And with him, so did an integral part of Red Sox history.

John Henry famously told the listeners of “Felger and Mazz” back in 2011 that “Larry Lucchino runs the Red Sox.”

During the time Lucchino “ran the Red Sox,” the team won the World Series three times. In 2004, 2007 and 2013. They also lost Game 7 of the ALCS twice  – on the road – by a combined score of 9-6.

They were “The Other Dynasty.”

Lucchino became Red Sox president and CEO on Nov. 15, 2001. In the 14 seasons that followed under his administration, the Red Sox finished over .500 11 times and made the postseason in 7 seasons.

The Red Sox were 1,247-1,021 (.549) on Lucchino’s watch. Lucchino’s Red Sox won 95 or more games six times. They also finished last three times. Swing big. Miss big. The current Red Sox have finished last in 3 of the past 4 seasons playing the smallest ball possible.

More importantly, Lucchino’s Red Sox tried to win every inning. Every game. Every series. Every season.

Lucchino saw the cash-cow potential in Fenway Park and realized how its milk and honey could be used to finance the most successful MLB franchise during the first two decades of the 21st century.

Not soccer teams. NASCAR teams. Hockey teams. Or the PGA Tour.

And fans rewarded that passion with five seasons of more than 3 million in attendance during Lucchino’s time with the Red Sox, in addition to monstrous ratings on NESN and WEEI. Lucchino was raised in Pittsburgh and attended Yale Law School. But he got it when it came to the Red Sox and the once-unbreakable emotional relationship the team shared with its fan base.

Now that passion, too, has died on both sides of the equation.

Lucchino more so than any other person in the front office changed the historic trajectory of the Red Sox. Dan Duquette came close. But he never got the chance to finish the job.

There was never any concern about salary limitations, luxury taxes, or balancing the books for the Fenway Sports Group.

Lucchino was an OG Jedi Master. He gave us the “Evil Empire” and then oversaw the Red Sox team that blew up the Death Star 20 years ago. Nothing in the Bronx has been the same since. It got so bad they tore the place down four years later.

“The evil empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America,” Lucchino quipped after the Yankees outbid the Red Sox and others for Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras in December 2002.

That non-deal, much like the non-deal that almost brought Alex Rodriguez to the Red Sox, turned out to be a blessing.

Still, the Red Sox never quit trying to get better under Lucchino.

Lucchino was a “killer” in the most non-violent sense of the word. His impact on baseball was clear before he arrived in Boston as part of John Henry’s ownership cabal. While the aloof Henry and his squishy Hollywood pal Tom Werner had the cash, Lucchino delivered the brains and guts of the operation.

Henry said as much in a statement issued by the team above his name Tuesday.

Lucchino “engineered the ideal conditions for championships wherever his path led him, and especially in Boston,” Henry said.

“Yet, perhaps his most enduring legacy lies in the remarkable people he helped assemble at the Red Sox, all of whom are a testament to his training, wisdom, and mentorship. Many of them continue to shape the organization today, carrying forward the same vigor, vitality, and cherished sayings that were hallmarks of Larry’s personality. Larry was a formidable opponent in any arena,” Henry added. “I was lucky enough to have had him in my corner for 14 years and to have called him a close friend for even longer. He was truly irreplaceable.”

Lucchino was president of the Baltimore Orioles when that team built Camden Yards, the first of its kind inner-city ballpark that has been the template of nearly every new MLB park since. He brought Theo Epstein with him to San Diego from Baltimore, and then to Boston.

Lucchino knew that spending and winning went hand-in-hand. And Lucchino knew enough to know what he didn’t know. It was Lucchino who saw enough potential in Epstein to make him Red Sox general manager at age 28.

Theo tried to warn the masses that 2010 was going to be a “bridge year.” Soon he felt enough heat from his boss and lifetime mentor to walk it back. The 2010 Red Sox fell short of the postseason and finished 89-73.

2011 was also a “bridge year” given how many Red Sox fans wanted to leap off the Tobin into an endless metaphorical bucket of chicken and beer after it was over.

The wreckage of baseball’s “Greatest Team Ever” in 2011 wrought the Bobby Valentine Error in 2012.

And just when it seemed the Red Sox franchise had ended its “Dynasty,” the 2013 season delivered a poignant triumph that no one who experienced it will ever forget.

The Red Sox begin their celebration of 2004 before Fenway Park Opening Day on Tuesday. Given the team’s solid start on the West Coast, the game should be sold out by the time fans will be asked to find their seats ahead of the pre-game ceremonies.

