DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Baker Cont.

I wish I had interest..Seriously don't give a damn..1999 through last Sunday...Tell me how you feel..

I don't like the media......Don't like losing seasons one right after the other ... wth is the media suppose to ask ? Great win how you feel ? Talking to the team the Browns just lost to... So Freddie...Who's to blame ? Blah blah blah..


So Baker....Been planting any flags lately ?

OBJ has dropped a ton of passes this year, not really making excuses for Baker. Just noting that OBJ has been pretty much awful this year. That drop of a perfect back shoulder throw on the sideline definitely cost the team points last week.

He has been well short of advertised himself this year.

I'll be curious to see the mood of this board when we are 6-5 in 4 weeks with games against the Steelers, cardinals, ravens, and 2 games against the Bengals to round out the season.

You are just making up stuff to make excuses. OBJ has bailed Baker much more times than dropped passes.

Also wasn't Baker supposed to be the YAC master, hit WR's in stride... all I see this year is bad thrown balls.

When a guy s playing this bad, its not good to be accusing others,just saying. You groupies have to get your act together.

Rishuz.. I'm being a bit put off by Baker groupies, I think they should just shut up and take the criticism like man.. Sorry, if some times I'm a bit harsh, but that's because I always hated cults.

I actually think Baker has a very good potential, but when was the last time you saw a big mouth QB make in in the league?

He has to grow up and mature.. that will translate into leadership and the ability to make all others better.

The way he is playing and acting, he's making all around him worst. He should have been benched many games ago.

Good old Tony Grossi makes an ass of himself again

Mayfield just showed a complete lack of professionalism. He is a payed PROFESSIONAL If this organization had any cajones at all they wouldn't just let this slide.

what Baker did to Grossi is the same damn thing Antonio Brown did to Ed Bouche of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and Steleers didn't put up with it. They made Brown publicly apologize for it. However, the Browns (Dorsey) doesn't have the cajones to make Mayfield do that because he doesn't have firm control of the ship.

This is why I said in the other thread that the Browns NEED Mike Tannenbaum. As GM he takes control of this organization, He takes all the blame too. No way he lets Mayfield or anyone for that matter get away with this. He is off the Bellichik tree. If Tannebaum was our GM Mayfield would have been called into his office asap and the conversation would have went like:

Tannebaum: "Baker, You can't be talking to the media like this. its unprofessional and makes the whole organization look bad, its simply unacceptable and we will not tolerate that here"

Mayfield: But he was....

Tannenbaum: "It doesn't matter, thats not how we do things here. You are not to do that ever again do we understand each other?

Mayfield: "Yes sir, Im sorry. Won't happen again.

Tannenbaum: " Good, and Im glad you apologized for it. Now your going to go out tommorow at the press conference and your going to apologize to Mr. Grossi, and your never going to do that again. Are we clear?"

Mayfield: Yes sir.

Tannenbaum: "Good, and by the way, that stunt is also going to cost you a game, im deactivating you. Now go home and i'll see you in two weeks. I hope you use this time to think and re-evalute things moving forward. We still believe your the guy, but its up to you for things to fall into place. Now go

That how something like this should be handled. This team NEED leadership, they NEED to be told how things are, they NEED STRUCTURE and thats what Tannebaum brings, structure. Clearly defined Structure is why Bellichik has been able to maintain such success for so long. I mean he benched his star cornerback(Butler) in the Super Bowl for petes sake for being an arse....When you have structure, you have control, and when you have control, guys will fall in line, and those who don't you ship out because you don't need them, they can be someone else problem.

Our goal is to win football games, not coddle to Mayfield, Garret, or anyone else for that matter. They gotta buy in, get with the program, or get out. Its very simple.

right now we just have a team full of talent that has no structure, and nothing to buy into and that starts at the top.

But seriously though,

there is NEVER any justification for being an arse when your a payed professional. You are to maintain professional etiquette at all times, If Mayfield didn't want to answer the question, he simply should have said:

"Mr. Grossi, with all due respect, I'd rather not rehash that again. My focus is on winning Sunday. Are there any other questions you would like to ask me?"

that shows maturity and professionalism, and Grossi would have respected it.

His behavior in this things explains a lot of what has happened this year. This is just like another form of pressure, the way you react tends to be the same, and sure looks Baker is rattled.

losing your cool under pressure is the worst thing you can do. Someone needs to create some space for Baker to mature, throwing him to the wolves solves nothing.

