Mayfield rips Browns medical staff for mistreating Beckham’s injury

Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield is an engaging conversationalist, witty and candid, but he talks and tweets more than is good for him.  He created a distraction following Sunday’s 27-19 win over Cincinnati when he said Odell Beckham Jr.’s sports hernia injury “was not handled the right way in our training room.  I think it could have been addressed earlier on. He’s not able to run as well as he should be able to do.”  Beckham told the Browns’ staff in preseason that he was injured.  His condition was subsequently reported by the team, vaguely, as “hip and groin.”  Mayfield said that if the All-Pro receiver had undergone surgery in August, he might be fully healthy now.  Mayfield tweeted: “My intentions were not to throw our medical staff under the bus. I don’t know all the facts about Odell’s injury. . . . I can sense the frustration and I care about my team and putting us in a position to win.”  Mayfield has seen reports that Beckham told players on other teams to “get me out of Cleveland.”

Dear Baker: No doubt you’re trying to build support for a teammate who’s been maligned for lack of production.  But public criticism of the training/medical staff was not the best way to do it.