Ahead of April’s NFL Draft, Baker Mayfield’s scouting report on the field is largely similar to Johnny Manziel’s — a dynamic playmaker on the college level who put up wild numbers and collected plenty of hardware.
“And I didn’t want to be portrayed as the villain or somebody like that. I feel like I make a lot of people happy. I do good things within my community. I’m not trying to say those cover up any mistakes that I’ve made, but there’s always a learning curve when you’re growing up. And for me, it happened that I was in the spotlight when I made my mistakes.”
NFL teams have two more months to decide whether they believe Mayfield really is different from Manziel, or if a high draft pick isn’t worth risking on a QB with a propensity to rub others the wrong way.
The Instagram post, which came from a private but verified account, included a photo of a gun and bullets and was hashtagged #HarvardWestlake and #MiamiDolphins. Former Dolphins teammates Richie Incognito and Mike Pouncey, as well as two other people, were tagged in the post.
When looking back at the Wells investigation released in February 2014, text messages between Martin and his parents reveal deep-seeded issues related to his time at Harvard-Westlake.
The following is a text Martin sent to his mother on April 22, 2013:
“I figured out a major source of my anxiety. I’m a push over, a people pleaser. I avoid confrontation whenever I can, I always want everyone to like me. I let people talk about me, say anything to my face, and I just take it, laugh it off, even when I know they are intentionally trying to disrespect me. I mostly blame the soft schools I went to, which fostered within me a feeling that I’m a huge pussy, as I never got into fights. I used to get verbally bullied every day in middle school and high school, by kids that are half my size. I would never fight back, just get sad & feel like no one wanted to be my friend, when in fact I was just being socially awkward. Most people in that situation are witty & quick with sarcastic replies, I never have been. I’m awkward around people a lot of the time because I simply don’t know how to act around them…