Actually they should have done it some games before, use a silly excuse to IR him, and bring him now to the Denver game.

Whole situations is being managed by amateurs at best.

J/C

Baker walking off was a bush league move. Hes a 24 year old kid that's a 2nd year pro. Ya'll and these reporters bashing him for it want him to grow up, but say nothing about the 30+ year reporter who was interrupting him, baiting him questions, looking for this response.

TG has been going hard at baker ever since he made him look like an arse asking if he was retiring.

TG literally bashed this kid over and over during the draft process, then when drafted basically called him a bum and a bad pick. Then when baker balled out, TG got butt hurt cause it made him look like the idiot he is. Now he has been doing anything he can to get under his skin, and finally did.

Baker was wrong. He needs to act better here. But lets not let TG off the hook either. The dude is doing anything he can to cause turmoil on OUR team, and doing anything he can to make OUR team look bad, simply to further his own career.

I think we will we know what Baker's teammates think of him on Sunday. If they rally and play well, I think that means they have his back. If they wilt, I'd probably read into it that they don't. This is a big game for the Browns in a lot of ways.

At any rate, the Browns managed to take a promising season and destroy it as only the Browns can do.

Really good times.

Ugh.

This is the longest I've stayed away from the board after a game. Watching that first quarter was really really frustrating.

I thought Baker had an ok game. I feel like he's oh-so-slowly getting back to what he was doing last year. He's not good... he's still working through the meat of the 2nd-year QB regression... but I feel like he's making noticeable improvements each game.

Not to excuse his play, but the story of the NE game, when you boil it way down, is team discipline, consistency, and collectively having our heads way up our butts. Baker's play is a piece of that, but isn't the biggest part.

Similarly, Baker needs to be a pro off the field. He just needs to come to the realization that Cleveland has (probably) the worst sports media group in the country, overall. Grossi is the worst of the worst. If Baker didn't have a laundry list of things to nitpick him about, I'd make a bigger deal about this.

Let me put it this way. I have no problem with Baker putting Grossi in his place as much as possible. The thing with this encounter is Grossi obviously got under Baker's skin. And Baker is also sending click Grossi's way, which is the only currency the resonates with Grossi.

It didn't. Not because of the play or playcall. It was because someone didn't block their man.

Baker should have told Grossi to "go you know what himself" and the horse he rode in on. Grossi has been an ass since he was removed as the Browns beat writer almost 9 years ago.

That seems to be the go to line these days. "Well he was an ass so it's okay for me to be an ass too." That works okay for every day guys on a message board. Not so much for someone who is supposed to be the face of a franchise.

I love Bakers fire, but, it's time for him to focus that fire into the game plan and on the field ... JMHO

jc

I think that T.G. was subliminally calling out Kitchens coaching

I feel like there are a lot of people who still don't get Baker Mayfield.

There are no groupies. There is no cult. There are people who understand Baker, realize he is the franchise quarterback and know he's going to be great.

Maybe some people back him to a fault, but nothing compares to the bs he's had to endure from his detractors. Some of them including Grossi labeled him the next Johnny. He's nothing like Johnny.

I would guess 90% or more the people here would have done the same thing or worse, yet many are quick to call him unprofessional or immature. I absolutely LOVE that he walked out. Well deserved, actually.

I mean no other "reporter" asks the most stupid questions on a regular basis than Grossi. What response is he trying to elicit by asking if someone was happy with a drive that didn't score points except the one he got. Grossi = Troll.

Alas, people often mistake passion and related emotions for immaturity. But perhaps there is a cult, but it's the one featuring Baker haters itching to see a reaction to some asinine question in order to portray him as an immature punk who spends way too much time on social media.

I listen to 850 a.m and the Really Big Show from time to time. I switch off when 'Hammer' is spouting nonsense (which is a lot of the time). I also listen to 92.3 .... but before the draft Grossi really didn't label Baker as Johnny II. He didn't knock the pick. And Grossi was very quickly very positive about Baker's play on the field. He's always had a bit of a thing about his maturity which I understand even if I don't share the same deep concern (I think it's part of who he is). I don't mind Grossi at all - he's overly negative sometimes and I take half of what he says with a grain of salt. But mostly he seems like a life long suffering fan. It'd be like having Rasta or one of the negative posteres here being the beat reporter.

To be clear, that 'Hammer' is not me.