Raffy Devers and the Men of Mystery had baseball’s lowest team ERA (1.26) after their first five games. They only walked one opposing batter, granted the Oakland A’s are no longer an official MLB team. The Red Sox also opened 5-0 against the baseball run line (think point spread).

The team will honor the late Tim and Stacy Wakefield before Tuesday’s opener.

And now, Lucchino, sadly, will also be remembered posthumously for his success with the Red Sox.

The end of an era, indeed. In so many ways.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com.

But Boston remains in a sour mood when it comes to its pro sports teams.

The UConn bandwagon just doesn’t cut it. Connecticut might as well be in Kansas.

The Huskies are the betting favorite to repeat as the last team standing at The Big Dance. More joy in store in Storrs?

Meanwhile, Boston remains dogged by pessimism, cynicism and defeatism.

Sure, it’s embedded in the region’s DNA. But Boston hasn’t felt this sort of vibe in 30 years. The 1990s have returned to Fenway, Foxboro and TD Garden.

Woof.

The heady days of counting parades in your child’s lifespan now sit alongside Paul Revere in the Bay State history books.

These Patriots have their own rallying cry: “One if by land. Two if by sea. Fourth in the AFC East.”

Kraft created “The Dynasty” – © Kraft Dynasty LLC – hoping it would be his Pro Football Hall of Fame Infomercial. It’s become the NFL’s version of “New Coke.”

Kraft was outraged, outraged, over the hit job “The Dynasty” – © Kraft Dynasty LLC – pulled on Bill Belichick. Kraft miraculously turned Belichick into a sympathetic character.

“I feel so privileged that we had Bill here. We hope when he’s finished that we’re going to have a chance to honor him the way we will do with Tom Brady this year,” Kraft said at the NFL’s owner meeting in Orlando on Tuesday. “I look forward to the privilege of putting Bill into the Patriots Hall of Fame one day in the future.”

Kraft apologized the negative tilt toward his team but added that he had no say in what appeared on screen. Kraft said he enjoyed the first three episodes of “The Dynasty” – © Kraft Dynasty LLC.

Wonder why?

No one bothered to ask the team owner why “The Dynasty” – © Kraft Dynasty LLC – omitted Kraft’s dalliance with Hartford before Gillette Stadium was built. That was the first of many glairing omissions we noted here last month after episodes 1 and 2.

Kraft’s charm offensive Tuesday packed all the punch of the Mac Jones-led offense. He went full “Joliet” Jake Blues blaming everything and everyone but himself for his team’s woes.

The Old Kraft Magic has since gone the way of AFC East Division champion T-shirts and 35-point home playoff victories. He’s now just plain old. A NFLPA survey ranked the Patriots 29th of 32 NFL teams. The Patriots scored an F- when it came to “Treatment of Families.”

“I was unaware of how bad that was,” Kraft said. He said the team is “committing” to a modern facility “in excess of $50 million.”

“Players are the heart and soul of the business. I’d be very surprised if that didn’t improve,” he said.

Yet the mastermind of “The Dynasty” had no idea how poorly those players and their families were treated. Kraft cited Calvin Ridley’s “girlfriend” as the chief reason in the team’s failure in signing the top wideout in free agency. Ridley may or may not have married Dominque Fitchard in 2020. They have two children together.

You see, it’s never the money. Except when Kraft & Son are cutting the checks. And mixing wives and girlfriends never helps when it comes to the NFLPA player assessment of “Treatment of Families.”

The good news for Kraft is that in a few years he’ll be old enough to run for the White House.

On another depressing note, it’s Opening Day for the Boston Red Sox. John Henry remains MIA when it comes to his baseball team. He was last seen in public at The Players Championship.

Raffy Devers and the Men of Mystery begin their 2024 MLB season Thursday night in Seattle. Defense of the AL East last-place crown commences at 10:10 p.m. on NESN. The Red Sox are being choked by a pandemic of apathy.

“Ennui and Tedium” have replaced “Aura and Destiny” as the Red Sox nemesis of choice.
Opening Day at Fenway is April 9. Plenty of good rows remain available.

The “buzzz” – emphasis on “zzz” – is that this team will somehow overperform and break the .500 barrier. An improvement in fielding and hitting will make games more palatable for viewers, allegedly. The pitching? Check back on Memorial Day.

The Red Sox were unable to pull the trigger on Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery. One or both could have shored up their rotation post-Lucas Giolito injury. That’s all the tell you need the Red Sox are in race to meet Fenway Sports Group’s bottom line. Even if it lands them in the bottom of the standings for the fourth time in five years.

It’s not just the last-place Patriots and Red Sox that have left fans feeling sour despite the arrival of the Sweet 16 in Boston.

The regular-season success of the Celtics and Bruins has done little to ease the playoff dread set to return next month.

The Celtics remain “vulnerable.” Kendrick Perkins’ description, not mine. It’s easy to see why. They lack the will and ability to finish off opponents – while continuing to fizzle at crunch time. The Celtics have shown nothing to counter the fear that they will get star-struck in May or June and allow themselves to get pushed around right out of the postseason.

Bruins fans have been reduced to praying their team does not win the Presidents Trophy and the all-but-certain playoff doom that it carries. The team’s shortcomings have been stuck in a time capsule. Unbalanced scoring. Lack of size and depth on defense.

Concerns that the coach will choke under the playoff spotlight. Little has changed little since last year’s first-round exit against Florida. Both the Celtics and Bruins could have home court/ice throughout the postseason.

Making that inevitable Game 7 calamity all the more painful.

And there’s nothing sweet about that.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com.

The antipathy triggered by the “full throttle” Red Sox offseason being stuck in neutral has abated.

Red Sox fans have embraced the final stage of baseball grief: apathy.

Resentment and rage commuted to Foxboro this winter.

The Patriots are on the road to match the Red Sox’ current run of futility. The teams that dominated their respective sports for the first score of this century have combined for three last-place finishes in the past two years.

Robert Kraft has picked up a page from the John Henry playbook. He’s more focused with his sanitized version of history in “The Dynasty” and trashing his former coach. And far less concerned with spending money on talented players.

Or finding a quarterback with a higher career QB rating than Mac Jones. Brissett does not.

The Patriots’ real-time demise has given the Red Sox emotional cover of what appears to be another “Bridge To Nowhere” year. The Red Sox fell off your digital screens and airwaves once the Patriots fired Bill Belichick and opted to run it back – to the Dick MacPherson era.

The Bruins and Celtics soon return to the postseason. They will subsequently inhale all the oxygen in the room until that soul-crushing Game 7 loss at home.

This means the Red Sox can accomplish whatever it is they do in relative anonymity.

Four last place finishes in five years?

Yawn.

Alex Cora destroys the pitching staff?

He was leaving the Red Sox, anyway.

Shock the world and finish in fourth?

If  no one is watching at Fenway Park or on NESN, did it really happen?

There were healthy crowds at JetBlue Park at times during spring training, never-before available empty seats were scattered throughout Fenway South.

The spring crowds appeared more interested in absorbing the sun’s rays, catching up on family gossip, and posting on Instagram, than with the men on the field in Red Sox uniforms purporting to be major-league ballplayers.

These Red Sox could hold a meet-and-greet at the local Hooters and finish a distant fourth behind wings, breasts, and beer.

NBC 10 Boston the other day asked several fans outside America’s Favorite Ballpark for their thoughts on the upcoming Red Sox season, and to name any players on the 2024 team.

One fan said she had “no idea” the Red Sox were starting their season this week. Another “thought it was like a summer thing.” A couple of fans said they could not name a single player.

One die-hard gave a name: “Devers.”

Meet Raffy Devers and the Men of Mystery.

Since the Red Sox are now an afterthought on the Fenway Sports Group spreadsheet, it should not surprise anyone that they are also an afterthought on the streets around Fenway Park.

Henry has four World Series rings and an SUV (all-electric, of course) full of soccer trophies. The Billionaire and The Baroness have now shifted their focus to the PGA Tour and a golf partnership with the Saudis.

The Red Sox are just another club in FSG’s bag.

Opening Day seats were once the prized possession of scalpers. They formed the core of family legacies. Divorce decrees included who got the ducats and when. Gifting them for Christmas ensured a perfect holiday. At least until Uncle Bob hit the bottle.

Opening Day at Fenway Park was also the best excuse to skip school this side of COVID-19. It was the only time I ever got a pass from my parents not to spend the day absorbing the wisdom offered in the Arlington Public School system without carrying some sort of life-threatening illness.

Now, Opening Day at Fenway Park is just another Tuesday.

April 9, to be exact.

Several hundred Opening Day seats were being offered at face value via the official Red Sox website as of this writing. Locations were available throughout the bleachers, in every grandstand section but 19, 20, 21 and 22, on the Green Monster, in the upper level, and throughout the mid-level boxes surrounding both sides of the outfield.

