WATCH: Baker Mayfield gives passionate speech to Oklahoma locker room
Baker Mayfield may be dealing with his own adversity in the NFL which another reason is why his presence and message to the Oklahoma Sooners football team likely means more right now than ever.
On Friday, the current NFL quarterback — who parlayed his success in Norman into a Heisman Trophy and first-overall selection in the NFL Draft — delivered an emotional, powerful speech to the 2022 squad the night before they suit up and helmets and pads for the first time under Brent Venables. Mayfield worked closely with Lincoln Riley at OU, so his start to his speech and the focal point was powerful and telling.
“You got somebody that’s driving you so hard, and he wants what’s best for you,” Baker Mayfield opened with a reference to Venables.
“He’s not just saying it to say it. I just went up and talked to him for about 20 minutes and I could feel it. I could run through a freakin’ wall right now. I love this place. I’m here for you guys. I know it’s headed in the right direction. I know it is, because I could put pads on right now and I could go do it. If I could suit up with you guys tomorrow I would.
When you want it so badly that you make the people around you want it even more? To me, that’s what is special.”
RELATED: Brent Venables shares strong praise of Baker Mayfield ahead of statue unveiling
While Lincoln Riley was the offensive mastermind tied to Mayfield’s unprecedented success while in Norman, this is a new season. And just like many of the Oklahoma players who were either recruited or played for Riley are still navigating the sudden change in staff, philosophy and vision — Mayfield himself is battling a similar scenario as just a few months ago he was locked in as the Cleveland Browns’ quarterback and now awaits his next NFL stop.
It’s easy to see the raw passion and emotion Mayfield had when delivering the speech and it’s difficult to overstate not only his importance to the program to have a statue revealed for hundreds of years to come but also how much the future of the program to bounce back from adversity means to him personally.
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Baker Mayfield and Oklahoma need one another right now
The program is immortalizing Mayfield in the form of a Heisman-esque statue. They will reveal it at halftime of the Sooners’ spring game on April 23 at 3 p.m. CT at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium
Following the release of the statue unveiling date, Baker Mayfield took to Twitter to call Sooners fans to Oklahoma for the spring game.
“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this tremendous honor than alongside my family, teammates and Sooner Nation,” Mayfield tweeted along with #PackthePalace. “It took all of us, so to be back on Owen Field and have this statue unveiled there is incredible. See you at the Spring Game!”
In 2017, Baker Mayfield became the sixth of seven Sooners to win the Heisman Trophy when he passed for 4,627 yards and 43 touchdowns, and led OU to a Big 12 title and the College Football Playoff.
It’s clear that for now, and for life, Mayfield is tied to Sooners’ football history — and hats off to both the NFL quarterback and the Oklahoma brass that chose to honor him in such a major way this weekend.
It feels like now more than ever, the two sides need one another.