Baker Mayfield is a family man, and he has his wife to thank for that. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback is known for his grit and aggressive style-of-play when out on the field, with his loud energy often misconstrued as arrogance and cockiness. Mayfield and his wife Emily have been together since the Rose Bowl in 2018GettyBut since entering the NFL as the No. 1 overall pick of the 2018 Draft, the signal caller who hails from Austin, Texas, Mayfield has had to grow up quickly, and do so in the public eye, which has shaped him as the man he is today. One of the athletes featured in season three of Netflix’s sports docuseries ‘Quarterback’, alongside Jayden Daniels, Cam Ward, and Joe Flacco, the curtain on Mayfield’s life away from the gridiron has been pulled back, including how his relationship with his wife, Emily (née Wilkinson), came to be. “Emily has been unbelievably supportive. Knowing that I have unconditional love and support from her, no matter if I’m playing well, if I’m not playing well. It’s just a blessing,” Mayfield told the Netflix cameras to open Episode 1, titled ‘Face of the Franchise’.But it was a long, hard graft of three years or so since his college friend initially tried to set him up, to even get his now wife to go out with him. “For three-and-a-half years, he [his college friend Patrick] tried to set me and Emily up. The majority of that time, I was like, ‘Patrick, I don’t know who this is. I don’t know why you’re doing this. I’m young, in college, please stop,'” Mayfield revealed. “Then by the time my senior year rolled around, I was like, ‘okay, I’m actually gonna pursue this… start trying to reach out. It was not reciprocated.”But it appeared that the pair’s mutual friend was still trying to work his magic by playing Cupid.“I was living out in LA, working out there, and one of my best friends from Nebraska moved to LA and he kept talking about Baker,” Emily detailed in her own account. “They went to Oklahoma together, and he insisted that I was the girl version of Baker, and Baker was the boy version of me.”“I knew I was four years older… and I also knew nothing about Baker. And when Patrick, the guy who set us up, said, ‘Just Google him, you’ll be able to see tons of stuff,’ he was hoping that I was going to see that he won the Heisman, and that he’s this great, stand-up guy.“And when I Googled him, I saw that he got arrested in Arkansas,” she continued, referencing when he was arrested on charges of public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and fleeing and resisting arrest.Mayfield and his wife Emily Wilkinson have been inseparable since meeting in 2018Instagram / @bakermayfieldMayfield is known for his fiery attitude on the fieldGetty“I saw that he did some very profane things on the sideline of the Kansas game. I mean, he stuck the flag in the middle of Ohio State. The top five headlines were not favorable.”Mayfield’s public image during college almost costTo say Mayfield was fiery during his collegiate career would be somewhat of a huge understatement. One of his most memorable moments playing for Oklahoma was when he ran around the field with a crimson Sooners flag before planting it directly into the “O” logo at midfield on the road against Ohio State after a 31-16 victory in the 2017 season. This act was viewed by many as a huge sign of disrespect, and only fueled the fire of the narrative that he was arrogant. Later that season, during a 41-3 victory against the Kansas Jayhawks, Mayfield grabbed his crotch and appeared to yell some defamatory language at the opposition sideline – an act which stemmed from the Kansas captain refusing to return Mayfield’s offer of a handshake during the coin toss. “Yeah, living and learning. I always play with fire, but it doesn’t have to cross a certain line,” Mayfield said about his past decisions in college. During his college career, Mayfield crossed a line on multiple occasions – something he now views as a learning experienceGetty“Now I can look back and say I was young and dumb, and didn’t have it figured out, even though I might’ve thought I did. Admitting when I made mistakes, and there was a lot of them along the way.”Although he was stripped of team captaincy by Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley, as well as his starting role for the final home game, his draft stock was unaffected, with the Cleveland Browns opting to select him with the No. 1 overall pick, ahead of other quarterbacks that included Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson. Love at first sight… quite literally After the Sooners punched a ticket to the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, where Emily was living with her two brothers at the time, she decided she would meet Mayfield in person for the first time – a meeting that unbeknownst to them at the time would alter the trajectory of their lives together. “I thought it was gonna be The Baker Show. And I thought it would be all about him,” Emily said of her anxiety about meeting Mayfield for the first time. “And when we sat down, he quite literally said nothing about himself. He wanted to know about my family, about my job, and there was a spark. I texted my mom and sister and said, ‘I think I’ll marry this guy.'”Mayfield echoed similar sentiments, revealing that he told his college roommate at the time that he was “gonna marry that girl.'”Mayfield is now a fatherInstagram / @bakermayfieldMayfield played in Cleveland for four seasons before moving onGettyWith their story playing out like a fairytale with it being love at first sight, or meeting, their relationship accelerated faster than either of them could imagine. “I went to the game the next day. They lost the game and he had already graduated,” Emily revealed. “So he ended up staying in LA, and then moved in with me about three days after we met. “And I was living with my two brothers at the time. So it was really a kind of frat house situation and I was the house mom.”From that point forward, the two have been inseparable, with Mayfield crediting Emily for making him see the world that is outside the realms of football. “Six months later, we were engaged, and never looked back. We’ve just learned and grown together,” Mayfield candidly opened up. “Has it been pretty the whole time? Absolutely not. Early on, I tried to hold a lot of things in, because I didn’t think that she could help me talk through football issues.“But she’s brought out a side of me, whether it’s expressing how I’m feeling, or just talking through things so I can figure out how to handle it the best way. That’s been the fun part about our journey together.“Emily has definitely made me softer. It makes me realize I’m doing it for a bigger purpose and I still try and portray a hard outer shell when I get on the field, which… that’s its own different issue.”Mayfield’s path back to redemption in the NFLMayfield, at one point, looked as though he would become just another NFL journeyman having had brief stints with the Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Rams after being traded by Cleveland after four seasons at the helm, in which he had a 29-30 losing record. Mayfield has enjoyed the best stint of his career in TampagettyBut after joining the Bucs on a one-year, prove-it deal after all-time great QB Tom Brady’s retirement, Mayfield showed that sometimes it’s environment, combined with the right offensive scheme and organizational stability, that can propel a signal caller into achieving – or exceeding – expectations. In three seasons in Florida, Mayfield has completed a career-high 66.3 percent of his passes for 12,237 yards and 95 touchdowns to just 37 interceptions, with a 27-24 win record. Now, he wants to be compensated fairly, and more aligned financially to what he feels his value is than his current three-year, $100 million deal. But talks between Mayfield and the Bucs appear to be at a standstill, with the soft deadline of agreeing a deal before training camp begins on July 28 edging ever closer. Should the two parties not come to an agreement on an extension before then, then Mayfield has already re-instilled that this will not impact his approach to the 2026 NFL season, despite injury concerns. “Pain is miserable, but toughness shows how bad you want something,” Mayfield said during an episode of Quarterback. However, his future with the team beyond 2027 when he is set to hit free agency, would look more unlikely.Stay up to date on all things NFL across our talkSPORT platforms – subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest news, opinion, exclusive interviews and our daily unfiltered, unscripted show ‘The S* Word, from 8am ET.