Will second-year QB Drake Maye do for the Patriots what Tom Brady did 24 years ago? And other thoughts.
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Moronic hyperbole, for sure. Only a dope truly believed that Brady and the 2001 Patriots were bound for the franchise’s first Super Bowl victory.
Here we are almost a quarter of a century later, and the Patriots are sending 23-year-old Drake Maye — two years out of college — out to face the Chargers on “Sunday Night Football” at Gillette Stadium. It’ll be the first playoff game of Maye’s young career and it’s hard to know what to expect from a kid who might end up being MVP of the NFL for 2025.
“I think the biggest thing is I’m excited,” Maye said Wednesday. “Excited to get an opportunity to play home playoff games. That’s what we starred at the beginning of the season of things we want to do here and goals we want to accomplish, and we’ve got our chance and opportunity right here. So take advantage of playing in front of a crowd that’s been great all year, a crowd that I expect to be loud … we’ve got our hands full, but I’m looking forward to playing in front of this crowd.”
Maye has been an almost perfect quarterback this season, completing 72 percent of his passes for 4,394 yards and 31 touchdowns with only eight interceptions, while rushing for an additional 450 yards and four TDs. Compare that with Brady in his second year, completing 64 percent of his passes for 2,843 yards with 18 TDs and 12 picks. Maye went 14-3, compared with Brady’s 11-3 as a starter.
Maye had a Brady-esque comeback game on national television just before Christmas in Baltimore, when he led the Patriots back from a 24-13, fourth-quarter deficit with two TD drives in which he completed 12 of 14 passes for 139 yards.
Patriots coach Mike Vrabel knows what he’s got in Maye. A linebacker by trade, Vrabel played eight seasons with Brady, winning three Super Bowls and catching 10 Brady passes for touchdowns, two of them in Super Bowls. Vrabel is too smart to get sucked into any conversation in which Brady and Maye are compared.
Careful not to go too far in praising Maye, the coach will only say, “There’s nobody else we would want as our quarterback.”
Patriots fans feel the same way. But we still haven’t seen Maye in the playoffs.
As good as Brady was in relief of Drew Bledsoe in 2001, we didn’t know what we had until the playoffs got going. And even then, Brady was shaky at the start, completing only 6 of 13 passes with no TDs and an interception in the first half of his postseason debut against the Raiders.
Everything changed when the snow came down hard in the second half, and Brady responded, completing 26 of 39 for 238 yards and getting one big assist from an official named Walt Coleman. You know the rest.
Now it’s Drake Maye’s turn. Starting Sunday night at Gillette.
⋅ Quiz: 1. Name the four leaders in career NFL playoff games; 2. Name four Patriots who have finished among the NFL’s top five in receptions for a season since 2000 (answers below).
⋅ Wouldn’t you want to talk about your baseball team if you owned the Boston Red Sox?
⋅ Ponder this: Every NFL playoff game this weekend is being played outdoors. With the Super Bowl set for Levi’s Stadium, this could be the last time every NFL tournament game is played in the great outdoors, where God intended. Enjoy.
⋅ John Harbaugh to the New York Football Giants?
⋅ Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall died in Alberta on Wednesday at the age of 94. Hall was a Stanley Cup champ with the 1960-61 Black Hawks and a seven-time first-team NHL All Star with 407 career wins. He also is a legend in New England. Hall was minding the net for the St. Louis Blues when You Know Who took a pass from Derek Sanderson, potted the puck with an overtime winner, then sailed across the Garden Ice and into history on Mother’s Day, 1970.
Glenn Hall was in net for the Blues when Bobby Orr’s goal won the Stanley Cup for the Bruins in 1970.RAY LUSSIER/BOSTON RECORD AMERICAN/HERALD AMERICAN via AP
⋅ Somebody please tell Jaylen Brown to chill. The man is having an epic season. He’s at the height of his considerable NBA powers, one of the best players in the league. Still only 29, he’s in his 10th season and he’s proved to everybody that he can be the Alpha Dog on any team, with or without Jayson Tatum. Brown already has been an NBA champ, a Finals MVP, and his mega-contract ($285.35 million over five years) was tops in the sport at the time he signed it. So why does he still care about a silly little thing such as Player of the Month or where he slots on fans’ All-Star voting? It’s great for Brown to take motivation from perceived slights — that makes him better and helps the Celtics. But does he need to be so public about it? He goes on social media and proclaims himself the “best 2-way player in the game.” He complains about the All-Star voting selection when he’s not recognized as one of the top five players in the Eastern Conference. It’s not necessary, JB. You’re doing a fine job letting your game speak for itself. When you do it yourself, it comes across as needy and sour grapes. The good news for Brown is that he’s probably going to finish no lower than second in the MVP race because he and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander look like the only two stars on course to reach the 65-game minimum required to win MVP.
