The Business of Being Baker: An exclusive inside look at Mayfield’s unique endorsement structure

Being quarterback of the Browns has not exactly been a glamorous job since the franchise returned from its hiatus in 1999.

It’s not been one that has enticed the advertising gurus of Madison Avenue to come calling. It barely got noticed on SportsCenter unless it was another humiliating gaffe, another bust, another historic loss.

Until now.

Baker Mayfield, the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Austin, Texas native and Heisman winner from Oklahoma who Cleveland drafted No. 1 overall in 2018, appears to have changed that narrative and the result has been a flurry of national endorsement deals that have elevated his profile.

The NFL and networks responded to his thrilling first year (and subsequent personnel moves by the front office) by putting the Browns on four primetime national games, including tonight in San Francisco. It’s another opportunity for Mayfield to prove he’s worth the investment by local, regional and national brands.

Last season, Mayfield, 24, took over the starting job when Tyrod Taylor was injured in Week 3. Mayfield went on to set the NFL rookie record with 27 touchdown passes and helped the team to seven wins. The 7-8-1 record was Cleveland’s best since 2014 and along with significant talent additions via the draft, free agency and trades – hello, Odell Beckham Jr. – there was an unprecedented wave of optimism about the 2019 Browns. They’re a darkhorse Super Bowl pick among savvy or foolish bettors.

Mayfield’s sophomore season got off to an uneven start. He’s thrown six interceptions but has the Browns headed into Monday night’s game against the undefeated 49ers at 2-2, a record good enough for first place in the battered AFC North. Mayfield and running back Nick Chubb got Cleveland’s season back on track with a 40-25 thrashing of Baltimore last week.

The excitement from his lofty credentials coming into the league, and about his rookie performance, earned him what looks to be a lucrative start to an off-field business career, one that has built-in advantages many of his peers don’t enjoy. Mayfield’s family in Austin has for years owned a private equity buyout firm called Camwood Capital Group, and within that business structure is Team BRM, short for Baker Reagan Mayfield. Yes, his folks named him for the business-friendly former president.

Team BRM is the entity through which all of Mayfield’s off-field deals flow. The organization has a half-dozen staffers who handle everything from his branding, endorsements, accounting, media and legal matters.

“Once Baker’s brand started to get elevated at Oklahoma, the whole family started to think about the broader long term,” said Matt Mayfield, Baker’s older brother and acquisition strategist at Camwood who helps manage Baker’s business affairs. “We decided that we could, with help of an agent, bring a lot of Baker’s operations in house. For someone like Baker or another athlete of that caliber, not just in the NFL, that has those kinds of endorsements and contracts, it requires a whole team. What we already had in place, and what a lot of people don’t realize, is we had that prior to the NFL even being a thought.”

Mayfield’s agents are the father-son duo of Jack and Tom Mills of Colorado-based Capital Sports Advisors, and they helped negotiate the four-year, $32.68 million guaranteed rookie contract that had a $21.85 million signing bonus.

Mayfield talked briefly with The Athletic on Sunday night via phone from San Jose, Calif., where the Browns were readying to face the 49ers. He said having the business and financial infrastructure in place to protect his earnings, and bolster them with sound investments, allows him to concentrate on football and not worry about the money catastrophes that have bankrupted other star athletes — including prominent former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar.

“Protecting the money we’re earning is No. 1. I’ve always been one to save it,” Mayfield said. “For me, it’s protecting the money by surrounding yourself with good people.”

Team BRM handles his off-field business during the season so he can concentrate on football.

“They handle it. They’d tell you I’m a pain in the ass in the season taking care of things off the field,” Mayfield said. “They do a good job of filtering out. It truly takes the weight off of my shoulders off the field.”

Back in Texas, Camwood has traditionally invested in precision manufacturing companies with annual revenue of $5 million to $50 million, but in 2018, it launched a venture capital arm called Camwood Ventures that invests in growing young companies. Mayfield has put some of his money through that investment vehicle. Those companies, according to information provided by Matt Mayfield, include Los Angeles-based sports social media content publisher Wave; Beam; Season Share; EarBuds, the music-sharing app founded in Austin by former NFL player Jason Fox; Dallas-based sports data management firm PumpJack Dataworks; and Columbus, Ohio-based sports apparel line Where I’m From that is the official licensee of Mayfield merchandise.

