You could see, smell and hear this coming from hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away.
Inexplicably, Kansas decided to take the low road when, during the pregame meeting of captains at midfield, one of them refused to shake the hand of Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield. Then, one decided to go facemask-to-facemask as the midfield meet-and-greet was breaking up. Add to all of the pregame stuff some questionable in-game shots Mayfield took, and the Heisman Trophy frontrunner was agitated.
So agitated, in fact, that he went lowbrow in lobbing a televised crotch grab at the Jayhawks bench after one of his three touchdowns on the day. Predictably, and just as he did after the infamous attempt at a midfield flag-planting after beating Ohio State in Columbus -- and after his offseason arrest -- Mayfield offered up a mea culpa.
Mayfield: I truly do apologize. I think about the kids that are watching, that's not something that I want to do. It's not anything you want your kids to watch." #Sooners
— Eric Bailey (@EricBaileyTW) November 19, 2017
Mayfield: I apologize not just to the Kansas people, but the #Sooners fans .. I really do mean that. No disrespect to Kansas athletics ... the position that I'm in, I have to lead by example and I did not do that.
— Eric Bailey (@EricBaileyTW) November 19, 2017
Baker Mayfield: "what I did was unacceptable." pic.twitter.com/CyC9O89bkn
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) November 19, 2017
So, there you have it. As I intimated earlier, it’s going to be very interesting to see how this situation plays out in the minds of Heisman voters. Then again, Johnny Manziel and Jameis Winston won Heismans in recent years without stellar off-field pedigrees, so there’s that as well.
UPDATED 8:31 p.m. ET: In addition to the apology in his postgame press conference, Mayfield also tweeted a mea culpa.
— Baker Mayfield (@bakermayfield) November 19, 2017