Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield showed up to his Wednesday press conference wearing an ill-fitting University of Michigan basketball tank top, the price of a lost bet with head coach Todd Bowles.
Bowles stood in the doorway humming the Michigan fight song and shouting “Let’s go blue!” before Mayfield addressed reporters.
“That hurts, that hurts real bad,” Mayfield said. “It’s been a rough couple of days.”
The wager traced back to Oklahoma’s game against Michigan. Mayfield, a former Oklahoma quarterback, bet against Bowles, whose son Troy plays for the Wolverines. Michigan won 17-10.
“Oklahoma versus Michigan,” Mayfield 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.”
The lighter moment comes as both Mayfield and Bowles face heavier pressure heading into Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns. The Buccaneers are 0-1 after a 33-27 season-opening loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, a game in which Mayfield failed to throw a touchdown pass and lost three fumbles, including one near the goal line on a would-be scoring drive.
Bowles is under pressure to get Tampa Bay back into the postseason. Mayfield, meanwhile, is coming off a three-year, $165 million contract extension signed just last week, a deal that places him among the NFL’s highest-paid quarterbacks.
Sunday’s matchup carries extra weight for Mayfield beyond the standings. He was the Browns’ No. 1 overall draft pick in 2018 and started for Cleveland through the 2021 season before the team traded him to Carolina after choosing to build around Deshaun Watson instead. Mayfield was open about his anger over that decision at the time.
Watson remains the Browns’ starting quarterback, though that status comes with an expiration date, according to the team’s plans.
As for future Michigan-Oklahoma wagers, Mayfield won’t get the chance. The schools just wrapped up their two-game home-and-home series, and no future matchups are scheduled.
