred thousand, 80,000 every week. You went to Oklahoma, play a whole bunch of people all the time.
00:35 And then they look at us when we play golf and we're like, hey, we don't want people around.
00:38 And they're like, like you play, my bro, we don't play golf in front of all these people. You're in
00:43 the danger zone right now. Like you can get hit. Yeah. You can get hit. So, Baker, let's talk a little bit about
00:48 your experience. And like went down to Tampa and was going to work. Talk to me about that, dog. Pro
00:55 ball. Had the lines. Was close in the playoff. Talk to me a little bit about that, man.
01:01 Just from the very jump, they just told me to be myself. And that was like an empowering thing for
01:06 me just to be settled in from the very beginning. And so obviously we were all learning a new system
01:11 with Canales calling it. And so early on had a little success. Not like we were really that
01:18 knowledgeable about what we were trying to get done, but mid-season low. But the most proud thing I can
01:22 say is the group of guys that we had and everybody that we had, we're sitting at four and seven mid-year
01:27 and everybody just stuck together, said, all right, if we can just fix the things that were the
01:31 self-inflicted wounds, some of the mental errors, things like that, we're going to be in a good
01:35 position to win. And so we stuck together, won five out of the last six, got in the playoffs and
01:40 that's all we needed was a chance to make some noise in the playoffs. And we did just that.
01:44 So when you're at that four and seven position and you're like, we need to make this one,
01:51 are you telling the guys like, hey, we're going to win these next five to six games.
01:56 We're going to the playoff. How are you telling, are you telling them day by day? It's Wednesday,
02:02 it's base package. How are we doing it? Are we looking forward or are we day by day?
02:06 One day at a time, one game at a time. But everybody like looking at the schedule,
02:10 we're like, all right, if we just do our thing, we're going to be set. But to have that mindset
02:14 of one game at a time, it truly was the mentality that we had. So we were enjoying it and saying,
02:19 all right, just put your heads down. And when we look up, let's see what happens.
02:22 So, okay. You came out to NFC South, you went to the playoffs, you won a game,
02:28 the game that I picked you out to win. You got close to the NFC championship.
02:33 What does it take for you guys to get back in that position? Not calling, but now we're going
02:39 to the NFC championship and we're here in the Super Bowl sitting here right now. What does it
02:44 take, Bake? It's eliminating negative plays, eliminating some of the things that can change
02:51 the game. Because you always look back, as you know, there's going to be like four or five plays
02:55 in a game. You're like, okay, this made the difference. And so eliminating those self-inflicted
02:59 wounds that you just have complete control over. And that's what these good teams do when it comes
03:05 down to the playoff stretches. They eliminate the negative plays. They don't beat themselves.
03:08 And so when it comes down to that, just got to have everybody believing in it,
03:12 knowing that they have a chance to get to the Super Bowl and that belief can take you a long way.
03:17 Okay. So I want to know about your belief in the quarterbacks that are playing this week,
03:23 Sunday in the Super Bowl. Who do you have, Brock Purdy or Patrick Mahomes? And what does that
03:29 person need to do to lead his team to victory? Obviously, Pat's been here a bunch.
03:33 A lot. He knows exactly what's at stake. He knows how,
03:38 you know, the pressures of the game, how to operate it, how to do all that. And he's
03:42 tough to beat. But I think Brock's got a little chip on his shoulder after getting
03:46 hurt in the NFC Championship game last year and not getting a chance to play in it. And I think
03:51 the extra motivation for him is everybody's talking about how he's a game manager. The guy
03:54 just executes. He does it in his own way. That doesn't make him a game manager. That just means
03:58 he's executing in his own way and you got to do it in your own way. So I have a tremendous amount
04:03 of respect for both of them. It'll be a good game though. So, okay. You talked a little bit about
04:08 having a chip on your shoulder. I want to talk about your chip. Yeah. Because a lot of people
04:15 have a lot of stuff to say about Babe. What do you have to say about those guys that wrote you off
04:19 and after you did what you did this season? I want to know, Babe. Talk to me, Babe.
04:22 I mean, I got the chips on my shoulder will never change. I don't forget a whole lot of things of
04:30 people, what they've said. But you got to turn that into an internal motivation. But for me,
04:36 it was the first time that I was, you know, somebody told me to, "Hey, just go be you.
04:42 That's all we want. Go play your game. Go be you." And that's empowering. And so I can't thank Tampa
04:47 enough for that. And so for me, I'm grateful and thankful. That's what's up. Okay. Talk to us a
04:52 little bit about your Vans Auto Parts Partnership. I see it. You look good. Black and yellow.
04:57 Yeah. We're dressed out today. Obviously, Super Bowl Sunday is a big deal, but the following
05:01 Sunday is National Car Battery Day. And so what we're here, we've got a False Starts Kill Drives
05:07 campaign going on. Obviously, in football, false starts set you behind, extra yardage situations.
05:12 You don't like that. But in the auto industry, it's about dead car batteries. And so if you have
05:16 to be in somewhere in a hurry, you have a dead car, that's obviously not good. So what we're
05:21 doing, trying to get this campaign going, if you register at aapfalsestarts.com and there's just
05:27 one false start in the Super Bowl this weekend, you get a chance to win free car batteries for
05:31 life. So honestly, a pretty good gig. All you have to do is register online and hope there's
05:35 one false start. There probably will be a false start. Ladies and gentlemen, Baker Mayfield,
05:40 we have to find ourselves on the golf course this off season. We got to play.
05:43 Thank you so much, man. Appreciate you.