Off-season thoughts (Vol. XXI)

Well, well, well. Look who has sneaked back into our consciousness.

Why it's none other than the soon-to-be ex-quarterback of the Browns for the last four National Football League seasons. And he arrived with a bang.

Baker Mayfield, who should be maintaining media silence since scripting his goodbye letter  to Cleveland and Browns fans in the wake of the Deshaun Watson signing, just can't help himself. At a time when he has no idea where his next stop is along the NFL highway, it is better to lie low, Very low. 

Instead, he opened up his mouth to some dude named Mike Stud and his "Ya Neva Know" podcast, taped a couple of weeks ago  from his commodious home in Lake Travis, Texas, just north of Austin and shown the other day. He fired away for more than an hour. Got a lot off his chest. 

He worked both sides of the Cleveland aisle. At one point, he skewered the Browns for deceiving him during the Watson soap opera. "I feel disrespected 100%," he whined. "I was told one thing and they completely did the other." 

Surprisingly, Browns General Manager Andrew Berry admitted at the annual league meetings late last month, albeit well after the fact, that he could have better handed the delicate situation . 

"Quite honestly, if there's probably one thing I regret or kind of go back (and handle) differently, when (Mayfield) had been notified we were one of the teams Deshaun Watson wanted to meet with, I had set up a call with Baker's representation the following morning," he explained. 

"The news got out. (Shocking!) You never want that to be how someone finds out about that situation, But on the whole, we had been pretty candid in terms of where we sat at the quarterback position." Yeah, that's right, blame the media. Will they ever learn? Rhetorical question.

Mayfield later launched into his brief but stormy Cleveland career with a positive bent. "I really truly have no regrets of my time in Cleveland or what I tried to give that place," he said. "True Clevelanders and true Browns fans know that. And that's why I can walk away from the whole situation feeling like I did it."

Uh, no. It doesn't work that way. There are many, many true Clevelanders and true Browns fans who live and care and die with this team who were upset with what went on last season. That does not diminish how they feel or make them less than true Clevelanders and true Browns fans. Mayfield is looking through the wrong lens.

No question his highs in Cleveland were mountainous and his lows seemingly subterranean. It was a wild elevator ride that lifted Browns fans to highs not seen since the the Bernie Kosar era and lows that stunned that same fandom with last season's highly disappointing -- okay, disastrous -- effort.

Took the Browns to the playoffs for the first time in nearly two decades, didn't he? Beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round,  too. Didn't that count for something? No, not really in this what-have-you-done-for-us-lately? world we inhabit. 

What you did yesterday counts, but for just so long. What you do today and tomorrow counts even more.

Mayfield wasn't burning bridges with his latest stunt. He already did that with the goodbye letter. What his intentions were this time, though, is puzzling. Maybe he was attempting to speak obliquely to other NFL teams out that might be looking for a quarterback. Perhaps he was trying to clean up his image, his brand, 

If it was his intent to grab headlines as the NFL universe attempts -- vainly thus far -- to figure out where he'll land this season, it worked big time. Just about every square foot of the sports landscape covered it.

The NFL Network jumped all over it, as did ESPN, FOX, all the major alphabet networks and an untold number of radio talk shows across the country. Baker Mayfield is big news. If nothing else, it proved the young man is definitely a lightning rod. 

Only one problem, There are as many Mayfield haters lurking  out there as there are defenders of what he went through last season from a physical standpoint. It reached the point where fans ultimately expressed their displeasure with him in typical fan disgust during games.

He frankly admitted the B-flat boo chorus this past season bothered him. And then he said something childishly ignorant.   "I would love to show up to somebody's cubicle and just boo the shit out of them and watch them crumble," he said. Yeah, that'll make him feel better. Then what?

Mayfield admitted he has no idea where he will wind up since the Browns have boxed themselves into a . corner and moving him has proved difficult. The field is somewhat limited with Mayfield's $19 million contract the major stumbling block.

He says he is ready no matter where he lands. "I'm ready for the next chapter, the next opportunity because I have one more year of a guaranteed contract.. . . It's not extra pressure. It's just like "I've been here before.' "

He might be ready for what lies ahead. The question is whether what lies ahead is ready for him.