Baker Mayfield: How Should Oklahoma Handle the Star Quarterback’s Public Misconduct?
By Chip Rouse
Baker Mayfield, and even more so the Oklahoma football program, have a big problem.
College kids often don’t make good decisions, especially when they’re under the influence of adult beverages. Star student athletes naturally are held to a higher standard than the rest of the student population.
Mayfield, the unquestionable team leader of the Sooner football team and a two-time Heisman finalist in his two seasons at Oklahoma, went from hero to goat in a matter of minutes early Saturday morning.
As most everyone in the Sooner Nation, as well as millions of others around the country know by now, the Sooner starting quarterback was arrested in Fayetteville, Ark., and charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
One of the innate traits of the best college quarterbacks, a category that would include the former walk-on Mayfield, is the ability to survey the situation and make good decisions with the ball.
Mayfield apparently was in no shape or frame of mind to do either when police arrived on the scene Saturday morning and attempted to get a statement from him.
I’m reminded of the line from the movie “Forrest Gump,” which goes something like, “Stupid is as stupid does.” Mayfield’s actions in the late hours of the northern Arkansas night over the weekend were not just stupid, but will have a damaging and lasting impact on him personally as well as the Oklahoma team.
His poor decision making in this incident not only is likely to hurt his cause in the early Heisman watch list but also, and more importantly his NFL draft prospects and, before that, his potential invite to the NFL Scouting Combine a year from now. A classic example of how quickly a reputation can be damaged after years of buildup.
The big question now is how Oklahoma will handle the situation. Recent history says that Mayfield will get off with what coaches like to describe as internal discipline, and little else will come of it.
Unfortunately, that is not the kind of message Bob Stoops needs to be sending to his team or the more critical public that is already questioning how selective the Sooner football program is in dealing with high-profile off-the-field misconduct by Oklahoma players.
More recently, there is the situation involving Joe Mixon, who punched a female student breaking her jaw before he had played a single down for the Sooners, and then the disclosure after last season that Biltetnikoff Award winner Dede Westbrook had been arrested twice in the past on charges of domestic abuse.
In August of 2016, All-Big 12 cornerback Jordan Thomas was arrested under a similar set of circumstances to that of Mayfield. And that was not the first run in with the law by Thomas, who had been disciplined previously for off-the-field misconduct. Yet Thomas did not miss any playing time following his arrest for public intoxication and assault and battery.
Granted, Mayfield’s indiscretion was not robbery or something even more serious like sexual assault or worse, but it needs to be dealt with more severely than internal discipline, which generally amounts to nothing more than running stadium stairs or extra wind sprints.
At the very least. Mayfield needs to be suspended for a game or the first quarter of the first game next season, which will be at home against Texas El Paso. With the following week’s game being at Ohio State, it’s not likely Mayfield will be sat down for the entirety of the opening game.
Mayfield is a team captain and the best player on what is expected to be one of the top teams in the country again next season.
Stoops needs to send a message to current team members as well as future Sooner players that the type of behavior displayed by Mayfield is inexcusable and totally unacceptable of any Oklahoma student athlete and will result in consequences that not only will impact the individual but potentially the entire team.
Mayfield’s actions are the poorest possible example of someone you want serving in the role of team captain.
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Most likely, Mayfield will be held out a couple of series or a quarter at most in the first game next season, but being suspended for the opening game next season would be more fitting for the personal embarrassment and negative image impact his unlawful actions created for Oklahoma football and the University of Oklahoma.