Colin Cowherd has never been a fan of Baker Mayfield, questioning the quarterback’s talent on the field, calling him a bad teammate, criticizing his celebrations and even the way he wears hats.
On numerous occasions, Mayfield would engage and fight back against Cowherd, which likely enticed the FOX Sports Radio host to keep searching for new criticisms. His latest take that drew the ire of many football fans, is that he would choose Carson Wentz and Jimmy Garoppolo over the Browns quarterback. But during his Wednesday show, Cowherd said the anti-Mayfield sentiment isn’t a performance, and his proof is that he plays in Cleveland.
According to Cowherd, if he’s going to fabricate an opinion with the goal of sparking reaction, he’ll pick a market larger than Cleveland.
“There’s no money in it for me to get Cleveland riled up,” Cowherd said. “You’re not a big enough city. You don’t matter enough. Like it would be one thing if I was riling up New York, or Chicago, or Dallas, or L.A., or Atlanta, or Philadelphia. Cleveland’s like, is Cleveland as big as Columbus, Ohio? I don’t even think it is, is it?”
This isn’t the first time Cowherd pulled back the curtain on his radio show. Just a couple of months ago he explained on-air that some of his predictions are made with the intent of getting the audience to “freak out.” Last summer, Cowherd predicted the Baltimore Ravens would go 16-0. When listeners called him out on being wrong about the 11-5 Ravens, Cowherd defended the prediction.
“I could’ve predicted 14-2, but I thought it was more fun to go 16-0 because you guys would all freak out,” Cowherd explained.
According to Nielsen rankings, Baltimore is the 28th largest media market in the United States, smaller than Cleveland, but still big enough for Cowherd to fabricate a prediction. Cleveland ranks 19th in market size according to Nielsen. The other markets Cowherd listed, New York, Chicago, Dallas, L.A., Atlanta and Philadelphia are all in the top-10.
Cowherd is bold and brash which will at times lead to odd opinions and false predictions, but it’s more important to say something interesting with conviction than it is to be right. His audience expects to hear unique opinions worthy of a debate, and he always delivers.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
