In sports, some siblings are so accomplished that they can be recognized by only their surnames. The Manning brothers. The Williams sisters. In North Carolina they have the Mayes: four brothers who are all strong athletes, born within about 5 \u00bd years.<\/p>\n
Luke, the oldest, played basketball at the University of North Carolina and made the shot that sent the Tar Heels to the 2017 Final Four. Cole, the next brother, pitched at the University of Florida and won the College Baseball World Series. Beau, the third brother, also played basketball for the Tar Heels.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Drake, the youngest. By his own description, he was the \u201crunt\u201d of the family. His brothers all grew to be around 6 feet, 7 inches, 6-8. Drake stopped a few inches shy of that. He was the \u201cinstigator,\u201d the one who tried to get under the others\u2019 skin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was getting beat up on,\u201d Drake once said. \u201cLuckily, I was the most athletic, so I could run away. They couldn\u2019t catch me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That runt is now the starting quarterback of the New England Patriots. He\u2019s a finalist for league MVP, and on Sunday he\u2019ll play the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. All in his second year in the NFL. He\u2019s still only 23. If Maye wins Sunday, he\u2019ll become the youngest quarterback to have ever won a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Drake\u2019s coaches often credit his upbringing, as the youngest of four brothers, for his success: \u201cIf you were going to script a way for an athlete to grow up \u2014 to be tough and a leader and confident \u2014 you\u2019d put him behind those three brothers,\u201d Mack Brown, Drake\u2019s college football coach, told NBC News. \u201cJust because his whole life, he\u2019s been in the backyard competing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott Chadwick, Drake\u2019s high school football coach, said, \u201cHe had to be so competitive and such a fighter to survive in that family.\u201d <\/p>\n
In most cases, that might sound clich\u00e9d or hyperbolic. But perhaps they\u2019re on to something. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a Darwinian point of view, we expect siblings to compete,\u201d said Frank J. Sulloway, a research associate at Cal-Berkeley and an expert in the history of science, psychology and evolutionary biology. \u201cIt\u2019s part of animal biology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consider the blue-footed booby. It\u2019s a large seabird native to the Gal\u00e1pagos Islands. When it gives birth, its offspring compete with one another. They compete for \u201cparental investment,\u201d Sulloway said, for the food and resources the parent provides. If food becomes scarce, the older sibling will actually kick the younger sibling out of the nest.<\/p>\n
Human siblings behave similarly \u2014 minus the siblicide. We compete with our siblings for parental favor. It\u2019s in our biology, too, the way we\u2019re wired. That\u2019s why we wrestle and argue and name-call and angle to get our way, even if we\u2019re not consciously aware of why. <\/p>\n
Through this process, younger siblings naturally develop tactics to help them survive and prosper. \u201cIt\u2019s all about getting out of childhood alive,\u201d Sulloway said.<\/p>\n
In a sense, Drake was fighting for his life as a kid, playing pickup basketball with his brothers. The games were so physical, the stories go, their dad would have to break them up. \u201cAnything keeping score, we just didn\u2019t want to lose and have the bragging rights,\u201d Drake said.<\/p>\n
At Myers Park High School in Charlotte, Drake played power forward on the basketball team. He often had to guard much taller players. But he was the team\u2019s best rebounder, and he initiated contact. \u201cHe\u2019d put his shoulder into the [defender] to create space, and you could almost hear the air go out of their chest,\u201d said Scott Taylor, the basketball coach.<\/p>\n
Drake was known to chirp at times, too. \u201cEvery one of [the brothers] is a very good trash-talker,\u201d said Chadwick, the high school football coach. \u201cDrake, he can get in your head.\u201d<\/p>\n
One day, Chadwick remembered, they were playing golf \u2014 Drake and an assistant coach versus Chadwick and Luke Maye. They arrived at a hole where there was a body of water far to the left, way left, not really in play. As Chadwick approached the tee, Drake helpfully reminded him not to hit the ball there. Guess where the ball landed? Then Luke came up, and Drake said it again.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Luke hits the thing right in the water, too,\u201d Chadwick said. \u201cImmediately just starts cussing at Drake, telling him to shut up.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some time, Drake lived in his brothers\u2019 shadows, especially after Luke won the Tar Heels that NCAA Tournament game. When Luke attended Drake\u2019s high school football games, the school felt obligated to make an announcement \u201casking students not to bother Luke in the stands,\u201d Chadwick said. \u201cBecause they would want to get Luke\u2019s autograph, take pictures with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drake was becoming a star in his own right on the football field, which makes sense. Younger siblings often play more dangerous sports, research shows, as a way to differentiate themselves. Think: football, rugby, soccer. \u201cYou\u2019re looking for another niche,\u201d Sulloway said.<\/p>\n
Playing quarterback, Drake seemed like a natural. \u201cHis throwing motion, he made it look so easy,\u201d said Owen McCown, his friend and backup quarterback in high school. \u201cThe way the ball comes out in a tight spiral … you\u2019re like, damn, that\u2019s how it\u2019s supposed to look?\u201d <\/p>\n
His junior year, Drake threw 50 touchdown passes and only two interceptions. (His senior season was canceled because of the pandemic.)<\/p>\n
