HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — The driveway at the end of this cul-de-sac in suburban Charlotte was widened a few years back, a project deemed necessary by Dad. He was sick of seeing his four boys put dents in the garage during pickup basketball.
On clear summer nights, the kind where the heat sticks to you even as the sun sets, the driveway used to be packed. Certainly by the boys. Maybe some friends too. Open door policy. Come when you want, leave when you must.
“King of the Court” was the house game. One-on-one, stay until you lose, rotate who defends. Fouls weren’t called unless they were egregious. They played until their shadows were long. Plenty of games were settled in front of the headlights on Dad’s truck.
Over time, the participants changed. The oldest went off to win a national championship for the beloved blue blood a couple of hours away. The second went off to play baseball at Florida, where he helped pitch the school to its second national title.
The two youngest remained. They were the feistiest of the bunch, often ending driveway games with elbows swinging. Eventually, Dad needed to referee, settling disputes and trying to end things before noses were bloodied and eyes were blackened. The boys called him “Buzzkill” for stepping in, but he insisted.
The hoop atop the driveway is still now. The parents are empty nesters. Earlier this summer, the youngest boy packed up his belongings in his old, white truck and headed out on his own.
Drake Maye, 21, signed a four-year deal with the New England Patriots worth more than $36 million, the benefits of being the NFL’s No. 3 draft pick this offseason. It’s certainly enough money to ship his truck north. Maybe even buy a new one. But he wanted to take his truck up himself. So he backed out of the driveway and began the task of resurrecting a franchise whose glory days feel like they’re in the rearview mirror.
After New England selected Maye, Patriots owner Robert Kraft sent his jet down to Carolina to pick up the team’s new quarterback. Drake insisted on bringing his three brothers. He brought Luke, 27, and Cole, 26, and Beau, 23, on stage that afternoon, too, when he was officially introduced at Gillette Stadium.
“If you’re getting me,” Drake said on the podium that day, “you’re getting them.”
Mark Maye, 59, sits at breakfast and scoops some scrambled eggs to go with his toast. He drinks orange juice. He’s lived in this area his whole life. Grew up in Charlotte. Played down the road at Independence High School. He was a stud quarterback at the University of North Carolina. Those who know him say he could’ve stuck in the NFL if not for a pesky shoulder.
Seemingly everyone in this town knows him and stops by the table to say hi. There’s a football coach he’s been helping out, a school administrator and a longtime friend at various restaurant booths, all eager to check in about his recent hip surgery and hear how the boys are doing.
Mark just got back from visiting Foxboro, Mass. It was his first time there since going as a freshman quarterback with UNC and watching Doug Flutie kick off his 1984 Heisman campaign at the old Sullivan Stadium by hanging six touchdowns and 52 points on the Tar Heels.
Mark and his wife, Aimee, didn’t have much on the agenda for the visit to New England. Just wanted to check out Drake’s new apartment and get a feel for the place that will become his home. They went on a search for the best burger and ice cream cone in the small towns surrounding Foxboro and were surprised Drake was already getting stopped for pictures.
Drake told his dad about a recent visit to Fenway Park where he sat atop the Green Monster and marveled at its height. He went to Bruins and Celtics playoff games and raved to his dad about the atmosphere. For a sports-obsessed kid, the chance to go to games and venues like those was a dream.
Drake had a Cam Newton Fathead on the wall of his childhood bedroom and made his dad promise him a Super Bowl trip if his beloved Carolina Panthers made it in 2015. Four months later, they were in the stands as Newton led the Panthers onto the field in Super Bowl 50. He went to the NCAA Tournament in 2017 and watched Luke knock down the game-winner to send UNC to the Final Four.
As a kid, he was often in the backseat of the family car being whisked off to another brother’s game or practice, shooting hoops with other kids his age during halftime or playing pickup football in foul territory. At home, he wanted nothing more than to beat his older brothers, no matter the cost and no matter how often his dad pleaded with them not to get too physical.
