{"id":125379,"date":"2025-11-26T08:47:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T08:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=125379"},"modified":"2025-11-26T08:47:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T08:47:25","slug":"maye-stays-focused-drake-maye-refuses-to-fuel-drama-with-stephen-a-smith-keeping-new-england-locked-in-on-their-nine-game-winning-streak-sources-hint-at-a-leadership-first-mindset-as-he-dismisses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=125379","title":{"rendered":"MAYE STAYS FOCUSED: Drake Maye refuses to fuel drama with Stephen A. Smith, keeping New England locked in on their nine-game winning streak. Sources hint at a leadership-first mindset as he dismisses outside noise and concentrates solely on the voices inside the Patriots\u2019 building. Every move on and off the field shows discipline and focus, quieting critics in real time. Whatever unfolds, Maye\u2019s composure is setting the tone for the team\u2019s continued dominance..ll"},"content":{"rendered":"<article><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.sbnation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/10\/gettyimages-2243437468.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&amp;w=2400\" alt=\"Drake Maye might be NFL's first half MVP after passing his biggest test yet  | SB Nation\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Drake Maye has no interest in escalating a feud with Stephen A. Smith.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN has frequently discussed the New England Patriots throughout a nine-game winning streak, but Cam Newton\u00a0called his old team\u00a0\u201cfool\u2019s gold\u201d on \u201cFirst Take.\u201d Maye dismissed the comments, saying he didn\u2019t even know where Newton made them, before Smith\u00a0called the quarterback\u00a0a \u201cliar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018First Take\u2019 is the number one morning show, 13 years and counting,\u201d Smith said last Thursday. \u201cApril will be 14 years. Don\u2019t tell me you (are) an athlete and you don\u2019t know that. Don\u2019t tell me you an athlete and you don\u2019t know that Cam Newton is on this show. You lying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maye declined the opportunity to push back when asked about Smith on Monday\u2019s weekly\u00a0\u201cWEEI Afternoons\u201d\u00a0interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just worried 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,\u201d Maye said, via\u00a0WEEI\u2019s Tom Carroll. \u201cSo all that outside stuff, it is what it is. Just got to be careful about what I say, and didn\u2019t try to mean it disrespectfully.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mike Vrabel wasn\u2019t as diplomatic when\u00a0asked about Smith\u00a0on WEEI\u2019s \u201cThe Greg Hill.\u201d The head coach joked that the TVs in the team\u2019s weight room might not work before questioning Smith\u2019s claim that \u201cFirst Take\u201d is the No. 1 sports show.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs it?\u201d Vrabel asked. \u201cI find that hard to believe. I find that hard to believe. It\u2019s not the SportsCenter that I grew up with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith apologized on Friday, explaining that he was being \u201cfacetious\u201d when he called Maye a liar.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drake Maye has no interest in escalating a feud with Stephen A. Smith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":125388,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MAYE STAYS FOCUSED: Drake Maye refuses to fuel drama with Stephen A. Smith, keeping New England locked in on their nine-game winning streak. Sources hint at a leadership-first mindset as he dismisses outside noise and concentrates solely on the voices inside the Patriots\u2019 building. Every move on and off the field shows discipline and focus, quieting critics in real time. Whatever unfolds, Maye\u2019s composure is setting the tone for the team\u2019s continued dominance..ll - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=125379\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MAYE STAYS FOCUSED: Drake Maye refuses to fuel drama with Stephen A. Smith, keeping New England locked in on their nine-game winning streak. Sources hint at a leadership-first mindset as he dismisses outside noise and concentrates solely on the voices inside the Patriots\u2019 building. 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