MAYFIELD’S MAGIC
Fans prepare to say goodbye to the quarterback who beat the odds
It’s been more than a decade since Neil O’Donnell made the three-hour drive from his home in Poteau to Norman on a Saturday in the fall.
Most weekends, the Baptist minister watches the Sooners from his living room with his grandson, Jamon Gideon.
This Saturday will be different.
The pair will hop in the car around 9 a.m. to start the journey to Owen Field, and they won’t make it back until sometime after 9 p.m.
But it will all be worth it just to see Baker Mayfield’s last home game.
“We’re not wealthy people, so it took a little bit of extras for me to find a couple tickets,” O’Donnell said. “Twohundred dollars is a lot of money for us, but I wanted (Jamon) to be able to go.
“We’ve watched the games together for a long time, and I just wanted him to be able to experience a University of Oklahoma football game. Baker, especially, this year being such a good player on the field, I wanted him to be able to experience that.”
With Mayfield losing his captaincy and starting job thanks to his sideline actions at Kansas, it won’t quite be the day O’Donnell and so many others flocking to Memorial Stadium for No. 4 OU’s regularseason finale against West Virginia (2:45 p.m., ESPN) envisioned. But even under those circumstances, it will still be a day of raucous celebration as OU fans bid farewell to the unheralded quarterback that entertained and gave them hope for the past three years.
It hasn’t always been easy to be a Mayfield fan. While he’s rarely let anyone down on the field, his actions away from the game have caused more than a couple groans.
In the past year, he was arrested in Arkansas for public intoxication, and the video of his ill-fated run from police went viral. There was the flag-plant at Ohio State that his critics said was cocky and arrogant. And of course, there was the profane tirade on the sideline in Lawrence, Kansas.
Away from Norman, those actions have earned a him a somewhat villainous reputation.
But after each misstep, there was always an apology.
In O’Donnell’s eyes, that makes Mayfield even more worthy of praise.
“Because we’re not perfect, and we are going to all fail, maybe Baker is setting an example for the way he’s handling his failure,” O’Donnell said. “If my grandkids only see the perfection, they never see him fail, then they don’t know how to handle the failure. If they’re going to look up to somebody, I’d rather them look up to a guy who looks everybody straight in the face and says, ‘Yeah, I did it, I made a mistake. I was wrong.’ To me, that’s setting an example.”
Mayfield isn’t infallible to Oklahoma fans. He’s relatable.
That’s the magic of Mayfield, the thing that’s endeared him to so many OU faithful through the past three years.
He’s a walk-on that beat the odds at not one, but two Big 12 schools. He’s rewritten record books and become a Heisman finalist. He’s a superhero and the underdog all rolled into one —Peter Parker before and after the spider bite.
“Being from Oklahoma, I never thought an OU quarterback would ever surpass Jason (White) or Sam (Bradford) in my heart, but I was wrong,” said Nate Franco, a fan living in Athens, Georgia. “Watching Baker these last three years have been among the most enjoyable I've had as a Sooners fan. Not only does he win, but he's tough, he's the right amount of arrogant, and he is just plain fun to watch.”
In Mayfield, many people see parts of themselves. It’s what elevates him beyond just a good football player to an Oklahoma legend.
Every time Steve Kent watches Mayfield run out on the field, he’s reminded of his own story.
In 2006, Kent was searching for a graduate program in urban planning that would accept him and his 2.2 GPA. The outlook was grim, until his dad found an article in the New York Times that called Oklahoma an up-andcoming university. As it turned out, OU also had an urban planning school, and it didn’t require its applicants to take the GRE.
Just two weeks before the school year opened, Kent packed his car and drove from Illinois to Norman to beg for a spot.
He was admitted three days before the program began, and two years later, he graduated with a Masters in Regional and City Planning.
“My story of being told you aren’t good enough and finding success at OU sound familiar?,” Kent wrote in an email. “Baker represents what OU means to me, a school that is willing to take a chance on someone others won’t, and then succeeding at OU and after.
“Baker is me. OU is me.”