Drake Maye hopped on WEEI’s afternoon show on Monday and, unsurprisingly, took the high road when asked about Stephen A. Smith calling him a liar last week on First Take.
“I just worry about what people do in our building and organization, and people that I hold a lot of personal relationships with on their opinions, and value that,” Maye said. “So all that outside stuff, it is what it is. Just gotta be careful about what I say, and didn’t try to mean it disrespectfully.”
This flare-up goes back to last week, when Cam Newton went on First Take and dismissed the 9–2 Patriots as “fool’s gold,” questioning whether their success was real. When Maye was asked about Newton’s comments later that day on The Greg Hill Show, he gave a pretty measured response, saying he didn’t know what show Newton was on and that he focuses on the opinions of people in the organization, not outside voices.
That was enough to set off Smith, who lit into Maye the next morning. Smith insisted there was “no chance” Drake Maye didn’t know Newton appears on First Take twice a week and repeatedly labeled him “a liar.”
As one would imagine, Patriots fans and media personalities flooded social media defending the honor of Drake Maye. Barstool’s Dave Portnoy demanded Smith apologize, and three-time Super Bowl champion Mark Schlereth took to X to mock the entire premise that NFL players are sitting around watching First Take during the season.
By Friday, Smith walked it back — sort of. On his SiriusXM show, he claimed he was “being facetious” and offered something in the neighborhood of an apology, though he still made it clear he didn’t actually believe Maye.
Maye’s response on Monday suggests he couldn’t care less either way — quasi-apology or not.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.