Next Sunday, perhaps a shaved head
Quarterback Baker Mayfield caused a social media stir Sunday by shaving twice, once before and once after the Cleveland Browns’ 24-19 loss in Denver.
He arrived at the stadium with a beard, started the game with a handlebar mustache and arrived at the postgame news conference with a regular mustache. Why? Who shaves twice in one day? Are there really three Baker Mayfields?
The quarterback put all the speculation to rest Wednesday.
“The quarterbacks had a ‘Movember’ mustache, and the original thought for me: do handlebars,” Mayfield told TMZ Sports. “I was undefeated [in college] before Sunday with the handlebar mustache. So I shaved it off [after the loss] because I didn’t deserve it.”
It has been a rough season for Mayfield. He is last in the NFL among qualifying passers in completion percentage (58.7%) and touchdown-to-interception rate (0.58).
Perhaps he’s worrying too much about facial hair and not enough about performance.
Wrong call
As Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson continues to dazzle the league, one former NFL executive has stepped forward to do something you rarely see in an executive, past or present, do: admit he was wrong.
In the buildup to the 2018 NFL draft, former Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts executive Bill Polian was analyzing the top prospects for ESPN. When it came to Jackson, he had some advice for him: Switch to receiver.
The Ravens chose Jackson in the first round (32nd overall) and left him at quarterback.
“I was wrong, because I used the old, traditional quarterback standard with him, which is clearly why [Ravens coach] John Harbaugh and [Ravens general manager] Ozzie Newsome were more prescient than I was,” Polian told USA Today. “And [offensive coordinator] Greg Roman found a way in how he’s developed a system to use those dynamic skills. Bottom line, I was wrong.”
Jackson has won 12 of 15 starts. So yeah, Bill, I’d say you were wrong, and credit to you for owning up to it.
Your favorite sports moment
What is your all-time favorite local sports moment? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com and tell me what it is and why, and it could appear in a future daily sports newsletter or Morning Briefing.
This moment comes from Linda Reid:
In January 1992, I was the women’s basketball sports information director at USC, so I really didn’t want to spend one of my few nights off in L.A. that I didn’t have a home game myself, or a class in my MBA program, attending a game in another sport. However, my boss, Tim Tessalone, insisted our whole office all attend the 25th-ranked USC men’s basketball team’s game at No. 2 UCLA.
Coach George Raveling had worked the media all week, talking in his weekly lunch at Julie’s about how fabulous UCLA’s team was, back before coaches used to sandbag so obviously. I sat stoically on press row with my colleague, Nancy Mazmanian, and we both pretended we weren’t cheering as Duane Cooper, always one of our favorite kids, picked up the slack when Harold Miner got into foul trouble in the first half. Cooper ended up with more than 20 points and USC led by double digits (I think) at halftime.
UCLA surged in the second half and cut the lead way down, but Cooper and Rodney Chatman as part of a great three-guard lineup, seemed to hit shot after shot. Miner still ended up with over 20 points, and there wasn’t a better feeling than a Don MacLean loss.