Patriots QB Drake Maye Says He's 'A Little Bit Skeptical' on Moon Landing. NASA Chief Isaacman: 'I Quite Literally Have the Receipts'

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye said Monday that he is "a little bit skeptical" about whether the United States landed on the moon. NASA's top official weighed in Wednesday.

"I quite literally have the receipts," Administrator Jared Isaacman wrote on X, replying to a Boston 25 News post about Maye's comments.

Isaacman did not say which receipts he meant.

What Maye actually said

Maye, 24, appeared Monday, October 5, on WEEI's "Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson" in Boston. A caller asked which "wild conspiracy theory" he secretly believes. Maye asked for a moment to avoid getting "too controversial."

His answer: "I don't know about the moon, you know. I can see back in the day of why we would put on the mask if we went there, but 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."

Later he added, "Well, I'm not 100% sure."

That is doubt, not a claim that the landings were staged. Maye said he is not leaning either way.

The host went further

Co-host Rich Shertenlieb took the stronger position. "I've always been a 'We weren't on the moon' conspiracy theorist," he said, adding that he believes director Stanley Kubrick "did the entire thing" and planted clues in his films. "I absolutely believe we didn't land on the moon," Shertenlieb said.

Some write-ups have put that last line in Maye's mouth. It was the host's.

There is no credible evidence that Kubrick had anything to do with the Apollo footage. The record is plain: Apollo 11 landed on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface. NASA flew five more successful landings, the last in 1972.

The college class

Maye said he took a conspiracy theories class at North Carolina. UNC does offer a course called "Uncertain Truths: Conspiracy Theories, Aliens, and Secret Societies in America."

He said the class covered "Hitler being alive" and "are birds real?" The birds claim is a satirical movement that parodies misinformation. Maye described it as the idea that the government uses birds to video or listen in. He did not say he believes it.

Not the first athlete

Maye joins a long list of athletes who have voiced moon-landing doubts:

• Former Rams and Dolphins defensive end William Hayes said in 2017 he believed it was fake.
• Stephen Curry made similar comments in 2018, then said he was joking.
• Eagles receiver A.J. Brown questioned it in 2023, and teammate Dallas Goedert questioned the footage.
• Celtics guard Derrick White called himself "a non-moon landing guy" on his podcast in March.

The football context

The timing is awkward for a quarterback trying to change the conversation. Maye had one of his better games of the season Sunday, October 4, in a 29-26 Patriots win over the Buffalo Bills. He completed 22 of 37 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns, threw one interception and ran eight times for 54 yards. New England improved to 2-2 after a slow start.

The league on Wednesday named him AFC offensive player of the week. Last season he finished second to the Rams' Matthew Stafford in MVP voting.

Why NASA cares

Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur and commercial astronaut, became NASA's 15th administrator in December 2025. The agency is working toward returning astronauts to the lunar surface under the Artemis program. NASA's last crewed moon mission was Apollo 17 in 1972, and the agency is targeting Artemis IV, currently scheduled for 2028, as part of an effort to establish a long-term human presence on and around the moon.

Whether Isaacman's reply turns into anything more than a viral post is unclear. Neither Maye nor the Patriots have commented on it.