Tom Brady Draws Heat From Patriots Fans After Peyton Manning’s Gesture for Drake Maye

Drake Maye is the first New England Patriots quarterback to reach the Super Bowl since Tom Brady. But that does not mean the GOAT is reaching out to help the young signal-caller in the lead-up to Super Bowl 60. In fact, Brady has actively distanced himself from offering any kind of support to the Patriots organization ahead of the Big Game.

Brady recently said he doesn’t “have a dog in the fight in this one.” That really irked Patriots fans. And it got even worse after a recent Maye revelation.

While appearing on a Sirius satellite radio show during Super Bowl week, the second-year quarterback revealed that another all-time great had reached out. And considering his checkered history against the Patriots during his playing career, that player had even more reason not to show support for Maye in this situation.

“Peyton Manning reached out to me,” Maye said. “One of the first things he said is keep the schedule the same, it’s going to be hard… It’s really full circle because I was at this game 10 years ago when Peyton won it against the Panthers, I was here. That was the year my dad brought me.”

Maye went on to talk about how cool it is to go from watching someone like Manning from the stands to now receiving unsolicited advice from him.

“So it’s a pretty cool moment to kind of get to know some of these guys that I looked up to and great players and great throwers of the football,” Maye continued. “It’s pretty special that now they’re reaching out to me and taking their time out of their day to try to help me try to go win the big one. So it means the world.”

Maye spoke in the plural there, and while that may mean other QBs apart from Manning have reached out, Tom Brady was not one of them. While he did have a big statue unveiling at Gillette Stadium last year, he has generally kept the Patriots organization at arm’s length since his messy divorce with the franchise following the 2019 campaign.

Patriots fans are not happy with Brady’s neutrality

Needless to say, Brady’s former rival, Manning, lending a hand to the current Patriots QB did not sit well with Patriots fans.

“Peyton Manning helping the Pats QB the week of the Super Bowl while the guy we gave a statue to won’t even commit to rooting for us,” said one disappointed fan.

“Brady is taking the Larry Bird route post career wise, and it’s so sad to see man,” remarked another.

“How hard is it to say “I’m gonna root for the team that built a statue for me,” argued a third fan. “Ownership and broadcasting has him by the b****. Sad to see,” pointed out one Twitter user.

Many non-Patriots fans used that last point to argue on Brady’s behalf: as both a Fox broadcaster and a minority owner of another team, the Las Vegas Raiders, it would make sense if he had to remain neutral when discussing this matchup.