“As his career started in the NFL, we began to grow that and the infrastructure internally at Camwood,” Matt Mayfield said. “That’s when VC unit was born. We target early stage growth companies where we think our brand and Baker’s brand can add value and help the companies grow. We try to look where we think we can add value as investors, operators and advisors. We’re leveraging the collective power of Baker’s fanbase and market reach to help these portfolio companies.

“It may not be Baker sitting on their board or promoting, but it may be value coming via connections. They may want more direct involvement where Baker’s endorsing the product, maybe pushing it on social media, having a say in the creative on how the product is branded.”

The central idea is that Mayfield’s connection to a company can improve the value of a brand.

“The idea long-term is building a platform where you’ve got a fanbase and userbase that Baker can influence,” said Jeff Scott, operating partner at Camwood and managing director of the venture capital division. “It’s fairly industry agnostic. We go where we can add the most strategic value.”

Mayfield currently has traditional endorsement deals with apparel giant Nike, headphone maker Bose, sports drink BodyArmor, Nissan Heisman House, on-demand video service Hulu, insurer The Progressive Corp., cloud computing platform Amazon Web Services, sports card maker Panini America, and men’s formal footwear maker Allen Edmonds. He also has a memorabilia deal through H&H Sports LLC in his native Texas, and philanthropy relationships that benefit Special Olympics and at-risk children’s crisis nursery Providence House in Cleveland.

Mayfield previously did work with Leaf Trading Cards and hatmaker New Era during the NFL Draft.

His deals are various combinations of cash payments, equity stakes and product, but no specifics have been disclosed.

Baker Mayfield said any business deal must check off particular boxes for him to sign off on it: “I’m not going to chase dollars because it’s easy. For me, it’s gotta fit. I truly have to enjoy what it is. It’s got to fit my mentality, my values.”

What is that mentality and set of values? It’s rooted, Mayfield said, in his football origin story, the underdog narrative of being a two-time college walk-on who experts dismissed as too small to be elite – criticism that even a Heisman and top overall draft selection didn’t completely silence.

“It’s unique. The road less traveled. Never been done before. That’s how my life story is going,” Mayfield said.

Brand authenticity is one of the boxes that Mayfield seeks to check for an endorsement deal or investment, said Chris Talbott, a sports marketing industry veteran hired by Camwood as a brand strategist who leads the strategy effort for Team BRM.

“Baker is a very loyal person. He does not like anything or anyone that is phony. That is very important to him,” Talbott said. “One of the main things is it a brand that is trusted and liked, not only by Baker but by the world or the general population, its customers. What do people think about the brand when you say the name? Do they feel good or indifferent?”

Mayfield echoed those thoughts.

“(It’s) being authentic. Being who I am is something I pride myself on each day,” Mayfield said. “It’s got to have a real relationship, both ways.”

Mayfield insists on being a legitimate part of the creative process for any endorsement campaign he’s a part of, Talbott said.

“We don’t want to sign a partnership, get the creative, and there’s no feedback. That’s not how we work,” Talbott said. “Baker is in those meetings. He gives feedback to the CMO or CEO. He’s very involved. He wants things to be done the right way, whether that’s himself, his wide receiver or someone on the offensive line or anyone in life. That includes his team off the field. He wants things done the right way. We’re an extension of him to some degree.”

Without naming brand names, there has been endorsement offers that Mayfield’s team has rejected.

“There have been some that don’t align. Not a good brand fit or they don’t align because we weren’t excited about how they want to utilize Baker or it’s not something he’d use or want to use in his life,” Talbott said.

Mayfield admires what notable athletes such as Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant and Serena Williams have done in off-field business, Talbott said, but there is no specific template from anyone else that they’ve followed to craft his strategy and profile.

