Browns QBs take to RV hideaway to find solace
BEREA, Ohio – There is a place at Browns training camp where access is restricted and, according to quarterback Baker Mayfield, even the crew from HBO’s “Hard Knocks” is barred from entry.
It’s a place to relax, unwind — maybe even catch a quick nap between the day’s walk-through and practice. And it’s parked out back.
As the Browns opened their first full week of training camp Monday, the first questions their quarterbacks faced were about the not-so-secret RV they have brought to the facility. It was veteran Drew Stanton’s idea, Mayfield said — one of the “commandments” the 12thyear NFL veteran had for the No. 1 overall pick during organized team activities.
“It’s a place you can get away,” Mayfield said. “Since you’re up here all day, you do get one break right now between walk-through and practice, so you’ve got to be able to kind of relax a little bit, unwind before practice. Whether it’s looking at your scripts and doing that all over again, just getting your mind right.”
Stanton told reporters late last week that he got the idea from his time in Detroit, when veteran quarterback Shaun Hill told a young Matt Stafford to bring a four-wheeled getaway to training camp. Mayfield says he thought Stanton was joking at first.
“Then I asked him if he was serious,” Mayfield said, “and realized that he was.”
Though it was first reported as a quarterbacks-only space, Stanton told reporters that offensive linemen would be granted “VIP access.” Starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor said Hue Jackson could come, too, if he wanted, but he was loathe to talk about the RV at all.
When asked about the RV on Monday, Taylor replied, “What RV?”
“I mean, it’s something for us to be able to get away,” Taylor said. “It’s not anything special or anything. Y’all mak- ing it a way bigger of a deal than it should be.”
Mayfield, meanwhile, hinted that the RV will soon be getting an upgrade. The upgraded space will be ready soon, he said. But access will still be limited — and the “Hard Knocks” crew still won’t be allowed, he said.
“(I have) privacy in my own home — mobile home,” Mayfield said.