After finishing up his college football career in January, one of the first big decisions Baker Mayfield had to make heading into NFL Draft season was figuring out who was going to represent him.
When you're a top prospect who could potentially go No. 1 overall in the draft, you generally get your pick of the litter when it comes to selecting an agent, and that was the case with Mayfield. During the selection process, the former Oklahoma quarterback took dozens of calls, but it seems like only one of those calls really stuck with him, and it wasn't for a good reason.
Change the way you listen to NFL news, subscribe to the Pick Six Podcast with Will Brinson and you'll be the most informed fan at your NFL Draft party. Subscribe: via iTunes | via Stitcher | via TuneIn
During the latest episode of his Facebook documentary "Behind Baker" -- by the way, it's starting to seem like everyone has a Facebook documentary except for me -- Mayfield gave some intimate details on a very short phone call he had with Bus Cook, a prominent agent who's best known for representing quarterbacks like Brett Favre and Cam Newton.
Apparently, the phone call ended pretty quickly, and that's because Mayfield hung up on Cook.
Here's how the 23-year-old explained the situation.
"Bus Cook, Brett Favre's agent, great story," Mayfield said. "Every agent does the same thing, they give their résumé, what they're about, all this stuff. Finally, when he was about to give me a chance to talk, he asked, 'So, when did Bob Stoops start recruiting you?' And I literally, I said, 'Excuse me?' And he repeated the question. And then I said, 'Yeah, I gotta go.' And I just hung up."
So why did Mayfield hang up the phone? Well, let's just say he was slightly upset that Cook apparently didn't do any homework on the quarterback before making the call to try and recruit him.
"If you're going to pursue a guy and say that you want him, you want to be that guy that's going to be there for him, why not do your research?" Mayfield said. "And I get it, he doesn't need me, he's already made enough money, it doesn't matter, but at the same time, that just shows what'll happen if you go to those big agencies, those big places. There's no personal relationship, and that's always been important to me."
If you didn't follow Mayfield's college career, it actually started at Texas Tech and Stoops -- who was at Oklahoma in 2013 -- wasn't involved in his recruiting at all. As a matter of fact, Mayfield was a walk-on at Tech, where he ended up starting as a true freshman after an injury to Tech starter Michael Brewer.
Mayfield eventually transferred to Oklahoma, but he was also a walk-on there before he eventually earned a scholarship. During his four-year career at Oklahoma, Mayfield played for both Bob Stoops (2014-16) and Lincoln Riley (2017). If Bus Cook had done that research, Mayfield might have ended up signing with him. Instead, Mayfield ended up signing with Capital Sports Advisers in mid-January.
The good news for Mayfield is that everything seems to be working out for him, not only did he finish up his college career by winning the Heisman, but he's almost certainly going to be a top-five pick in the NFL Draft on Thursday.
