COLUMBUS, Ohio — Baron Browning may not be done joking around with his new coach. But the Ohio State early enrollee has already found out that Urban Meyer is always going to get the last laugh.
After initially pulling off a successful prank that caused Meyer to break his phone after telling him he was committing to Alabama moments before publicly making a pledge to the Buckeyes, Browning found himself on the other end of the line a few weeks later.
This time the coveted linebacker wasn’t laughing when Meyer told him he was taking a job with the Los Angeles Rams.
“There were all those rumors about the Los Angeles Rams,” Meyer said with a smile. “So I called his mom [DeKisha], because she’s great, and I said, ‘Let’s go get him.’ She said, ‘OK, what do you want to do? I said, ‘I’m going to call — because she [is an assistant principal] at the school, call him down there and let’s put him on speakerphone. I want to see his reaction.’ So we did it. I said, ‘Baron, I’ve got some tough news for you, but I’ve taken this job.’ And you just hear quiet. And I go, ‘Hey, man, you all right?’ Just quiet, quiet. I said, I’m just kidding, man. You Betkanyon all right?
“Oh, he cried. Did he tell you that? Did he tell you he teared up?”
Browning left that part out when he recounted the retribution from Meyer, though he admitted he might have deserved the payback after he started the battle.
A top priority for the Buckeyes after losing Raekwon McMillan early to the NFL draft, the second-ranked outside linebacker in the country used that knowledge to tweak Meyer by pretending he was heading to Alabama instead.
“I already knew I was going to come here,” Browning said on Wednesday. “I just felt like messing around. That’s the type of guy I am, I like cracking jokes and having fun. It was just funny all around.
“But he got me back. … I knew it was something serious when he texted me in class and told me to call when I was with my mom. My mouth just dropped. I was speechless.”
Browning has obviously rediscovered his voice, and he’s already quickly established a relationship with Meyer in part because of his strong sense of humor. He flashed that on signing day as well, with the program putting a microphone on him and filming him breaking down film of his new teammates and continuing to bust out a few jokes.
He may think twice before messing with Meyer again.
“He got me back,” Browning said. “I see how he felt. And I was really mad because my mom was in on it, too. They planned it together. And I was just like, ‘Wow.’
“But I guess I had that coming. I wasn’t laughing then.”
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