When Drake was 8, they installed a Nerf mini hoop in the foyer. Mark told the kids to be careful. He was headed to the other room for a couple of minutes and didn’t want to have to take anyone to the hospital. “Then as soon as I turn the corner, I hear bang!” Mark said. “Drake cut his head on the banister.”
Drake was the runt of the litter. Even at 6-foot-4, he’s a few inches shorter than his brothers today. But he was the biggest yapper, constantly talking trash. When Roy Williams came to the house to recruit Luke, Drake said he was going to tell the legendary coach to come back in a few years to recruit an even better player.
With parents Mark and Aimee presiding, Drake Maye (second from right) grew up constantly competing with older brothers Luke, (left), Cole (right) and Beau (second from left). (Courtesy of Aimee Maye)
The football stadium at Myers Park High School is perched on a hill, with tall trees behind the bleachers and an old-school feel on Friday nights. This is where Maye became a can’t-miss prospect in front of standing-room-only crowds. He transferred here before his sophomore year, when he was blocked from playing time by an older quarterback at Hough High School, where his three other brothers went. That first season at Myers Park, Maye threw for 3,201 yards in 13 games to go with 36 touchdowns and five interceptions. He quickly became one of the top prospects in the country.
The school put together a tougher schedule to showcase its star quarterback ahead of his junior year, but Drake had a favor to ask before the season began. He wanted to play against Hough, where he had so many friends (and where Beau still went) — and where he hadn’t become the starting quarterback.
His coach, Scott Chadwick, initially said no. Myers Park already had a brutal schedule. And Hough was routinely a top-five team in the state. It would be silly to add them. But Maye insisted, so for the fourth game of that season, Myers Park traveled north to Hough. Maye threw for six touchdowns. He ran for another.
“It was video-game numbers,” Chadwick said. “I took him out at the start of the fourth quarter and he was mad at me. And I was like, ‘Dude, it’s 68-7.’”
Myers Park was the top team in the state, nationally ranked. The Mustangs averaged 50 points per game — and that was with starters generally on the sideline in the fourth quarter. Maye threw for 50 touchdowns that season against just two interceptions. Myers Park scheduled a 2020 game against Deion Sanders’ Trinity Christian High School that had to be canceled during the pandemic.
When Maye’s recruitment started to take off after his sophomore season, he was concerned schools might not pursue him, convinced he’d simply head off to Chapel Hill like his dad and oldest brother had. But UNC was in the middle of a tough stretch. The Tar Heels went 3-9 in 2017 and 2-9 the next year.
Maye had watched two of his brothers win national titles. He wanted to win, too. So he told Chadwick to make it known that he wasn’t going to UNC. After that, offers flooded in from every big-time school. In July 2019, ahead of his junior year, Maye chose Alabama over Ohio State and Clemson.
The next day, he spoke on the phone with Mack Brown, the recently re-hired coach at North Carolina. Brown had known the Maye family forever. Mark worked for Brown in the late 1980s and first met Aimee while serving as a graduate assistant.
“We’re going to win,” Brown said he told Drake. “So you watch, and I want you not to give up on this and keep thinking about it.” Less than a year later, Drake called Brown back. He flipped his commitment to stay home and play at North Carolina.
“He called and said, ‘Coach, you’re so right. This is who I am. This is my place. This is my school,’” Brown said.
College coaches aren’t allowed at the informal summer practices players put together on their own, but they’re aware of them. After Sam Howell left UNC in 2022, the Tar Heels had an open competition for their starting quarterback position. Brown individually called 10 players he trusted most into his office to hear how the practices went. He asked a simple question: Who’s your quarterback?
“They all said Drake,” Brown said.
Maye shattered school records. He led the nation in total offense (5,019 yards), setting a school record with 4,321 passing yards and tying a Tar Heels record with 38 touchdowns. He was named ACC player of the year as a redshirt freshman. After that, with new rules in place about transferring and NIL deals, bigger football programs circled.
“He was tampered (with) at the highest level,” Brown said.
There were rumors about seven-figure offers to lure Maye elsewhere. So he went into Brown’s office for a chat.
