After 48 hours of twists and turns, it seems that all the handshake drama between Richard Sherman and Baker Mayfield looks like it is about to come to an end.
Of course, we couldn't officially put a bow tie on this thing until we heard from Mayfield, which is exactly what happened on Wednesday. During a press conference, the Browns quarterback was asked multiple questions about the incident, and he came through with the perfect response.
Apparently, Mayfield was quite thrilled by the fact that he was vindicated by all the extra footage that surfaced from the incident.
"I know what I did, but that's the one time the camera, and something recording me, has gone in my favor," Mayfield said, via the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
That's really a perfect answer from Mayfield, because it shows that he has a sense of humor about a situation where he didn't really do anything wrong. As for Sherman, Mayfield didn't seem interested in holding any type of grudge against the 49ers cornerback, despite the erroneous accusations.
"I respect him, who he is as a player," Mayfield said. "He's a great player, has been for awhile."
As for Nick Bosa's flag planting celebration, Mayfield also had a pretty hilarious response for that.
"Thats a long time to be thinking about a loss," Mayfield said, via 92.9 the Game in Cleveland.
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If you need a quick refresher here: The flag-planting drama started in September 2017 when Mayfield and his Oklahoma Sooners went to Ohio Stadium and beat Bosa's Buckeyes 31-16. After the win, Mayfield ran around the stadium with a Giant OU flag before eventually planting it at midfield. Bosa got his revenge on Monday by fake planting a flag after he forced Mayfield into an intentional grounding penalty just before halftime of the 49ers' 31-3 win
As for the handshake stuff, all the drama went down during the pregame coin toss Monday. During a postgame interview with NFL.com, an article from Mike Silver quoted Sherman as saying Mayfield wouldn't shake his hand before the game when the two captains met at midfield for the coin flip, and the perceived snub didn't sit well with the 49ers corner.
"What's amazing, and annoying, was him not shaking hands at the beginning," Sherman told NFL.com's Michael Silver. "That's some college s---. It's ridiculous. 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."
In the 24 hours after that quote came out, Sherman continued to insist that Mayfield snubbed him. However, the 49ers corner was forced to backpedal on his accusations after multiple angles of the pregame coin toss showed that Mayfield did, in fact, shake hands with Sherman.
After it became clear that a pregame handshake happened, Sherman then pointed out that he was mad because Mayfield actually snubbed him AFTER the coin toss. Although there is some video that kind of shows a possible snub happening -- there's some NSFW language, but you can click here to see it -- Mayfield doesn't seem to be snubbing Sherman. He seems like he just wanted to get to his sideline as quickly as possible after the coin toss was over.
After all the dust settled, Sherman eventually announced that he was going to personally apologize to Mayfield about the situation, which will likely be the last time we'll ever hear either player talk about it. Sherman made it pretty clear on Wednesday that he doesn't plan on bringing the subject up ever again.
"I've said my piece about it," Sherman said, via 95.7 the Game. "I'm going to have a conversation with him and then I'm kind of going to be done with it. It's just funny it got so big. I was like, 'Man, I thought the football game was what they watched for,' but I guess it's the soap opera."
As for Sherman's apology, it sounds like Mayfield is going to accept it.
"I just heard that. That's nice of him," the Browns quarterback said.
In a twist, Mayfield could actually end up helping the Sherman and the 49ers this week, and that's because the Browns will be hosting the Seahawks. As for Sherman, he'll be headed with his team to Los Angeles for an NFC West showdown against the Rams.