{"id":850329,"date":"2026-09-16T23:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850329\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T23:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:42:21","slug":"baker-mayfield-loses-bet-to-coach-todd-bowles-has-rough-couple-of-days-including-at-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850329\/","title":{"rendered":"Baker Mayfield loses bet to coach Todd Bowles, has ‘rough couple of days’ including at press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s not all super serious for Baker Mayfield<\/a> as he begins preparation for Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns. There’s actually kind of a surprisingly jovial atmosphere around the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback and his team.<\/p>\n

Mayfield, you see, stepped to the microphone on Wednesday to begin his weekly press conference wearing a University of Michigan basketball tank top.<\/p>\n

An ill-fitting one at that.<\/p>\n

MICHIGAN EXERCISES CLOCK DEMONS FROM WEEK ONE WIN, VANQUISHES 11TH RANKED OKLAHOMA IN ANN ARBOR<\/a><\/p>\n

Head coach Todd Bowles initially stood in the doorway humming the University of Michigan fight song and shouting, “Let’s go blue!”<\/p>\n

“That hurts, that hurts real bad,” Mayfield said. “It’s been a rough couple of days.”<\/p>\n

And why would Mayfield be wearing a child-size Michigan tank top?<\/p>\n

“Oklahoma versus Michigan,” he explained. “Todd’s son was on the winning side of it. The Sooners were not. And so, therefore, I squeezed into this little tank top.”<\/p>\n

\"Baker <\/p>\n

Baker Mayfield #6 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rushes for a touchdown during the second half against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium on Sept. 13, 2026, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Bowles’ son, Troy, plays for the Wolverines. Mayfield played for Oklahoma. So there was some bragging rights involved that led to a friendly wager about the Saturday matchup. But then …<\/p>\n

Michigan 17.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma 10.<\/p>\n

So, quite a funny moment considering the expression on Mayfield’s face.<\/p>\n

But that moment could be understood to be perhaps more meaningful in that it speaks to the mindset for the Buccaneers’<\/a> quarterback, his coach, and perhaps the team.<\/p>\n

\"Baker <\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield fumbles the football during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sept. 13, 2026. (Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Bucs are 0-1 headed to Sunday’s game against the Browns. And Mayfield in the season-opener struggled in a 33-27 season-opening loss against the Cincinnati Bengals because he didn’t throw a touchdown pass but lost three fumbles, including one around the goal line when it seemed the Bucs would be scoring.<\/p>\n

So, actually, that hurts.<\/p>\n

It hurts Bowles, who is under some expectation to get his team into the postseason. And it hurts Mayfield, who just last week agreed to a three-year contract extension worth a whopping $165 million<\/a> and putting him among the league’s highest-paid quarterbacks.<\/p>\n

Neither Bowles nor Mayfield met expectation in the regular-season opener. So this week the script needs to flip against the Browns.<\/p>\n

\"Todd <\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) speaks to head coach Todd Bowles before a game against the Atlanta Falcons at Raymond James Stadium. (Nathan Ray Seebeck\/USA TODAY Sports)<\/p>\n

DESHAUN WATSON REMAINS THE CLEVELAND BROWNS STARTING QUARTERBACK BUT THAT COMES WITH AN EXPIRATION DATE<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s more.<\/p>\n

Did we mention happy-bet-loser Mayfield played for the Browns from 2018, when he was the NFL’s No. 1 overall draft pick, through the 2021 season?<\/p>\n

Mayfield wasn’t such a happy loser when the Browns shipped him to Carolina after deciding Deshaun Watson<\/a> would be a better fit. Mayfield was actually quite angry at the time.<\/p>\n

And Sunday is obviously a pressure-packed opportunity to get some measure of revenge.<\/p>\n

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Mayfield better get his retribution while he can in that opportunity. Because he won’t be getting it from another friendly Michigan versus Oklahoma wager anytime soon.<\/p>\n

The two schools just completed their two-game home-and-home series and there are no future games scheduled.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO<\/a><\/p>\n

Armando Salguero is OutKick’s Senior NFL Writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s not all super serious for Baker Mayfield as he begins preparation for Sunday’s game against the Cleveland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[1802,1799,4057,349,259870,99,1824],"class_list":["post-850329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-baker-mayfield","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-deshaun-watson","tag-nfl","tag-outkick-sports","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850329","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=850329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}