After a long and dismal losing streak, the Cleveland Browns have spent the last couple of years trying to improve their standing in the NFL. Quarterback Baker Mayfield has undoubtedly played a part in the team’s slow path to improvement. A Heisman Trophy winner during his time playing for the University of Oklahoma, Mayfield was the first overall pick by the Browns at the 2018 NFL Draft. He went gangbusters from his very first appearance on the field, stopping the team from suffering their 20th consecutive loss.
Now that all eyes are on the 25-year-old, some fans are curious about his personal life. Who is the quarterback dating? It turns out that in the love department, he is a happily married man. Baker Mayfield’s wife is a woman named Emily Wilkinson. Here’s what we know about her and the couple’s relationship.
Who Is Emily Wilkinson?
Emily Wilkinson, born April 4, 1991, in Omaha, Nebraska, is the wife of Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield. Although she still refers to her maiden name on social media accounts, she legally goes by Emily Mayfield.
A 2013 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she relocated to Los Angeles after school and worked as a plastic surgery patient coordinator. Today, the blonde babe is an Instagram influencer with 206,000 followers. She’s also a special correspondent for Cleveland TV station WKYC.
When she’s not posting stylish selfies and inspirational quotes, she loads up her feed with pics of her adoring hubby.
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How Did Emily Wilkinson And Baker Mayfield Meet?
One might be led to believe that this picture-perfect couple met back in high school or college, but the two actually hooked up in LA. (In fact, Wilkinson is four years older than her man.) According to ESPN, Wilkinson was introduced to Mayfield by a mutual friend in 2017. Hesitant about dating a “punk football player,” she rebuffed his initial advances. Mayfield tried to play games, following and unfollowing her on Instagram to gain her attention. She eventually relented and agreed to go on a date just before his last college game at the 2018 Rose Bowl.
Wilkinson said, “I was assuming he’d be the typical playboy athlete.” But the couple moved in together within a week of their first date and were engaged in less than a year.
In July 2019, the couple tied the knot in front of 350 guests at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu, California.
“This whole marriage thing kind of rocks,” Wilkinson wrote a month after the nuptials.
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Emily Wilkinson Is Her Husband’s Biggest Fan
Wilkinson is so supportive of her husband’s career that she’s not afraid to take shots at his critics on social media.
In December, she trolled controversial ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith for saying that the jury was still out on Mayfield. (Smith corrected himself as he watched Mayfield’s performance days later, but Wilkinson didn’t acknowledge it.)
She also had some choice words for fans who were upset with Mayfield’s sophomore season. Despite his strong debut, the quarterback didn’t perform nearly as well in 2019. “Fair weather fans are HILARIOUS to me. Get out of here lol,” she wrote in an Instagram story.
Wilkinson caught some heat for the remark and had to follow up with an apology. “LOL didn’t expect to ruffle so many feathers,” she wrote. “I was not directing that at the die-hard, loyal fans who have stuck around for YEARS. I’m talking about the idiots who say HORRIBLE things about my husband and the team when we lose, and are back to obsessing when we win. That is laughable to me.”
But the controversy hasn’t stopped her from speaking her mind. This season, she encouraged people to retweet a defensive Instagram story in which she wrote, “Before critics and fans jump to conclusions after an injury, loss, etc. they should put themselves in the athletes’ shoes… but let’s be honest, they never could because they aren’t part of the 1.6%, the best in the world.”
Mayfield has been quietly moving up the ranks in 2020, so it doesn’t look like his job is in jeopardy. But no matter how the season ends, it looks like his loyal wife will be there to support him.