CLEVELAND — Moments after he appeared to throw his team's medical staff under the bus over its handling of Odell Beckham Jr.'s sports hernia, Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield took to Twitter to clarify that wasn't what he was trying to do.
"My intentions were not to throw our medical staff under the bus," Mayfield tweeted. "No I don’t know all the facts about Odell’s injury. It was emotionally answered because I can sense his frustration and I care about my team and putting us in the best position to win."
In a follow-up tweet, the second-year signal-caller added: "Those people within our building know my intentions and where I am coming from. I truly believe that and I apologize to those that don’t deserve the backlash.... today was a good team win. On to the next one."
Mayfield's Twitter thread came less than an hour after he said in his postgame press conference that the sports hernia that Beckham has been dealing with throughout the 2019 season "wasn't handled right" by the Browns.
"It could have been addressed earlier on," Mayfield said, seeming to imply Beckham should have undergone surgery during the preseason. "I think looking back on it, obviously hindsight is 20-20, he probably would have missed the first two [games] -- one or two just based on when exactly it was during training camp. But it is what it is. We're here right now. It's too late to do that and he's playing through pain, so that shows you what type of guy he is."
While Beckham has been dealing with the injury dating back to Training Camp, it wasn't made public until a report on Sunday morning hours prior to the Browns' 27-19 win over the Bengals. With Beckham not at full strength and having missed practice time as the result of the injury, the 3-time Pro Bowl selection has tallied 59 receptions for 844 yards and 2 touchdowns in 13 games, which puts him on pace for one of the least productive seasons of his NFL career.
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