{"id":483591,"date":"2026-02-22T09:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T09:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483591\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T09:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T09:27:12","slug":"baker-mayfield-downplays-beef-with-new-division-rival-kevin-stefanski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483591\/","title":{"rendered":"Baker Mayfield downplays beef with new division rival Kevin Stefanski"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/rumor-mill\/news\/baker-mayfield-spices-up-bucs-falcons-rivalry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">added some spice<\/a> to his team\u2019s rivalry with the Falcons when Kevin Stefanski became Atlanta\u2019s head coach, making clear that he still has hard feelings about the way his time with Stefanski in Cleveland ended. But now Mayfield is downplaying any issue with Stefanski.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s stuff there, but it\u2019s not like it\u2019s beef,\u201d Mayfield said in a Super Bowl <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/video\/video\/nfl\/super-bowl\/video\/baker-mayfield-on-sam-darnold-kevin-stefanski-and-qb-mentality-01khpkhzn97jv5t57g8z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">interview<\/a> with Sports Illustrated, <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/buccaneers-qb-baker-mayfield-discusses-beef-with-former-head-coach-new-nfc-south-rival-kevin-stefanski\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">via NFL.com<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked together, anytime you know somebody, you want to beat them whether it\u2019s a good or bad relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mayfield said that if there\u2019s extra motivation to beat the Falcons, it\u2019s because the Buccaneers want to get back on top in the NFC South, not because Stefanski is the Falcons\u2019 coach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot a revenge game of a sense of Atlanta, but we lost the division for the first time since four or five years, so, any divisional game will be a revenge game, I guess,\u201d Mayfield said.<\/p>\n<p>Mayfield has had a lot more success than Stefanski since the two of them parted, and Mayfield knows beating Stefanski on the field will mean more than any words he can say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield added some spice to his team\u2019s rivalry with the Falcons when Kevin Stefanski became&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-483591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}