Baker Mayfield is Wrong and No One is Rooting Against the Freaking Browns | THE MARK-UP

I don't want to dislike the Cleveland Browns, and frankly, it's not even a possibility. The Browns hype train is very real, and despite every urge to do so, we cannot--and will not--hate on the Browns before the season has even started. It'd be rude to do so to a franchise that... how should I put this... has been a steaming pile of garbage for years.

When the good Cleveland Browns moved away to Baltimore, setting all of the city's football memories on fire in the process, all of us felt bad. Here was Art Modell, a man who always wanted so badly to be loved, literally stealing part of Cleveland's identity. It was horrible, and so is the product the NFL put in place just years later because they felt bad.

But Baker Mayfield doesn't understand the football history of Cleveland because he hasn't live it. To his credit, Mayfield has a chip on his shoulder the size of the security guard who tackled him for fleeing the scene while publicly intoxicated. Mayfield is a tremendous talent who must always feel slighted, somehow.

Rather than relish the underdog role, or the fact that this is the first real time Cleveland has had expectations for its football team since its reincarnation in 1999, Mayfield is listening to only Colin Cowherd, deciding most of us wouldn't love the Browns to be something other than a dumpster fire this year.

“You’ve got to believe in it and take it one week at a time. Because I wouldn’t say that everybody wants to beat us. I think in the media and everything that comes with the hype around our team right now, people want to see us lose, just because the hype is so real. But we’ve got to go out there and take it one week at a time. We’re trying to win every week," Mayfield said, per Pro Football Talk.

We all want you to win! Please, prove your sole doubter wrong!

Mayfield has admittedly studied at the Tom Brady School of Everyone Hates Us, and even looks up to TB12 and his motivational tactics. It's impressive from the outside looking in, but also borderline asinine when given even an ounce of thought. Situational awareness is everything, and the Browns winning something, anything, would be the best story the NFL has had in YEARS. Imagine if they beat the Patriots! I can barely contain my excitement.

The last piece of evidence you need? I'M A STEELERS FAN. If anyone were qualified to hate this iteration of the Browns, it would be me!

Instead, I'll be watching every Sunday as Cleveland potentially ends Pittsburgh's AFC North reign single-handedly, and I won't even be that mad about it.

The Browns are good. The universe is happy.