Yeah ... no doubt. the guy is a less talented Skip Bayless. Shock jock with zero integrity or sporting knowledge. Actually he's pretty clueless about life in general. From what I can gather I think he got his spot off the back of family connections but I don't know. Sadly I remember how he was all in on Johnny Manziel that draft. Wanted him at #5 so desperately. Listened to him spew so much chit about JM it wasn't funny.

So when Nick Saban, Tom Brady, Cam Newton all walked out of interviews were they not leaders of their team? Anyone remember Jim Mcmahon blowing a boogie on a reporter?

We can go on and on, even outside of football

bobby bonilla told a reporter to "shove it as far as he can stick it"

Ronda Rousey hung up on a an interviewer asking her a personal question

Tyson Fury walked out of an interview

I remember LeBron walking out of a press conference game 1 when JR had his blunder.

I don't recall a lot of guys calling out Lebron....

I also keep hearing guys saying he needs to be like Tom Brady, well....he was I guess.

Grossi ABSOLUTELY called him Johnny Manziel. He wrote an entire article about him being Johnny - which was so offbase that Nathan Zegura went ape crap on Grossi on the air afterwards, and it started a big thing between them. This was before the draft.

FYI, Baker PLAYS nothing like Johnny did on the field, either. They have two completely different styles. So, was he trying to compare him to the football player, or the person? Me thinks Grossi was tryin to compare him to Johnny as an drunk.

The dude then said "If the Browns make the mistake of drafting Baker I will retire". He called him a horrible pick, a mistake, and on draft night he was on the radio show disparaging the entire team and Dorsey for picking him. I was listening, he did.

He had to be. Do you really think the network he worked for which is the flagship of the Browns wouldn't have said "cool it"? Also, the way Baker played last year, if he didn't, he would have looked horrible as he was way off.

Grossi, is not. He has a beef with the Browns every since he was demoted at the dealer, and has been negative ever since towards them. Its personal for him. He is going to disparage the team as much as he can.

Perhaps this will jog the memory...

https://www.espn.com/blog/cleveland/post...t-lazy-analysis

With the exception of 'blowing a boogie on a reporter' and really stepping over the line as far as safety and common decency goes...

The reason Tom Brady, Saban, etc. can throw 'tude at a reporter and it's fine because they have the credibility.

1. They don't have reputation of spouting off
2. They are winners. There's a huge difference between winners and losers spouting off.

Grossi lazily compared Baker to Manziel for months leading up to the draft. Grossi even fought with Robert Klemko about the in-depth piece Klemko did on Baker to the point Klemko hung up on him during the interview.

Grossi also proclaimed he would immediately retire if the Browns drafted Mayfield. He trashed Mayfield all the way up to and immediately after the draft.

Tony has been disgruntled since the PD "re-assigend" him from the Browns beat in the early 90s due to his reporting.

Grossi's time has long passed and now he's shilling his pay-to-read subscription based service on WKNR. He's a clown.

Unfortunately, Baker took the bait.

I didn't see or hear any of that - or I don't remember it. By the time I remember hearing Grossi talk about QB's - he wasn't saying awful things about Baker. But dang, I could just be forgetting. It was a long time ago and life with kids is hectic! . . . I was one that wanted Baker - so yeah, I am in 100% agreement that he's nothing like JM in any way shape or form.

I stand corrected. As I said, I don't remember that at all. It's a terrible comparison for sure. Since I liked BM I would figure I'd recall that ... but my memory is obviously much .... hang on, what was I saying?

It's still no reason for Baker to act the way he does. I'm pretty sure Grossi was predicting big things for the Browns this year in large part because of Baker. In other words, he changed his mind as new evidence was made available.

It pains me to defend Grossi here, but he's entitled to an opinion. The thing he should never have done is wrote about Mayfield at the airport, credit cards, etc., but it's time to move past that as well.

I call BS on that man. credibility has nothing to do with respect. If so, why would they need to walk off? who would be questioning them because of their credibility? They are credible.

I don't get how that has to do with anything? So because hasn't won a SB he should be talked over, dismissed, and have articles written about him being a bad pick and bad person? Nah, that don't fly.

I don't like he walked out, but to say "he needs to grow up" or "he needs to be more mature while comparing him to someone that walked out is dumb.

Hes a human being, that feels like this writer is attacking him personally (which he has in the past) and is now trying to bait him into saying something he can use against him - hes lucky he didn't get punched.

