Stephen A. Smith walks back his comments about Drake Maye

It seems the saga between Stephen A. Smith and Drake Maye has come to an finish.

A day after calling the young Patriots quarterback a “liar” on ESPN, Smith clarified his feedback on his Sirius XM present “The Stephen A Smith Present” on Friday, saying he was solely “being facetious.”

“I used to be being facetious as a result of it wasn’t that massive of a deal,” Smith said. “In different phrases, Cam Newton is on nationwide tv. And your response was, ‘I don’t even know the place he works.’ I simply didn’t consider that. That’s all. I wasn’t calling him a liar about anything. Simply that he didn’t know the place Cam works. However you’re proper, I don’t know Drake Maye, I’ve by no means spoken to him. Once more, I used to be being facetious. I wasn’t being critical about that time.”

Smith’s apology put an finish to an odd saga revolving across the Patriots and ESPN’s “First Take.” It began when Cam Newton appeared on this system and known as New England “fools gold” as a result of weak schedule its performed via 11 weeks.

Maye was then requested about these feedback, and whereas the core message of his response was about not listening to outdoors noise, Smith took exception to Maye saying he didn’t know what present Newton was on. Smith responded to his quote with a rant, calling Maye a “liar” for not understanding what present Newton seems on.

Though Smith nonetheless appears to consider Maye would or ought to know who’s on First Take recurrently, he apologized for the stir your entire state of affairs triggered.

“If folks need me to apologize for that, that’s advantageous,” Smith mentioned. “I wasn’t critical about him mendacity — I don’t know whether or not he was mendacity or not. I simply mentioned, don’t inform me know you don’t know the place Cam Newton was working. You don’t know he’s on First Take twice per week? I don’t consider that. I simply don’t.”

Sarcastically, Smith himself doesn’t appear to view the Patriots as fools gold the best way that his co-host does. The identical week Newton made that declare, Smith ranked the Patriots as his third greatest group within the NFL, and greatest group within the AFC. He additionally had plenty of praise for Drake Maye individually after New England’s eighth straight win.

“He’s handed for over 200 yards in each single recreation he’s quarterbacked this yr which is a testomony to him,” Smith mentioned. “I’ve acquired to present credit score the place credit score is due … he’s extremely spectacular.”

Maye and the Patriots have an opportunity to be the primary NFL group to achieve 10 wins this season if they’ll beat the Bengals on Sunday at 1 p.m.