“We admire various athletes, but in general Baker wants to blaze his own path. That’s his mentality in many ways and it’s worked out well for him,” Talbott said.

Team BRM isn’t doing new deals at the moment, but they’ve got their collective eyes on potential partners in segments not already represented.

“In general, any category he’s not in right now we’re definitely looking at it and having discussions,” Talbott said. “We’re looking at various categories and trying to figure out that next one. There is definitely a number of categories that are not filled. We don’t have a hardware or software partner, we don’t have a financial partner, we don’t have telecommunications. Those are three big ones. We’re talking to people.

“As far as 2019 goes, I think we’re in a really good position and no rush to jump into much more than we’re already involved in.”

Perhaps the most visible business relationship for Mayfield in 2019 is with auto and home insurance giant Progressive, based in suburban Cleveland.

The company signed a marketing deal with Mayfield earlier this year and the inaugural campaign is a season-long series of funny TV and digital spots that have the young quarterback and his wife living at FirstEnergy Stadium.

Progressive Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Charney crafted the relationship and raves about Mayfield. They met at a Browns press conference earlier this year when Beckham was introduced as Mayfield’s newest weapon.

“I’ve been around sports and business all my life, and I know when I see it, and I saw it and felt it. I’m not a fanboy. This guy had a presence and aura. He was so real and personable and authentic, it floored me. You could see his leadership, his command, his answers,” Charney said.

Progressive put Mayfield through a two-hour “creative minicamp,” Charney said, and the quarterback convinced the insurer he was their guy. The 30-second commercials aren’t Mayfield pitching insurance but dealing with life living inside a 68,000-seat NFL stadium.

“We’re trying to put out great content, not jackhammering messages with people they don’t believe,” Charney said. “We wanted someone to help us tell our story in a different way. Everything I saw (from Mayfield) felt like it would be a nice fit for the brand.”

The insurance endorsement fit for Mayfield because he already was a Progressive customer before he met with them, Talbott said, and the relationship flourished once a deal was signed.

“We were locked in step the whole way from concepts to where and how (the marketing campaign) would live, and all the way throughout the creative. We sat down and went through all the creative ideas. They were very open and welcoming. It was a collaborative process,” Talbott said.

Some of the Progressive campaign will unfold on social media, and Mayfield handles his own.

That’s where there’s an inherent risk. Mayfield is not one to shy away from beefs and feuds with critics (of himself or of his teammates), notably with hot-take artist Colin Cowherd while in college and more recently with ex-NFL coach Rex Ryan.

Mayfield’s handlers don’t police his social media. Instead, at most they help with the sponsored Instagram posts that are clearly professional work for Bose and other companies.

“I’ll never police Baker, ever. Baker’s 24 years old. He has made a lot of great decisions and some he can reflect on and learn from. As far as social media, he’s going to be loyal, to protect his teammates and speak up. He’s not going to be the type of person that backs away or is shy about speaking his mind,” Talbott said. “He’s usually defending his teammates. That’s Baker.”

Mayfield’s authenticity on Twitter and elsewhere endears him to fans, Talbott said. It’s part of the mystique. So, no censorship.

“That’s like me putting his hand over his mouth. That’s up to him to say what he’d like to say. I’ve read and looked at his social media. I can’t say there’s anything I would change. That’s honestly part of the reason people are interested in him. He does speak his mind. He doesn’t hide his feelings,” he said.

“It’s a different time now. Athletes have their own brands. They’re coming up with new ideas. They’re entrepreneurs. Speaking their minds or talking about things. They have this platform to talk about whatever. I think it’s a great thing, honestly. I think it makes you understand him more, feel closer to him.”

Mayfield has nearly 680,000 followers on Twitter, another 1.7 million on Instagram (where most advertising unfolds), and 87,000 followers on Facebook.

Athletes can earn a few thousand or hundreds of thousands of dollars from sponsored Instagram and other social media posts for brands.

