As you would expect if you know anything about celebrity NFL quarterbacks, Drake Maye had big late-night plans for celebrating New England’s 28-16 wild card round playoff win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
And as you would also expect if you know anything about the Maye family, those late-night plans involved some intense competition with his family.
“My parents come to every game so they’re always here,” said Maye, who this week was named an NFL MVP finalist. “And my three brothers are here, which is pretty cool. It’s just special sharing these moments with them and going home and probably playing ping pong until 1:30 a.m. or something. Having them in the house is cool, three of my best friends. And obviously Ann Michael, so I can’t forget about her.”
One step closer. 👟
The Real MVP. @DrakeMaye2 pic.twitter.com/AJSnZElrPm
— Carolina Football (@UNCFootball) January 22, 2026
Ann Michael Maye, Drake’s wife and the newest New England celebrity, is an entirely different story. By simply being, well, Ann Michael Maye, she’s captivated Patriots fans with her Christmas baking ideas and southern charm. Her newfound fans probably don’t realize she has some lesser-known talents.
“The first day home last June, Drake was getting married in less than two weeks,” Luke says. “And he and Ann Michael were out at our high school with Cole, Beau and I playing home run derby on the softball field.”
But while Ann Michael’s social media clout has exploded without her really trying, the Maye boys have continued to be the same goofballs they were growing up outside of Charlotte. Long considered Tar Heel royalty, they’ve simply exported that sense of family to the Boston area. As usual, where you find one Maye, you’re likely to find the rest of them. That’s true even when they’re spread all over the world—UNC basketball legend Luke is now playing in Japan and former Tar Heel hoopster Beau Maye is the head coach at Hough High, where he has the Huskies 13-4.
Parents Mark and Aimee Maye, as Drake mentioned, are always at his games—just as they have been for each of the boys for their entire lives. Mark, a former UNC quarterback, is even serving as Beau’s assistant with Hough. When Luke played for the Tar Heels, it was commonplace for Mark and Drake to make the two-hour drive each way just to rebound for him for a couple hours. They’d get some work in at the Smith Center, grab some dinner, and then drive home.
Every game that every member of the family plays is important. Luke made his debut for the Kobe Storks in Japan this weekend and averaged 24 points and 13.5 rebounds in those two games. Drake, predictably, immediately fired off a text recommending some work on his free throws (67 percent).
On the weekends, though, the whole family tries to assemble wherever Drake might be, which this weekend will be Denver for the AFC championship game on Sunday at 3 p.m. It’s been a whirlwind postseason for the Patriots, starting with that victory over the Chargers and the promised ping-pong hijinks. As you would fully expect, the family keeps detailed win-loss records of their efforts in every sport. When Cole shot a Maye summer-low 78 on the golf course last summer, it wasn’t long before Drake went out and recorded a 77.
So of course they know their lifetime ping-pong record. “I dominated Drake for the last ten years,” Luke says. “But once he moved to his house in Boston the tables have turned and I think I am 4-26. He plays all the time at the facility and I don’t play much anymore, but I’m starting to work on my game in Japan because I need to get back on top.”
After the win over the Chargers, though, they tried a different game.
“We ended up playing bumper pool until about 2:15 in the morning,” Beau says. “Cole and I had a flight at 6 a.m., and we were debating just staying up until time to drive to the airport.”
The athletic credentials of the Maye boys are not in doubt—in addition to his two Tar Heel brothers, Cole played on an NCAA champion Florida Gator baseball team. But they know who rules the family at bumper pool.
“At bumper pool, my dad is elite,” Beau says with a laugh. “That’s one of those sports he played a lot growing up with my granddad. His athleticism might be fleeting but he can still whoop up on us at that. And he hung in there with us until 2:15. He always says being able to have times like that is why you have a bunch of kids.”
The brothers will very begrudgingly admit that in addition to Drake playing for a chance at the Super Bowl, he likely also takes the title of a much more hotly contested battle—if there was a Maye Olympics, they think he might eventually prevail (It should be noted that, because he has never lacked for confidence, Drake also picks himself as the winner of that particular competition). They also agree that Luke would likely take any defeats the hardest and would try to find a way to tweak the rules, and it should be noted that Luke never outright admits that Drake would have any sort of edge.
With Luke in Japan, he won’t be in Denver this weekend, although the rest of the family will be there in Patriots gear. But he’s already working on plans to try and attend the Super Bowl if New England is there. Cole Maye is known as the most animated and fun Maye during games, and it’s Mark Maye who is well-known as the most superstitious member of the family. Come this afternoon, he’ll be the one changing seats when a little mojo is needed. It’s only appropriate that the patriarch of the Tar Heel family would be fully invested in the “go where you go, do what you do” mantra.
And if the Patriots should complete a storybook season with a world championship? You already know what the celebration will be.
“We’re blessed to get to watch Drake play in all these big games,” Beau says. “What’s really cool is that we’re still doing the same old stuff. He plays those games in front of millions and we go back to the house and it’s right back to when we were nine or ten years old, hanging out. Back then it was video games and cards. Now it’s bumper pool and ping pong. At the end of the day, we got to watch him play really well and do his job, and then we went back and hung out just like we always do. That’s the stuff that doesn’t change.”
