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Jenna Laine, ESPN Staff WriterOct 17, 2024, 07:59 PM ET
- Jenna Laine covers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for ESPN. She started covering the Bucs for ESPN in 2016, but she has covered the team since 2009. Follow Jenna on Twitter: @JennaLaineESPN.
TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield had some fun at the expense of Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews on Thursday, saying his former Oklahoma Sooners teammate won’t talk to him despite their two team’s matchup up on “Monday Night Football.”
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“Even though Mark and I are best friends, him and I don’t talk in season,” Mayfield said jokingly. “He’s a weirdo. He can’t exactly separate friendship and football, so he struggles with that on a year-to-year basis. So there’s a few months at a time where we’re friends again. But for right now, no.”
Mayfield and Andrews played together for three seasons at Oklahoma. Mayfield was voted the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner — awarded to the best player in college football (along with the Maxwell Award, Davey O’Brien Award and Walter Camp award) — and Andrews won the John Mackey Award, given to the best tight end in college football. They each have plaques next to each other inside the Barry Switzer Center in Norman, Oklahoma, commemorating the achievements. But Mayfield can’t even get a reply via text message.
Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield calls best friend and former OU teammate Mark Andrews (whom he’ll see Monday night) a “weirdo” and says “he can’t exactly separate friendship and football.” He also believes “he’s changed” because he “has a very serious girlfriend.” pic.twitter.com/LFpLBA2irE
— JennaLaineESPN (@JennaLaineESPN) October 17, 2024
“It hurts. It hurts my feelings,” Mayfield said, with a room full of reporters laughing. “… That guy was in my wedding and won’t talk to me. It hurts my feelings.”
Mayfield, who took his bachelor party Sasquatch hunting before marrying his wife Emily in 2019, said Andrews was more than a willing participant in the search for Bigfoot.
“He was going to be the bait.” Mayfield said.
But he said his pal has changed due to what Mayfield described as a “very serious girlfriend” in social media ambassador Elena Yates. The couple has been dating since the summer of 2023.
“Some people think he’s gone soft,” Mayfield said with a straight face. “I’m not one of those people, but the people are murmuring. There’s whispers out there.”
When asked if that included watching the movie “The Notebook,” Mayfield said, “He’s watched it on repeat for the last six months. Love you, Mark.”
