New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and starting quarterback Drake Maye addressed remarks former NFL quarterback Cam Newton made on ESPN’s “First Take,” suggesting that the Pats aren’t a legitimate Super Bowl contender despite their 9-2 record this season.
“Fool’s gold,” Newton said of the Patriots. “Cubic zirconia, middle of the mall. And yes, is Drake Maye playing good football? Absolutely. And I would like to attest his great play to one specific person that I know too well, Josh McDaniels. Now, Josh McDaniels may not be a great head coach, but he is a brilliant offensive mind. … The thing that I have a problem with – Is if you keep playing sorry scrubs, then you’re going to have this falsetto of a mentality going into the playoffs, and it has one-and-done written all over it.”
“We are okay with that,” Vrabel said. “I promise you, we are okay with anything that anybody says. … People are gonna have something to say. … None of that is offensive at all.”
“I don’t even know what show he’s on,” Maye said. “I think they get paid to make remarks and make certain comments. We’re just worried about what people in our organization think, and worried about what we think, and my teammates think. Everybody’s gonna have different opinions, so we just gotta go out there on Sunday and worry about ourselves.”
Maye leads all NFL quarterbacks in passing yardage this season with 2,836 yards through 11 games.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Patriots address Cam Newton’s ‘fool’s gold’ remark ahead of Week 12 vs Bengals
Reporting by Dave Clark, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
