Drake Maye Just Got His First Lesson in What Dealing With the Boston Sports Media is All About
Boston Globe. Getty Images.Whatever else went wrong for the 2024 Patriots - no matter how much the team, the coaches, the front office and ownership were pelted with rocks and garbage, deservedly so - Drake Maye was treated as well as anyone could've hoped for. Patriots fans and media alike recognized he's a special talent, surrounded by unspecial untalents and played astonishingly well under the circumstances. Even when he made the occasional pisspoor decision like throwing a pick or running head first into a pack of defenders looking to take their shot at him, it was taken in the context of a 22-year-old rookie, still on his learning curve and sorting his stuff out.
But it was only a matter of time for that honeymoon to end. This is still Boston. This is still the same media that's been desperately clinging to the past. Still operating out of the same Sports Talk instruction manual they were using in 2000:
… even 13 championships in the four major sports later.
And so it was this week that Maye got a taste of the same treatment superior athletes have been getting in this town going all the way back to Ted Williams. To the years where there were nine daily newspapers in Boston and every one of them were in competition to see how badly they could treat The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived [tm].
In Maye's case, he spent this week getting dragged by Michael Felger for the unpardonable sin of being on vacation while Mike Vrabel was being introduced as his new head coach. Because presumably he owed it to … Vrabel? The Patriots? The fans? Mike Felger? … to fly back from a tropical beach to Foxboro and be seen at the press conference.
Here's audio of a Sports Hub caller ripping Felger for his "Boomer take" and reminding him that he's also been absent during major news events:
But when you've got the (by far) highest rated radio show of any kind in the market, that's neither here nor there. The fact remains Drake Maye was AWOL during this historic moment. Which can only mean … something. He's disgruntled. He's mad he didn't get any input into the coaching change. He doesn't like the way the situation was handled. He resents having to learn a new system after working so hard this season. He's going to miss Alex Van Pelt. He's pouting. Whatever the reason, it's bad. And a sign of major trouble on the horizon. "We'll be back after a quick break to take your calls. The number is 617 …"
But this isn't 2000. And for sure it's not the 1940s when they were coming after Teddy Ballgame from all directions like the Imperial Japanese Navy. In 2025, a guy visiting what Jimmy Buffett referred to as St. Somewhere can tell us exactly what he thinks of the new coaching hire from the comfort of his beach chair, which Maye did:
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And he can let us know what was so bloody important to him that it kept him away from sitting in a conference room in One Patriots Place in the middle of January:
Typical entitled modern athlete. Just another Gen Z narcissist. Putting himself first. Caring more about the name on the back of the jersey than they do the one on the front. Maye might as well have been the Giants in 2016:
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Let this unhinged overreaction to a guy going away for a while to get engaged to his childhood sweetheart be Drake Maye's "Welcome to the Majors, Mr. Hobbs" moment.
And while this will be an unpopular opinion, I don't hold it against Felger. This is the way the game is played in Boston. Their target audience isn't your average Boston fan who's happy when their team is winning, and a piece of their soul dies when they lose. Talk radio exists to attract perpetually angry loners and sell them divorce lawyer services and penis medicines. They put them on the air, give voice to their social awkwardness, and make them stars for 25 seconds before hanging up on them. And judging by the ratings, this exact kind of irrational negativity is catnip to these imbeciles. They can't get enough of it. Felger is simply giving the great unwashed what they want.
Believe me, I know. From 2014-2016 I was on Felger and Mazz's direct competition, Dale, Holley and Thornton on WEEI. In eight ratings books, we never once failed to cash our 2nd place bonuses. And at times we made it close. But ratings wise, that show has always been the sports radio Death Star. But feeding their audience exactly these kinds of molten lava takes from the Contrarian King.
The Bruins are setting an NHL record for points? They've got two goalies and if you've got two, you don't have any!
The Celtics go box-to-wire the entire season and only lose three playoff games on the way to winning Banner 18? Jason Tatum resents Jaylen Brown winning the Finals MVP and this isn't going to end well.
The Red Sox are -- Never mind. They're right about them.
Drake Maye exceeded all expectations? What's his problem with Mike Vrabel?
It's a simple formula. A matter of reminding the audience is everything you like is bad and you're stupid to care about it. I still remember listening a few years ago on a Monday. And before they went to their first commercial break they'd all agreed the Patriots were not good. The only reason they've won anything is it was a down year for the NFL. Their defense was suspect. Tom Brady his all their flaws. This was the day after the Pats had beaten Atlanta in the Super Bowl. I bring this up not to point how obviously and blatantly stupid it is to complain about a team that had just won its fifth championship in 15 years. I mention it because this was eight years ago, and it's still taking up real estate in my brain. That's why they get the big bucks.
By way of full disclosure, Felger and Mazz have done a lot for me. In the early days of Barstool, they had me call in on a weekly basis. (While at my old day job; I owe the taxpayers of the Commonwealth a few bucks.) Felger got me a job on the Patriots pre- and postgame TV show he hosted. When he did, I said to him what Patton says in the movie when he gets his command back. "I'm a man of many faults, but ingratitude is not one of them." I'll always be grateful to Felger and Mazz.
But like every other Patriots fan, I would gladly toss them into a volcano as sacrifice to our new godking Drake Maye if it would be to his liking. The important thing is that Maye takes this lesson to heart. This is how the Boston sports media operates, in good times and in bad. None of it means anything. Vrabel's old boss Bill Belichick flipped the pyramid upside down on the whole lot of them. The vast majority of fans don't care what gets said on the radio. And nothing will make their opinions fall on deaf ears faster than winning.
Thus endth the lesson. Congratulations on your engagement, Drake and Ann. And if you're looking for someone to perform the ceremony, I can think of someone who's now done eight of them. Free of charge to you: