Ben Affleck has so much love for New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye.
“It’s, like, a miracle. How do you get another really good quarterback?” Affleck, 53, wondered on the Thursday, January 15, episode of the “Casuals With Katie Nolan” podcast. “This is one of those things where you think, this is just good fortune. I thought I’d be dead before New England had another great football team.”
Both Affleck and Matt Damon appeared on the podcast to promote their new Netflix movie The Rip, but took some time to talk football. For those of you living under a rock, both Affleck and Damon, 55, are avid Boston sports fans.
“Everyone was seeing it as a rebuilding year, and also first year on the ground for this new coach that everyone’s excited about,” Damon said, referring to Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel. “What they’ve done is incredible, incredible. Also, the way they’re set up for the future. Drake Maye is 23 years old.”
Affleck added, “Every time I see the guy I’m like, ‘This kid is in high school.’ People are like, ‘No, Dad, you’re just old.’”
Damon also credited Patriots coach Vrabel for doing an “incredible job” with the team.
“We got this unbelievable coach,” he said. “[Tennessee], they fired him. I love when that happens.”
Damon continued, “[Patriots owner] Robert Kraft and that whole organization,, since he bought it, it’s just been an entirely different thing. It’s completely unlike the team — unrecognizable.”
Affleck chimed in noting that when he was younger, there were “blackouts” on TV instead of the Patriots games because “they couldn’t sell out the stadium.”
Damon quipped that it was “a small mercy” in their childhood.
Affleck joked with podcast host Nolan, saying that she “jinxed” the team’s future by comparing the current Maye and Vrabel era to that of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in the past.
Both Damon and Affleck also weighed in on the Patriots’ chances in the next round of the NFL playoffs. (Important to note the podcast was recorded before it was revealed that the Patriots would be taking on the Houston Texans on Sunday, January 18.)
“The Texans have a great defense. Steelers have Aaron Rodgers,” Damon said. “There’s not an easy game for anybody for the rest of the way. I think the great thing about this season is it’s like, there are probably 10 teams who any one of them wins the Super Bowl, you’d go, like, ‘Yeah, I’m not surprised.’ And that’s great.”
He continued, “There’s not that kind of dynastic hold on the thing that there has been in the past, usually by New England. It was great for us, not so good for everybody else. It’s made it really exciting.”
Damon said that, no matter what happens, the team is getting “playoff experience,” which is “invaluable” going forward.
“The further they go, the better built they’re going to be for this kind of run that it feels like they should go on — barring injury — they should go on for a number of years coming up,” he concluded.
