Just a day after the New England Patriots finished off a hard-fought 10-7 victory over the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship game, Sunday, earning their first trip to the Super Bowl since the 2018 season, New England was stunned by a report from a popular online sports medicine doctor claiming that Maye suffered a shoulder injury in the game.
The report flooded not only social media but the local New England media and national media for the next full day. Maye himself was asked to confirm or deny that he suffered a shoulder injury by Boston radio hosts in a Tuesday interview.
The 23-year-old quarterback did neither, saying only, “I’m feeling good. I’m feeling good.”
Media commentators and most online fans appeared dismissive of the report from Dr. David Chao, who has built a business for himself by commenting on and analyzing NFL injuries for an audience largely of fans interested in fantasy football and betting on games, as well as the merely curious.
Now it appears that Chao was right, at least in his general assessment that Maye was suffering from an injury to his throwing shoulder. The Patriots themselves essentially confirmed the report when they issued a projected team injury report Wednesday, the day before the team’s first practice of the two weeks leading up to the Feb. 8 Super Bowl.
The report listed Maye’s participation in practice as “limited,” with the cause given as “right shoulder.”
Should Fans Be Worried About Maye’s Injury?
At his postgame press conference, Maye referenced experiencing “bumps and bruises.” In his Tuesday radio interview, he acknowledged, “the only thing from the game is just the buildup of throwing for, what, almost 30 weeks straight of throwing. Four days a week, it can add up.”
The Patriots did not indicate the severity of Maye’s injury on the report, which according to ESPN.com Patriots correspondent Mike Reiss, was intended to be a projection for what the injury report would have contained had the team practiced on Wednesday. But the Patriots will not hold their first practice for the Super Bowl matchup against the Seattle Seahawks until Thursday.
However, Maye’s “limited” status indicates that the team is aware of an injury to his right shoulder and will keep his practice activities within parameters that should not aggravate the condition.
Another sports medicine specialist, Dr. Brian Sutterer, reviewed the videos that led Chao to his pronouncement that Maye had been injured and reached very different conclusions.
“There isn’t enough here to justify a definitive claim that Drake Maye’s shoulder is injured,” Sutterer said in a YouTube video of his own. “There’s a big difference between soreness and a true injury with tissue damage.”
Is Maye at Risk of Missing the Super Bowl?
The good news for Patriots fans is that there are 10 days remaining before the Super Bowl will be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. But even if the game were coming up on Sunday, chances would be good that Maye would play.
The Patriots’ Wednesday injury report did not contain a game status for Maye, or any player listed. The reports generally list a player as “out,” “questionable” or “probable” for the following game. But according to a CBS Sports report by Dave Richard, even without a game status listed, players who are “limited” in practice “are considered questionable until they practice in full.”
For “questionable” players, the most indicative injury report comes out after a Friday practice. Unless a player is listed as “did not practice” or “out” on Friday, he could be expected to play that week’s game.
The extra week to recover makes Maye even more likely to play in the Super Bowl.
Patriots Confirm Drake Maye Shoulder Injury — Should Fans Be Worried?