Someone posted a link to his article comparing him to Johnny, and a few times on RBS he would talk about how he felt he drank too much and was a troublemaker, etc., and said he will cause the same troubles Johnny did.

Actually, he is not. He is a beat writer - his job is to report news and facts about the league - not his opinion.

Now, if he wants to be a columnist, that's different. But as the beat writer, his job is to be unbiased from opinion.

he was interjecting his opinion with his questions.

Bake is inmature .. duh ..

Walking off .... *LOL* ... who gives a crud ... what a joke dissin him for that is ...

He’s a human being going through an extremely rough patch and was fed up and waked away ... Wipeee doooo ..

Not defending bake here ... it was a very inmature move on his part ... just add it to the list ... u guys are acting like he pulled the plug on someone’s life support ... but then again ... your frustrated just like Bake ...

What he’s done/said that has really peed at least me off ... “i didn’t think this would be that hard” or sumptin along those lines ... dudes suppose to be a hard worker and dedicated to his craft ... Vers said all off season he was worried about Bake not working ... i blew it off based off Bakes “rep” of working hard ... well that one line by him tells me he didn’t take it seriously this off season ...

Hopefully he learned his lesson and can learn how to read D’s ... if not ... OH VEY ... here we go again!

Technically, Grossi is not a beat reporter. He writes a subscription based blog for WKNR and is an on-air "analyst" for them.

He is a reporter / analyst for ESPN-Cleveland and Sports Time Ohio. He's paid for his opinions on the Browns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Grossi

I may be splitting hairs, but let me be a little more clear.

Grossi is a doofus, and the question was totally stupid. I sympathize/empathize with Baker walking out... but at the same time I do wish he would be a bit more professional. Maybe a non-answer and then talking to everyone else vs storming off.

And then my post about comparing this to the likes of Brady, etc. The reason why THEY don't get grief when they do something like walk off or sound off on a reporter is because of their past performance and behavior.

I don't know if I'm helping to explain my viewpoint. I'm just getting sick of hearing about him giving 'tude (deserved or not) to a reporter while he's racking up TO's and really only has 1/2 of his rookie year that he can brag about.

Sometimes reporters have to ask questions that are obvious, because even though they and everyone else know the answer, they still need it to come out of the person's mouth. They need the soundbite.

The incident with Grossi wasn't that. He was purposely trying to get a particular answer out of Baker, to the point of actually interrupting him. He even tried to reform the question because he wasn't happy with Baker's response.

Grossi is a troll and nothing more. He's only around because news outlets and radio stations think readers take him seriously. Watching the Cleveland media come to his defense is hilarious too.

And this isn't me coming to Baker's defense. I like Baker a lot and still believe in the guy, but he has not been good this year, statistically he has been worse than his rookie season. Obviously it's not all on him, but he has been a bit of a disappointment so far. I'm not giving up on him like some have, but 2-5 backed up by bad stats, are exactly what they are.

I stopped listening to local radio, because it's just the same recycled takes over and over, sandwiched between hours of advertising. It's not good. I just get most of my stuff from here and twitter. The fact that ESPN Cleveland thinks they can charge people for some of their content is absolutely laughable.

The local media that cover the team are downright awful. They constantly get scooped by national reporters. Their job is to literally just retweet Schefter or Rappoport or Glazer, etc..

They don't bring anything to the table and I still scratch my head as to why they are even around? To troll fans? I don't get it.

I don't, and never have followed Grossi (despite being blocked by him lol)or MKC. I stopped following Ruiter years ago because he acts like one of the coolest jobs is some horrible burden, because the team isn't great.

You never want to see your team's QB just storm out of a presser, but I really don't blame him for doing it. Honestly I hope he wins just so he shoves it right back in their faces.

Grossi's question was about what seemed to be a "lack of urgency" on the downs BEFORE the penalty that Mayfield was going on about. A lot of time ran off the clock between snaps. The clock had gone from 2:19 to :28 before the penalty occurred. When it was clear that Mayfield either misunderstood the question (or chose to misunderstand it), Grossi tried to re-state it. That's when Baker said "stop saying 'but' " and went on to say Grossi didn't know because he had never played the game. At this point Grossi is angry too (IMO), and it results in the accusatory "So you were happy with the results of the drive?" question/retort.

My take is that Mayfield has a hard-on for Grossi and was looking for an excuse to go off on him.