⋅ Speaking of the Celtics, their 50-1 home record from 1985-86 (includes three “home” games in Hartford, plus playoffs) is secure for another season. The Thunder started 17-1 at home but were thrashed by the Hornets last Monday, falling to 17-2.
⋅ USA Today this past week had the Celtics ranked fourth overall in the NBA, trailing only the Thunder, Pistons, and Spurs.
⋅ After years of negotiations to repair a torn relationship with their sole superstar, the Timberwolves will finally get to hang Kevin Garnett’s No. 21 from the rafters sometime soon. Hard to believe that Garnett’s Celtics No. 5 already is in the rafters on Causeway Street, but Timberwolves fans are still waiting. Former coach Flip Saunders and Malik Sealy are the only Timberwolves thus far honored. “In many ways, he’s our Babe Ruth,” noted Alex Rodriguez, one of the Timberwolves’ controlling owners.
⋅ A-Rod makes for an easy punching bag whenever we want to make fun of the Timberwolves. So why not Brady and the Raiders? Brady seems a little too comfortable being half-in on everything: broadcasting, crypto, salesman for everything, NFL owner. How about it, Tom? Are you perhaps partially to blame for the abomination of the 2025 Raiders? They need a new coach. Isn’t it time for Brady to be something more than ceremonial at something? Get involved, Tom. Make The Raiders Great Again. Brady’s “ownership” stake in the Raiders reminds me a little of Theo Epstein’s part-time partnership with Fenway Sports Group. He doesn’t want his name associated with the Red Sox until they become good and popular again.
Is Tom Brady in any way to blame for the Raiders’ horrible season?Daniel Kucin Jr./Associated Press
⋅ When the Knicks lost six of 11 games after winning the coveted NBA Cup, the vaunted New York Post headlined a story, “Knicks deny they’re amid post-NBA Cup hangover.” Yikes. Who even knew there was such a thing? Good thing the Celtics didn’t win the contrived Cup. Wouldn’t want them suffering from “post-NBA Cup hangover.”
⋅ Friday’s Peach Bowl kicked off with both Indiana and Oregon vying to become only the eighth school to win both official NCAA football and basketball championships, and it will be the Hoosiers taking their best shot in the Jan. 19 CFP final at Miami Gardens after a 56-22 elimination of the Ducks. The seven schools that can make that claim are Ohio State, Florida, Michigan, Michigan State, Maryland, Syracuse (won both polls in 1959), and UCLA. The Bruins won a split NCAA football title with Ohio State in 1954.
⋅ Speaking of Ohio State, the Buckeyes spent $35 million on player payroll to not win the national championship this season.
⋅ Quarterback Sam Darnold produced 14 wins for Seahawks this season, but for a lot of Patriots fans he’ll always be the shaky Jets quarterback who spoke of “seeing ghosts out there” in a “Monday Night Football” loss to the Patriots way back in 2019.
Sam Darnold, then quarterback of the Jets, spoke of “seeing ghosts out there” when going against the Patriots’ defense in 2019.Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
⋅ We all respect Josh Allen and he’s still the most dangerous quarterback in these playoffs, but the Bills QB does himself no favors with the phony preservation of his 127 “consecutive games started” streak. Two years in a row Allen has taken the field for a ceremonial first snap, then gone to the bench in a meaningless regular-season finale. Weak sauce from Buffalo. Cal Ripken Jr., he is not.
⋅ Something tells me Steve Grogan would not be amused to hear Ben Affleck on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” this past week. The Cambridge actor said New England’s football futility was a boon for Affleck’s family fortunes in days when his father was a small-time bookie. “I remember our first washing machine and our first VCR,” Affleck told Kimmel. “Dad coming home like, ‘You can thank Steve Grogan for this. Everybody keeps betting the Patriots to beat the spread.’ And so I was really grateful that the Patriots were terrible, to thank Steve Grogan’s knees for our VCR.”
⋅ Who knew that Al Davis and Chuck Noll were both assistants under original Chargers head coach Sid Gillman?
⋅ Manchester United’s Ruben Amorim was “sacked” this past week after only 14 months on the job. It’s never “fired” in the Beautiful Game. Always “sacked.”
Ruben Amorim lasted only 14 months as manager of Manchester United.Carl Recine/Photographer: Carl Recine/Getty
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Brady (48), Adam Vinatieri (32), Stephen Gostkowski (29), Jerry Rice (29); 2. Troy Brown (2001), Rob Gronkowski (2011), Wes Welker (2007, ’08, ’09, ’11, ’12), Julian Edelman (2013, ’16, ’19).
Patriots fans have some of the most fun takes, hear what they have to say (other than Drake Maye is the best).
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.
