Patriots quarterback Drake Maye says he’s "skeptical" about Apollo Moon landings; NASA head reacts

The debate around the Apollo Moon landings never ends. Nearly six decades ago, humans landed on the Moon for the first time, but there are still many who believe it was a hoax. Turns out, there are some big names among the deniers who say the Moon landing was fake. One of these individuals is New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, who recently said that he was a “little bit skeptical” about the Apollo-era Moon landings. During an appearance on WEEI-FM in Boston on Monday, Maye was asked by a fan if there’s a “wild conspiracy theory” that he secretly believes in. In his response, he admitted that he doesn’t fully believe that the Moon landings actually happened and reiterated his suspicion when backed by one of the show hosts.

"I don’t know about the Moon, you know?” Maye answered. “I’m not really sure 200% if we went there or not. I wouldn’t say I’m leaning one way or the other. I just know I’m a little bit skeptical,” Maye said. He also revealed that he took a class on conspiracy theories at the University of North Carolina. “They studied Hitler being alive and ‘are birds real?’ Some of the classic ones that you hear about,” Maye shared.

NASA chief reacts to Maye’s skepticism

The controversial statement by the American football star caught the attention of NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who was quick to respond with a witty reply on X. “I quite literally have the receipts,” Isaacman replied to an article post on X about Maye’s statement. Apart from Isaacman, there are several major personalities who have countered the conspiracy theorists. One of them is SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who once called the Apollo 11 landing “probably the most inspiring thing in history.”

“It certainly inspired me. I'm not sure SpaceX would exist if not for Apollo 11,” Musk had said, as per CBS News. Another prominent voice is astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who said on Logan Paul’s podcast that being in denial of a spherical Earth and the Moon landings means “you are intellectually and emotionally disconnected from civilization on some levels ... you need help.” Tyson has even said in the past that it was easier to actually go to the Moon than to fake it.

Notably, Maye is not the only professional athlete to think the Moon landing was fake. In March this year, Boston Celtics guard Derrick White called himself a “non-Moon landing guy” on the White Noise podcast, recalling a conversation he had with Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla. "He (Mazzulla) is on the treadmill and I'm lifting, and he just turned around and he's like, 'Do you believe we landed on the Moon?' I don't think we did," said White. "I'm a non-moon landing guy. We probably did, but I don't think we did.”

NASA not only landed two astronauts on the Moon on July 20, 1969, but did so five more times through Apollo 17 in 1972. The agency is now planning to return to the Moon, and we might see another crewed landing in 2028 during the Artemis IV mission.

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