Nearly a week after the play went viral, a photo put Drake Maye’s explanation back in circulation.
NBC Sports Boston posted images (credited to Daelyn Waters) on Friday that give Maye’s excuse some “substance.”
The frames appear to show a noticeable amount of liquid on the football Maye lost against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Whether that liquid is blood is harder to settle. In the same images, nothing visible on Maye’s hand or fingers resembles blood.
The fumble came in the first quarter of New England’s 35-6 loss at EverBank Stadium. Maye dropped back in a clean pocket and started his throwing motion toward Kyle Williams. The ball slipped free with no defender touching him. Jaguars defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton recovered, and Jacksonville later scored off the turnover.
After the game, Maye said center Jared Wilson “happened to be bleeding on his hand,” that he took the snap trying to throw to Williams, and that the ball slipped out. He did not stop there.
“You can say that, but at the same time, gotta hold onto the football,” he said.
Wilson confirmed his hand was cut. He told reporters he did not know when it happened and could not say whether the cut came before or after the fumble. Maye pointed it out to him. Wilson said the trainers stopped the bleeding and taped the hand, a process he described as routine for a center who does not wear a glove. He had a similar cut in the Week 1 loss to Seattle.
Head coach Mike Vrabel, speaking on WEEI, treated the account as an explanation rather than a defense. If a center’s hands are bleeding, he said, there will be things on the football at times.
“Those are facts. Those are explanations,” he said, via Yahoo! Sports. “We can hear explanations; we can’t allow for excuses.”
The photo supports the narrower claim that something wet was on the ball. It does not prove the substance was Wilson’s blood, and Wilson himself left the timing open. Maye already said the grip was his responsibility. The new photos change nothing.