“He came in and he said, ‘Coach, listen. There’s a lot of rumors out there, but I’m not going anywhere. I’m not in it for money. I just want to play and play here,’” Brown said.
Maye had another rule that season as firms sought his endorsement. If you wanted him for an NIL deal, you had to include the offensive linemen, too.
The 2023 season didn’t go as well. The Tar Heels changed their offensive scheme and focused more on running the ball. The offensive line wasn’t as good and their top receiver, Tez Walker, was ineligible to play at the start of the season. The losses started to mount.
Coaches typically worry in situations like that. Are the NFL-bound players still going to give their all in relatively meaningless games when they have draft positioning to worry about and potentially millions of dollars on the line?
Several days after Thanksgiving, North Carolina was already eliminated from contention for the conference title and getting smoked at halftime by rival NC State. Nothing was working. If there was ever a time to throw in the towel and start worrying about the bigger picture, this was it.
“But then I go see (Maye) at halftime, and he’s like, ‘Coach, I like this and this and let’s go back to this,’” said offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey. “He never had any inkling that he wasn’t going to compete all the way to the end. In fact, he tweaked his ankle a little bit, and trainers told me he was probably going to be out. And then he jogs back onto the field.”
Even at 6-4, Drake Maye (second from right) is the shortest of the four brothers. (Courtesy of Aimee Maye)
The night before games last season, Maye sat at team dinners with Clyde Christensen, who currently works as a consultant for Brown. Christensen spent a decade with Peyton Manning and the Colts as an offensive assistant. He spent four years as Andrew Luck’s quarterbacks coach and three years as Tom Brady’s.
Each Friday night, Maye would bug Christensen with various questions. How’d Manning handle this formation? What did Brady do against this coverage? Maye loved the chance to pick Christensen’s brain, so he spent the final weeks before his first NFL training camp with Christensen, prepping for what was to come.
What that looks like in 2024 remains to be seen. Maye has played with the second-team offense throughout training camp. Veteran journeyman Jacoby Brissett will likely be the Patriots’ starting quarterback when the season begins in four weeks. But after that, the question is how long until Maye takes over.
What made Manning and Brady different, Christensen told Maye, wasn’t just what they could do with their arms. They wanted to be coached, to be pushed harder. They competed at everything. “Drake has that,” Christensen said. “You’ve got a loyal, good man. That would be the banner over everything. That’s what Peyton and Tom had. They had the traits, but they were good men who wanted to be great and wanted to be coached and wanted to work hard and wanted to see their teammates succeed. And that’s what the Patriots just got.”
Before the draft, NFL teams poke around a prospect’s past to get a sense of what he’s like. Those who know Maye best painted a boring picture. He likes to drive his truck. He likes to watch sports and play pickup basketball. And he likes to throw the football around. “One of the teams asked me how he was going to handle being in a big city and a big market,” Chadwick said. “And I’m like, ‘If you have a Chick-Fil-A, you’re good.’ Trust me, he’s not going to be Googling the best clubs in the city.”
“I’ve said often, I would adopt him — he’s that perfect a kid,” Brown said. “It sounds kind of corny, but it’s true. He dates his seventh-grade girlfriend, which is unusual. He’s not going to cuss, he’s not going to drink, he’s not going to be out — but he can lead a room.”
In June, Maye moved into his new apartment not far from Gillette Stadium. He called his parents, a bit frustrated while putting together new furniture and feeling like he ended up with too few screws. He turns 22 on Aug. 30. The pressures of the NFL await.
Maye knew they were coming. That’s why, the night before the NFL Draft changed his world forever, he rented a court at the Detroit Athletic Center right across from Ford Field. He wanted one more pickup game after dinner. All four boys were there. A bunch of buddies, too. They played full court.
It might as well have been a summer night with truck lights illuminating the driveway hoop. The next day he’d be a quarterback chosen to revive an NFL dynasty. But for one more night, he was playing pickup hoops with his brothers, the youngest of four proving he could keep up.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos courtesy of Aimee Maye, G Fiume / Getty Images, Aaron M. Sprecher / Associated Press)