Roger Breum, director of marketing at San Diego, Calif.-based Hookit.com, said Mayfield will improve the business value of his social media with his own performance and the team winning. Hookit publishes a monthly global athlete social media index.

“That’s definitely growing. He’s continued to build on his own popularity,” Breum said. “But he’s still well behind the most popular Brown (Odell Beckham Jr.). I’m sure them playing with each other will help both sides.

“His profile will continue to grow especially as the Browns seem poised to perform quite well.”

The interest is there, data shows.

In August, Mayfield ranked fourth in a survey of the NFL’s most marketable players, conducted by Sports Business Daily of 40 sports business execs, marketing analysts and media members. He ranked behind only two other quarterbacks, New England’s Tom Brady and Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, and his own flashy teammate, Beckham Jr.

“If there’s one player capable of doing the impossible — reinventing the Browns franchise — it seems like it’s (Mayfield),” Platinum Rye Senior Director of Sports Marketing Brad Griffiths said in the Sports Business Daily story. “If that happens, he becomes an NFL legend.”

SportsProMedia this year ranked Mayfield 43rd on its latest list of the world’s top 50 most marketable athletes. Beckham Jr., an established superstar, ranked 28th and Giants running back Saquon Barkley, who edged Mayfield for NFL rookie of the year honors, was 17th on a list topped by Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka.

Fans have bought in: Sports apparel giant Fanatics said that Mayfield was the top-selling NFL jersey during the preseason, edging out Mahomes.

Mahomes has put up gaudy numbers and led Kansas City to the playoffs last year. He’s something of a contrast with Mayfield because he’s quiet and operates more in the traditional mold of quarterbacks: quiet, unlikely to cause a ruckus online. Traditionalists are some marketer’s dream.

Mayfield comes with some history, which gave pause to fans and observers before the 2018 NFL Draft. After all, the Browns took Johnny Manziel in the first round in 2014 and that was a disaster for all involved. And there’s also the inherent risk, like with any athlete, that they fail to meet the initial hype.

With Mayfield, it’s a case of whether someone thinks he’s filled with confident swagger in the mold of Joe Namath, brashly predicting his underdog Jets would win Super Bowl III and promptly doing so, and Wild Turkey-guzzling, Marlboro-smoking Kenny “Snake” Stabler living fast and hard while leading the Raiders to a championship.

Or is he another Manziel, whose brand of cockiness fizzled out in a haze of disappointment and scorn?

So far, his performance on the field has excited fans, pundits and potential business partners.

Mayfield last season completed 310 of 486 passes (63.8 percent) for 3,725 yards with 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions for 93.7 quarterback rating. That ranked 19th in the NFL last season and was sixth-best in team history. His yards were sixth-most in a single season in Browns history that dates to 1946 and includes quarterback luminaries such as Otto Graham, Frank Ryan, Brian Sipe and Kosar.

Mayfield has thrown a touchdown in every game he’s started in the NFL. He’s built a reputation in college and the NFL for creating positive, often exciting, results when a play breaks down. That way sometimes causes alarm. Gun-slinger quarterbacks come with interceptions. That’s the price for all the touchdowns and victories.

“Quarterbacks, by the textbook, are supposed to be reserved, cool, calm and collected,” Mayfield told GQ earlier this year. “I do it my own way.”

There were pre-draft concerns about him. There was a college arrest for public intoxication and disorderly conduct. He tried to plant an Oklahoma flag on Ohio State’s artificial turf field after beating the Buckeyes in Columbus in 2017. There was a crotch grab. This year, he sparked a brief outcry from some after comments that appeared to criticize the Giants for drafting Duke quarterback Daniel Jones sixth overall. He had a beef with his old Browns head coach, Hue Jackson, who went 3-36-1 in Cleveland before being fired and Mayfield blossoming. There was the Rex Ryan stuff.

He shotgunned a beer on camera at a Cleveland Indians game this year, which set off hand-wringing moralists. Most fans dug it.

Longtime athlete marketing agent Steve Rosner has kept his eye on Mayfield.

