Patriots
The Patriots are playing bad enough football that the networks have noticed, stripping away their primetime matchup with the Chiefs.
COMMENTARY
The 2-10 record smarts. But I guarantee you that losing their slot in Monday Night Football is more of a catalyst for the Patriots to make sweeping changes.
The Patriots are terrible, a fact that didn’t need Sunday’s ludicrously-embarrassing, 6-0 loss to the San Diego (I know) Chargers to support it, but it didn’t hurt either. However, you can twist the narrative of a losing season by reminding everyone just how close some of those losses were. After all, the Patriots have lost four-straight games by an average of only four points.
How bad could it really be?
The fact that they scored an average of only 7.5 points per game over that same stretch probably won’t make the argument. But NFL TV crews treat Bill Belichick like a patron saint, scolding everyone holding a pitchfork: After all he’s done. After all he’s delivered. The Krafts hear all that and wonder how they could have gotten wrapped up in all the talk show nonsense. Bill’s fine. He stays. He’ll use the first pick in the draft to select Florida State defensive lineman Jared Verse.
What could go wrong?
Now, getting kicked off Monday Night Football, that’s the NFL and ESPN executives telling you directly that your product is not worth presenting to a national audience. Case in point, Sunday. If that doesn’t convince you, we’ve got plenty of bad Patriots football to choose from this season.
It’s not like the opposition for the upcoming Monday Night game is the one-win Carolina Panthers. It’s the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs. David Bromstad is on TV less than these guys. But ESPN doesn’t want them — or superstar Taylor Swift — because the cost is having to make the country watch what we’ve suffered through these last three months. We’d apologize to Charger fans for the slog that was Sunday’s game, but we know nobody was watching.
The embarrassment of being flexed, combined with tickets going for $5 in the lower bowl on Sunday, is the sort of recipe for an overhaul that team owners can usually understand. You could also argue that the fool who picked those tickets up probably overpaid. Either way, it’s a ducat that nobody really wants.
Even if a game the caliber of Sunday night’s 49ers-Eagles were being played in the sort of depressing December weather Foxborough received Sunday though, it would still be a hard sell to get me off my couch. But you could make a whole lot more than $5. Weather-dependent, maybe it’ll cost you $10 to catch the Chiefs next Sunday. By the time the season finale against the Jets arrives, Gillette Stadium will be just be open if you wanna come in and check out a few plays on your way to Old Navy. There will no doubt be a glut of season ticket holders jumping ship this offseason, but there’s a 19-year waitlist. Write a letter to Mr. Kraft, but if you want to send a message to the team by surrendering your season tickets, wait until you discover just how replaceable your opinion is.
That’s why what ESPN did for Patriot fans was so important. Call it retribution for “11 of 12” or employing Alex Rodriguez, but that’s the sort of message the Krafts will pay more attention to than your handwritten note. The fans? Some of them wanted to run Tommy Brady out of here at the end, now they’re after Bill Belichick. Robert and Jonathan can’t trust them to know what’s best for the team.
If Belichick does indeed want to keep coaching, he can try and sell Robert on how well the defense did this year keeping the team in games, though it’s hard to gather how a defense should be judged when the opposition’s receivers are like Jaylen Brown hanging onto the football. He can argue that with a healthy Matthew Judon and Christian Gonzalez that he’ll build it to be even fiercer next season. Nobody has Verse as the No. 1 pick, but nobody had Cole Strange going in the first round either. Chess.
Do you see where this is going?
But Belichick has no jurisdiction over Nielsen and TV dollars. And they both just told the Patriots that they suck.
Sunday’s contest against the Chargers was the worst football game ever played at Gillette Stadium. I’m open to suggestions, but the place doesn’t have that many stinkers. If the weather were 75 degrees and sunny, it still would be the worst. And it definitely wasn’t worth $5.
Bill might argue that the Patriots could be 8-4 right now if one or two things had gone their way. The Krafts might even believe him all for the sake of their desired transition, whenever that may be.
That’s the risk Patriot fans face this offseason. Belichick has always done a pretty good job of shuffling the blame elsewhere. He’ll dress down Bailey Zappe and Mac Jones (Robert’s guy, you know) and swindle the Krafts into how to fix it.
But first, ESPN. Then maybe Cross Insurance, Gillette, Bank of America, and other lucrative sponsors also decide they don’t want to be associated with this any longer. The failure to remove Belichick from the sideline could very well prompt the financial crumbling of the franchise (not like they spend it on players anyway, but that’s for another day…)
Being 2-10 isn’t good. But the dominoes are now starting to fall. Nobody wants to watch this embarrassment.
Patriots-Steelers. Thursday Night on the internet.
Al Michaels should be a gem.
Sign up for Patriots updates????
Get breaking news and analysis delivered to your inbox during football season.