Baker Mayfield's "mess talk" is entertaining his new Carolina Panthers teammates

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — It seemed a bit odd Tuesday when newly acquired Carolina Panthers quarterback Baker Mayfield was chauffeured to Wofford College for training camp in a truck driven by linebacker Shaq Thompson.

Now we know why.

Smack talk.

Or «mess'' talk, as Thompson put it Friday when explaining how the former Cleveland Browns star became his passenger for the 90-minute drive from Charlotte, North Carolina.

»Bake texted me and DJax [Donte Jackson] talking some mess,'' Thompson said. «We were just going back and forth. We just went to what time are you going down there? He was like, 'Carpool?' And I said yes.''

So what was this „mess?''

“That's for me to know and y'all just to ask questions,'' said Thompson, who began training camp on the physically unable to perform list after having minor offseason surgery on his left knee.

Mayfield is known for talking mess, or „trash talking“ as others put it. He gave a small sample of it when he and Thompson arrived at camp, saying Thompson „uses his blinker everywhere.''

Mayfield showed a little bit of his edginess again Tuesday when he playfully yelled for a fan with one of his old Cleveland Browns jerseys to “put that jersey away.''

When a woman who drove her son to Spartanburg from Ohio told him Wednesday she wasn't a fan of the Browns, Mayfield responded he wasn't either.

Then there was the 2017 college game between Mayfield's Oklahoma Sooners and the Baylor Bears coached by Matt Rhule, now the head coach of the Panthers. Mayfield told some of the Baylor players after a pre-game scuffle, „You forgot who daddy is. I'm going to have to spank you.''

That Mayfield has a reputation for talking “mess» doesn't bother Thompson. He compared him to former Panthers quarterback Cam