A boilerplate background on New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye reads like the pilot script of a wholesome family sitcom: The youngest of four jocks, Drake got his competitive streak from his older brothers.
It would be a painful oversimplification if it didn’t also explain his Tom Brady-esque refusal to lose at anything. Patriots center and fellow North Carolinian Garrett Bradbury described Maye to the Daily Mail as ‘competitive as all get out’ in golf and pin-pong. And like Brady, the Patriots icon who was raised alongside two elite softball stars and a competitive soccer player, Maye attributes his determination to his three older siblings.
‘I think just every 2-on-2 basketball game in the backyard probably prepared me for this,’ Maye said of the Super Bowl LX stage ahead of Sunday’s game with the NFC-champion Seattle Seahawks.
Born to a high-school basketball star, Aimee, and University of North Carolina quarterback, Mark, the Maye brothers were local legends growing up in the Charlotte area. Luke, now 28, followed his parents’ footsteps to Chapel Hill, where he won a national championship on the basketball team in 2017 — the same year brother Cole, now 27, captured a NCAA title as a pitcher at Florida. Although less heralded, brother Beau, now 24, walked on with the Tar Heels’ basketball team in 2022 and now coaches high school hoops.
Standing four inches shorter than his 6ft8 brothers, Maye has affectionately referred to himself as the ‘runt’ of the family. Despite this, he’s eclipsed Luke, Cole and Beau’s athletic accomplishments, and not just on the football field, but on the basketball court as well. He even drew reported interest from UNC’s regional hardwood rival, Clemson, before opting to play football for the Tar Heels.
Without his brothers in Foxborough, the second-year quarterback’s competitive fire is now being stoked by his older teammates, who have been happy to oblige. Asked about Maye’s basketball ability, veteran wide receiver Stefon Diggs bluntly told the Daily Mail: ‘I busted his ass in the offseason.
Maye brothers (from left) Luke, Beau, Drake and Cole before a 2024 basketball game vs Duke
Brady seen with sisters Julie (left) and Nancy (right), a soccer and softball player, respectively
‘When he had that offseason throwing session, we were in North Carolina,’ Diggs continued, referring to his summer training with Maye. ‘We played a little basketball at one of the AirBNBs.’
Asked to elaborate, Diggs politely referred the Daily Mail to Maye, who by that time had already given his final press conference before Sunday’s game in Santa Clara.
No matter. There are plenty of Patriots players and coaches willing to shed light on Maye’s maniacal competitiveness and their own efforts to coax it out of him.
Speaking to Mass Live last month, New England punter and accomplished golfer Bryce Baringer estimated Maye’s handicap at somewhere around 10 or below. Bradbury has also golfed with Maye, but as was the case with Diggs, the Patriots center didn’t want his 23-year-old teammate feeling too good about his game.
‘He likes to think he’s better,’ Bradbury told the Daily Mail. ‘I played with him this past summer, and he went up like two shots in the first three holes. He said, “I’ll give you some strokes.”
‘That kind of ticked me off, and we ended up tying the match, which was probably the worst result for the both of us. But I look forward to look forward a lot more matches.’
Veteran tight end Hunter Henry, on the other hand, has reluctantly conceded ping-pong supremacy in the Patriots locker room to Maye, who has gone from a loud loser to a loud winner, according to teammates.
‘He really gets into it,’ rookie receiver Efron Chism III told Mass Live last month. ‘Him and Hunt will be yelling back and forth, getting after it. Just walking by, you don’t even have to know they’re playing. You’ll hear them, before you see them.’
Maye couldn’t help but give vivid facial reactions to each question he was asked this week
Drake Maye shares a laugh with Stefon Diggs during a December win over the New York Jets
Dake Maye slaps a five with center Garrett Bradbury, a fellow North Carolinian and avid golfer
The common thread of these off-field rivalries is that Maye is typically cast in his familiar role of little brother.
‘He’s full of jokes,’ agreed the 32-year-old Diggs, himself an older brother. ‘His maturation process has been real too. You can see it.
‘I think he’s going to be a real good player in this league for years to come,’ Diggs added. ‘He shows that prowess and that quarterback mindset, that general mindset coming in. I’m just proud of him to this point.’
And that striking maturity may be where his and Brady’s competitiveness diverge.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion admittedly threw Nintendo controllers across the room during heated games of Tecmo Bowl, an ancient forebear to Madden, and had a similar demeanor on the sideline, where he was often seen fuming at teammates.
Maye, meanwhile, is excitable but never irascible.
Like Brady before him, Maye hasn’t shied away from interactions with the media
Maye has been with his wife, Anne, since their high school days in North Carolina
‘You have to be even keeled,’ Bradbury said. ‘There’s so many things on his plate, but also so many things he can’t control. And so I’m impressed by his maturity. In that sense, it’s been a lot of fun to work with him.’
Bradbury suggested Maye’s devout Christian faith has something to do with that maturity. Then there is Maye’s wife, Anne, his high school sweetheart and a steadying influence over him for the last decade.
But while Maye doesn’t discount those factors, he does offer another perspective.
For someone who feeds on competition like pandas in a bamboo forest, one stalk can seem the same as the next. So even though he’ll be on the biggest stage in sports at Super Bowl LX, it won’t be a major departure for someone with Maye’s upbringing.
‘Me beating my older brothers or having an opportunity to just compete at a high level, I think, is the best thing,’ Maye said. ‘Just watching my older brothers, Luke, Cole and Beau excel in sports growing up and [wanting] the ball at the end of the games, always being the player that you felt like if they played well, they won the game — that’s the position I’m in now.’
