The Richard Sherman-Baker Mayfield handshake drama has taken a bizarre and confusing turn as video appears to show them shaking hands
- Richard Sherman accused Baker Mayfield of refusing to shake his hand before kickoff of the Browns-49ers game on Monday night.
- Video later appeared to show Mayfield and Sherman shaking hands at midfield, making Sherman's initial claim quite confusing.
- While Sherman and Mayfield shook hands before the toss, Mayfield left the midfield meeting after the toss was completed, skipping a second round of handshakes that the remaining captains took part in.
- The whole situation is rather exhausting.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Richard Sherman's accusations of poor sportsmanship from Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield have taken quite an odd turn.
After the 49ers trounced the Browns on Monday night, Sherman called out Mayfield for allegedly snubbing him a handshake as the captains met at midfield for the opening coin toss.
"That's some college s---. It's ridiculous," Sherman told NFL.com's Michael Silver after the game. "We're all trying to get psyched up, but shaking hands with your opponent - that's NFL etiquette. And when you pull bush-league stuff, that's disrespectful to the game. And believe me, that's gonna get us fired up."
But as Tuesday morning rolled along, videos made the rounds on Twitter that appeared to show that Mayfield had in fact extended a hand and shook with Sherman ahead of the toss.
Despite the video, Sherman sparred with some fans on Twitter, claiming that Mayfield had, in fact, snubbed his handshake.
With Sherman's insistence despite overwhelming video evidence, the case did not yet feel closed. A tweet from @gifdsports appeared to give the most likely explanation for this entirely avoidable fracas.
At the start of the coin toss, all captains, Sherman and Mayfield included, appear to shake hands. But after the toss, Mayfield trotted away from midfield before a second series of handshakes took place between some of the remaining captains.
Sherman referred to "NFL etiquette" in his initial critique of Mayfield's behavior, and it's possible that it is common courtesy among captains to shake both before and after the coin toss.
Even if that's the case, it appears as though his decision to put Mayfield on blast was at least a bit undercooked.
- Read more:
Top 13 waiver-wire pickups for Week 6 of fantasy football
Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph knocked out cold after hit but walks off field in scary scene