College football fans saw more than they bargained for yesterday, during the Oklahoma Sooners tilt against Kansas on Saturday (November 18th).
At one point during the telecast, OU quarterback Baker Mayfield was shown grabbing his crotch and making a lewd gesture towards his opponents, before appearing to shout "f**k you" in their general direction. As you see in the clip below, the broadcasters were quick to call the act "inappropriate" and going so far as to say that the incident could hurt Mayfield's NFL draft stock in a significant way.
After the game, Mayfield apologized for the gesture, saying that, while he's a competitor, crossing that kind of line is "unacceptable." He apologized directly to the fan bases for both teams, as well as Kansas athletics, for his actions. You can check out a video snippet of his response below.
As it turns out, this isn't Mayfield's first brush with on-field controversy this season. After he led Oklahoma to a 31-16 win over Ohio State on September 9th, he planted the Sooners' flag in the middle of the field at Ohio Stadium, a turn of events that led to major criticism being thrown his way. After the fact, he held firm on his position, saying what he did was a response to what had gone down the year prior, when Ohio State defeated Oklahoma in Norman.
"It was embarrassing for them to sing their fight song on our field," Mayfield said at the time.. "They're probably feeling the same way right now." The senior later walked those comments back a bit and offered up a formal apology for the incident, saying it wasn't meant as a show of disrespect to the Buckeyes organization, their players or their coaching staff.
Mayfield may regret this latest on-field obscenity in the here and now as well, since he's current being touted as the frontrunner for the Heisman trophy. His stat line, which includes 3,559 passing yards and 31 touchdowns for the fourth-ranked Sooners (taken before Saturday's game against Kansas), is quite impressive, but in an area where social media monitors your every move, there's no escaping his unseemly conduct on the field.