Baker Mayfield realizes Tampa Bay is more than just hockey bay
March 14, 2024
Tampa Bay isn't just about puckheads.
This is not number one joke at all.
It's kind of cool to see what people new to the Tampa Bay area thought about this place before they set foot here.
Take Baker Mayfield, a new permanent resident. The Bucs quarterback, who signed a new three-year contract yesterday, lives in Austin. But since Mayfield first signed with the Bucs last spring, he has fallen in love with the Tampa Bay area, and his re-signing with the Bucs will see him move from Austin to Tampa.
Mayfield confessed that what he was told about Tampa before coming here last year was that it wasn't a football town, it was something else.
“This is a special place,” Mayfield began. “I came here not really knowing what this community was like. [I was] I heard this is a hockey town even though I came from the Super Bowl.
“Just being able to meet the passionate fans, people talking about going to 'Old Sombrero', people who have been fans for a long time and have remained fans through thick and thin, that's what makes this event so special. It’s what makes it a thing. It’s a traditional fan.”
Well, let's be clear. While the Lightning have done a great job of developing a strong hockey fan base in the Southern city, Tampa Bay is football through and through.
As popular as the Lightning are, more people watched the Bucks' worthless preseason game on Channel 8 than the same channel that aired the Lightning Stanley Cup Finals a few months earlier.
But it's great that Mayfield has embraced the field and, for that matter, learned that it's more football than hockey or baseball.
And from the way Mayfield talks, Tampa seems to welcome him.
Hopefully Mayfield will be here for a while. That means the Bucks are winning.
