In the lead-up to Super Bowl 60, injury reports listed New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye as having a shoulder injury, but by the end of the week, he was off the report and didn’t receive an injury designation for the game.
However, after the game, the second-year signal-caller confirmed he had a painkilling injection prior to the game. Now, NFL analyst Nick Wright called for the NFL to punish the Patriots for failing to disclose the severity of Maye’s injury.
Fox Sports’ Nick Wright Condemns Patriots’ Handling of Maye Injury
Appearing on the show “First Things First” on Fox Sports, Kevin Wildes and Chris Broussard faced Wright’s frustration over the Patriots’ concealment of their injury report.
He asked them whether they agreed that the Patriots should be punished by the NFL, saying they “have no choice” because of their Super Bowl injury report.
“Do you agree with me that at this point, the NFL has no choice but to put some type of punishment on the Patriots for their Super Bowl injury report? If we’re at Wednesday, and the No. 1 story is the quarterback’s injury, the quarterback said, ‘I had the shoulder shot up,’ that he was dealing with something.
In the modern NFL world, where gambling is legal, if not encouraged, it is the quarterback of a Super Bowl team that I know no way to read it other than the team, let’s call it, fudged information on the final injury report leading into the Super Bowl. I think the NFL is obligated.”
Nick Wright wants the NFL to punish the Patriots for hiding Drake Maye’s injury
“It is the quarterback of a Super Bowl team that … the team fudged information on the final injury report leading into the Super Bowl.” pic.twitter.com/MuvXsGMR2M
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 11, 2026
Wright then mentioned the idea of perhaps stripping them of a sixth-round draft selection. Per the Patriots’ official website, Maye is listed on the injury report with a right shoulder injury. In fact, he’s still listed now, days after the Super Bowl.
The injury report for the Patriots’ quarterback, who led them to an 86.6 grade in PFSN’s Offense Impact metric, is listed as a full participant on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday leading up to the Super Bowl, but then has no practice designation on Saturday.
From there, following the 29-13 defeat at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks, during the post-game press conference, Maye was asked about his shoulder, and here’s what he had to say, per Mike Reiss of ESPN: “I shot it up, so not much feeling. It was good to go, and it felt all right.”
It’s hard to say exactly how much the shoulder affected his performance, but he did have three turnovers, including a strip sack and an interception.
Maye was also asked if the shoulder limited him: “I think it would be hard to say that. I was feeling good enough to be out there,” he said. “I wouldn’t put the team in harm’s way to not be myself. Just didn’t make plays tonight.”
So, Wright’s main contention is that, given he admitted to having a shot, there was, in his mind, an injury notable enough to warrant an injection.
To look at it from the other point of view, players at that point in the season, especially heading into their 21st game of the season, are all going to be beaten up to some degree.
Ultimately, it raises the question: Should injury reports be even more transparent than they are now, especially in the “modern NFL,” as Wright called it? We’ll see if the NFL addresses this.