Every major program seemed to want him: Alabama, Clemson, Tennessee. Mack Brown, the coach at North Carolina, thought Drake might come there, given his family ties. Mark Maye, the boys\u2019 father, started at quarterback for North Carolina in the \u201980s. Luke had gone there, of course, and Beau would, too. Beau was a promising basketball player before knee injuries derailed his career. He walked on to the North Carolina basketball team for a season and then worked as a student manager. He also helped coach the JV team.<\/p>\n
But Drake? He chose to commit to Alabama. He called Brown to break the news. He said he wanted to win, and North Carolina wasn\u2019t very good at the time. Brown had just taken over the program. The last coach had won five games, total, over the two previous years. Drake\u2019s brothers had already won championships in college, and he wanted the same. \u201cThey always throw the rings in his face when he starts getting a little cocky with them,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
That year, Brown brought the Tar Heels back to respectability, and Drake ended up flipping and committing to North Carolina. \u201cI think (Drake\u2019s] family probably recruited him, too,\u201d Chadwick said. Drake would later room in college with his brother Beau, with whom he\u2019s close.<\/p>\n
Drake didn\u2019t play for Carolina right away, though. He redshirted his first year, and, entering his second, he had to compete with another quarterback for the starting job. That summer, the players went through workouts, and Drake finished first in every drill. Brown laughed at the cornerbacks for losing to a quarterback. \u201cHe\u2019s got long legs!\u201d they said. \u201cIt\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown asked the upperclassmen: Between the two quarterbacks, which did they prefer?<\/p>\n
\u201cDrake is a competitor, man,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
One day, Brown walked into the players\u2019 lounge and found them all standing around, laughing and cutting up. There was a ping-pong table in the room. One of the paddles was broken.<\/p>\n
\u201cOK, who broke the paddle?\u201d Brown asked.<\/p>\n
They all pointed to Drake.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrake?\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got beat by the tight end,\u201d Drake said.<\/p>\n
That competitive spirit fueled everything he did. Drake spent hours in the film room so he\u2019d \u201cknow every little thing,\u201d Brown said, to gain an edge. If Drake got dinged up, he refused to take practice off. He still played in the game. \u201cAnd he just didn\u2019t want to talk about it,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Drake\u2019s first year as a starter, he threw for more than 4,000 yards and 38 touchdowns and was named ACC Player of the Year. Brown remembers Luke Maye coming to practice at one point. \u201cI\u2019m sitting there thinking, here\u2019s the [ACC] Player of the Year, and here\u2019s a basketball player coming out here telling him how to throw,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut that\u2019s his big brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2024, on the eve of the NFL draft, Drake rented out space to play basketball with his brothers and friends. Luke Maye was playing professionally in Japan at the time; he had flown back to be there in person. The next day, the Patriots picked Drake No. 3 overall. At his introductory news conference, he said his brothers had \u201cplayed a big part\u201d in his reaching the NFL. He called them his \u201cthree best friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
They may have helped more than he knows. <\/p>\n
Back in 2010, Sulloway and a research partner published a statistical study comparing siblings throughout the history of Major League Baseball. They found that younger siblings were likelier to hit home runs, likelier to be hit by pitches and 10 times likelier to try to steal a base. What do those plays have in common? They all require taking some sort of risk, in pursuit of a big reward. If you swing for the fences, you might strike out \u2014 but there\u2019s a chance you\u2019ll smack a home run.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the research shows younger siblings are more likely to take risks,\u201d Sulloway said. \u201cThe younger sibling is trying to figure out a way to do better than the older sibling.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, in the AFC championship game, Drake and the Patriots had the ball late in the fourth quarter, holding a three-point lead. They were playing in a blizzard, the field covered in snow. But if New England gained one more first down, it would most likely seal the game.<\/p>\n
It was third and 5. The Patriots called a run play. As Drake went toward the running back, he faked the handoff, kept the ball himself and turned the other way, sprinting up field. He outraced a defender, got the first down and started chirping.<\/p>\n
The play had caught everyone by surprise, including his teammates, apparently. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the game, Drake\u2019s like, \u2018I debated telling you guys if I was gonna [keep] it or not,\u2019\u201d one Patriot told the Boston Herald. \u201c\u2018But I just decided not to.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a \u201cperfect example\u201d of younger sibling behavior, Sulloway said. Drake had taken a risk, executed the perfect fake. Anything he could do to win. Anything to survive. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn a Darwinian world,\u201d Sulloway said, \u201cyou better be wired that way or you\u2019re not going to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In sports, some siblings are so accomplished that they can be recognized by only their surnames. The Manning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-452807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}