“I think Baker is an interesting case study from a marketing standpoint. He’s a dynamic player, no question, and it looks like his career is going in the right direction on the field,” said Rosner, co-founder of Rutherford, N.J.-based 16W Marketing LLC. “He looks like his talent level is one to be reckoned with.”

Mayfield has the Browns in the spotlight, and on himself for endorsement potential.

“They haven’t been on national television a lot. They are now,” said Rosner, whose clients include Phil Simms, Boomer Esiason, Howie Long and Cris Collinsworth. “He has to win, to turn them around from a team that was truly in the dumps record-wise. Last year they made a leap, but that trajectory has to go up. Is turning them around 8-8? Or appearing in a Super Bowl?”

For Mayfield and his future marketability, Rosner said, it comes back to the motto immortalized by late Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis: “Just win, baby.”

Fail to win and Mayfield joins the likes of Tim Couch, Charlie Frye, Brady Quinn and Brandon Weeden – the sad ash heap of Cleveland quarterback history.

Win and get the chance to mouth the iconic “I’m going to Disney World!” slogan after winning a Super Bowl for the Browns – probably the one endorsement deal fans care most about – and Mayfield joins the Cleveland Mt. Rushmore alongside Jim Brown, Bob Feller and LeBron James.

And what comes after football? Could it be coaching, broadcasting, acting or something else?

Mayfield said he thought about post-football plans in college, but now concerns himself only with the present. He said there is a long-term plan, but others are handling that. He’s handling the business that will allow the future to happen.

“I am living a dream not many people get to do,” Mayfield said. “Whatever is going to happen down the road, I’m going to do it the best of my ability and giving it everything I have.”

There’s a Mayfield long-term business playbook in addition to the football playbook. The strategy ranges from winning football games and championships to all the business deals, and living a happy life with friends, teammates and family.

“There’s a long-term strategy of much more. It’s about connecting and treating people the right way,” Mayfield said.

Talbott talked it bit more about the plan: “It’s big picture and long-term. We’ve discussed things likely only happening after he retires or five years down the road,” Talbott said. “There’s a plan and we know it will evolve over time. We have a lot in it short-, mid- and long-term. You have to start working on those now.”

One of the near-term plans is bringing all of Mayfield’s endorsement and investment companies together in one spot next year to discuss best practices, what’s worked well and what has not, highlights, potential for cross-promotion and metrics.

“We want to do a partner summit in the next offseason. We’re planning that now,” Talbott said. “You never know what could come of a summit like that.”

Day-to-day, Team BRM juggles to manage the quarterback’s life and future, allowing Mayfield the time to concentrate on his day job in Cleveland. They use a Google Calendar to manage the demands on the young quarterback’s time. Mayfield got married in July and his wife, Emily, is part of that schedule-minding operation.

“His wife is very involved in a very positive way. That’s his partner. She’s very much part of his life team. We have a shared calendar I put stuff on, they put stuff on, they review it. We are very specific. He’s someone who wants to know what’s coming up, what’s going on,” Talbott said.

When not throwing touchdowns, practicing and studying game film, doing business deals, aiding charities, or tweaking Colin Cowherd, Mayfield is still a 24-year-old newlywed. Talbott said the couple enjoys travel and eating at new places, visiting amusement parks, boating with his tight-knit cadre of friends from high school in Texas, playing video and board games, playing with dogs (dawgs?), and spending time with family.

“During the season, we’re pretty lazy,” Mayfield said, chuckling. “When I get home, I want to relax. We both love our food. Finding new places to eat.”

He and his wife live near some of his teammates, and they’ll gather to eat, talk, laugh — but not about football.

“Talking about everything other than football is important,” Mayfield said.

On the philanthropic side, his team is working to create a foundation, but that’s a minefield of complexity and risk that requires sophisticated planning.

“We’re looking long term. It’s definitely on our minds,” Matt Mayfield said.

In the meantime, there are the San Francisco 49ers to beat, and business deals for his family and handlers to deal with behind the scenes.

“It’s the business of Baker,” Matt Mayfield said.

(Top photo: Rob Carr / Getty Images)