'He's a Liar!': For Some Reason, ESPN is Trying to Start a War With Drake Maye. Which Confirms the Patriots are Officially BACK, Baby!

With everything going so preposterously good in New England, Mike Vrabel's rebuild being so ridiculously ahead of schedule, and Drake Maye becoming an elite quarterback faster than anyone could've predicted, it's been hard to gauge exactly when we could say the franchise that dominated the landscape for two entire decades can be declared officially BACK. 

This is, after all a region that measures success one Duckboat parade at a time. Plus, we're not used to seeing our team celebrated from sea to shining sea. The last time the Patriots were a media darling, they still had that New Dynasty smell in the interior and very few miles on the engine. The team wasted no time dying a hero and lived long enough to see itself become the villain. Which we came to embrace. 

So getting all the positive attention they have been has been a little unsettling. I mean, if they weren't being feared and loathed the way we're used to, it's felt like they weren't really being respected. Sure, there was an opposing coach accusing them of cheating. And a Boston media member accusing them of cheating by saying he's not accusing them of cheating. So those were positive signs. 

But there's no surer evidence that we're witnessing the birth of Dynasty 2.0 like ESPN declaring war on the franchise quarterback.

It began, as it did back in the day, with everything the Patriots have accomplished being questioned and rendered meaningless. This time, by a former Patriot:

Which is a little awkward, since Maye is on record as saying he grew up idolizing Cam Newton and even did his "Superman" celebration earlier this year:

Never meet your heroes.

Inevitably, Maye was asked about it, and refused to take the cheese on a comment by a media member that has nothing to do with trying to win a 10th straight game in Cincinnati Sunday:

… worry about we think and what my teammates think. People are going to have different opinions. I’m just going out there on Sunday and worrying about ourselves.” 

Which in my unhumble opinion, is the perfect answer. Exactly what you'd hope for out of the face of your franchise. To say laser-focused on what matters, and not expend any energy getting drawn into a useless, irrelevant argument with someone outside the walls of the building. That's textbook stuff. The top of the syllabus in Handling the Media 101. Even if the media you're handling is your boyhood hero.

But it would appear that first sentence struck a nerve at ESPN. Claiming you don't know the schedule of every "personality" with a mic clipped to their lapel is a line one does not cross at the World Wide Leader:

So it's war, then. 

We are fucking BACK, indeed!

Thanks, Stephen A.! We needed this. 

This is the stuff I've missed. The smugness. The arrogance. The self-righteous indignation from the media gatekeepers. Happy days are here again. Let the good times, roll.

Imagine being so self-possessed, so deep inside the bunker in Bristol, that you think every athlete in America has your morning show schedule memorized. The last I checked, Drake Maye has a day job. He's not at a frat house in Chapel Hill, getting up at the crack of 10:30 and Waking & Baking to whatever inane dreck ESPN is spewing in its midday. My guess is he's lifting, sitting in position meetings and breaking down film, not on the couch riveted what Greenie and Rex Ryan are chattering on about.

Even more to the point, Maye is 23 years old. And this isn't 1995. ESPN lost its stranglehold on his demo about 10 million "MJ or Lebron?" segments ago. The numbers don't lie. The viewership is a fraction of what it once was. Neither do all the ads for Reverse Mortgages and William Devane saying you should put your savings into reliable precious metals. There's no earthly reason for a guy who grew up with a rectangle in his pocket that can give him all the scores, stats and news instantaneously to tune into basic cable at some appointed hour to hear what Cam Newton thinks about stuff. 

"Liar?" Stephen A. Smith calls Drake Maye "a liar" for not knowing what show Newton appears on? If you polled the public - hell, if you polled the specific demo of athletes he's referring to - and asked them to correctly identify where and when Newton appears on that network, what percentage do you think would guess right? Better yet, ask them to name three weekday shows that aren't SportsCenter, and what do you think those numbers would look like? Because if they're in the double digits, then everything I know is wrong.

Liar, my ass. The only lies being told here are that the Patriots accomplishments this season don't count because of the schedule, and that anyone gives a tuppenny fuck what's said on that once proud network any more.

Kiss the future rings, ESPN: