Stephen A. Smith walks back his comments about Drake Maye

New England Patriots

Smith caught flak on social media for calling Maye a liar earlier in the week.

It appears the saga between Stephen A. Smith and Drake Maye has come to an end.

A day after calling the young Patriots quarterback a “liar” on ESPN, Smith clarified his comments on his Sirius XM show “The Stephen A Smith Show” on Friday, saying he was only “being facetious.”

“I was being facetious because it wasn’t that big of a deal,” Smith said. “In other words, Cam Newton is on national television. And your reaction was, ‘I don’t even know where he works.’ I just didn’t believe that. That’s all. I wasn’t calling him a liar about anything else. Just that he didn’t know where Cam works. But you are right, I don’t know Drake Maye, I’ve never spoken to him. Again, I was being facetious. I wasn’t being serious about that point.”

Smith’s apology put an end to a strange saga revolving around the Patriots and ESPN’s “First Take.” It started when Cam Newton appeared on the program and called New England “fools gold” due to the weak schedule its played through 11 weeks.

Maye was then asked about those comments, and while the core message of his response was about not listening to outside noise, Smith took exception to Maye saying he didn’t know what show Newton was on. Smith responded to his quote with a rant, calling Maye a “liar” for not knowing what show Newton appears on.

Although Smith still seems to believe Maye would or should know who is on First Take regularly, he apologized for the stir the entire situation caused.

“If people want me to apologize for that, that’s fine,” Smith said. “I wasn’t serious about him lying — I don’t know whether he was lying or not. I just said, don’t tell me know you don’t know where Cam Newton was working. You don’t know he’s on First Take twice a week? I don’t believe that. I just don’t.”

Ironically, Smith himself doesn’t seem to view the Patriots as fools gold the way that his co-host does. The same week Newton made that claim, Smith ranked the Patriots as his third best team in the NFL, and best team in the AFC. He also had plenty of praise for Drake Maye individually after New England’s eighth straight win.

“He’s passed for over 200 yards in every single game he’s quarterbacked this year which is a testament to him,” Smith said. “I’ve got to give credit where credit is due … he’s incredibly impressive.”

Maye and the Patriots have a chance to be the first NFL team to reach 10 wins this season if they can beat the Bengals on Sunday at 1 p.m.