Pick a spot. It’s available.

Tickets on the secondary market are moving like the Red Line during a blizzard. Bleacher seats for the April 10 game against the AL East champion Baltimore Orioles are fetching a whopping $14 plus fees on vividseats.

The 2023 Red Sox won 78 games, finishing 23 games out of first place. Their win total moved from 76.5 to 78.5 during the season. We won on the over of 76.5. DraftKings has the Red Sox at 77.5 wins this year. That number has moved down from 80.5. We took the under on 80.5 a few weeks ago.

Spring training can be the fool’s gold of baseball. But the 2024 Red Sox have shown a noticeable increase in their ability to execute the basics of fielding. Last year, the Red Sox used 12 players at second and 11 at shortstop. Getting those numbers in the low single digits (that means Trevor Story and Vaughn Grissom staying/getting healthy) could be worth a couple of wins on its own.

Faith in the team’s starting rotation and likely-to-be-decimated-by-the-All-Star-Break bullpen is a bit less devout.

The Red Sox begin their season-long celebration of the 2004 team on Opening Day. The team will honor the lives of the late Tim and Stacy Wakefield. Nobody does it better. Tears will flow like the Charles River.

The Red Sox collapse from their MLB pantheon rivals that of ancient Rome, the Soviet Union, or Bill Belichick.

And in a relief for all involved, there will be nein innings for Curt Schilling on Opening Day. The Big Schill declined to attend, avoiding the possibility of a Fenway furor.

Then again, the Red Sox could have used the buzz.

Even if it’s caused by someone kicking a hornet’s nest.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com.

In the aftermath of David Ortiz’s “F-Bomb Heard Around the World” post-Boston Marathon bombing, I put together a “listicle” for their free Boston Globe-affiliated website detailing some memorable quotes in Boston sports history.

The story remains on the interwebs. It’s been cited frequently as a baseline by those updating the list. History never stops.

Most notable about these proclamations is that they were all rooted in truth.

Almost.

That’s what makes them infamous.

Red Sox GM Lou Gorman was never more sincere than when he said: “The sun will rise, the sun will set, and I’ll have lunch” following Roger Clemens’ unplanned exit from Chain O’Lakes Park in Winter Haven in 1987.

Ted Williams saw the future back in 1939 when he declared: “All I want out of life, is that when I walk down the street folks will say, ‘There goes the greatest hitter that ever lived.’ ”

Then-Patriots-coach Bill Parcells carried the seriousness of a heart attack when he quipped: “If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries.”

Gisele Bundchen spit nothing but facts when she informed everyone within earshot that “you (have) to catch the ball when you’re supposed to catch the ball. My husband cannot (expletive) throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can’t believe they dropped the ball so many times.”

That would be her “ex-husband” these days.

In 2024, Fake News has spread to the wide, wide world of sports.

The cataclysmic state of Red Sox and Patriots these days has spawned a level of deceit and deception not seen since the Bruins won the Presidents’ Trophy last spring.

“The Big Lie” has given birth to triplets.

They are:

“Full throttle.” – Tom Werner.

“Burn some cash.” – Jerod Mayo

“Weaponize the offense.” – Eliot Wolf

All three are borderline submissions to the Attorney General’s consumer fraud department.

The one constant is these were said by people who did not have the authority to act upon them.

Werner spoke without the blessing of the Fenway Sports Group Star Chamber that determines the 2024 Red Sox roster budget. Mayo and Wolf forgot to check with the guys who write the checks: Robert and Jonathan Kraft.

First up: “full throttle.”

The Red Sox promised us they were going all-in this offseason to retool, rebuild, and recreate a team that is focused more on finishing in first place, rather than avoiding last.

Was it mere coincidence that the Red Sox went “full throttle” in November, ahead of their season-ticket sale push and the holidays?

Turns out “full throttle” meant “in reverse.”

“Maybe that wasn’t the most artful way of saying what I wanted to say, which is that we’re going to be pressing all levers to improve the team,” Werner told Masslive’s Sean McAdam in walking back his decree.

Imagine Larry Bird telling those poor souls in the locker room before the 1986 All-Star Weekend long-distance shootout: “I’m just looking around to see who is going to finish second … but I wish you all the best.”

Not owning what one says is the newest pandemic.

Never mind politics, where truth was always a relevant concept, we’re seeing this way too much in sports.

Trash talk has been neutered.

Brash “guarantees” have given way to “heart” emojis.

Bold claims end up being explained away days or week later.

That brings us to “burn some cash.”

Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo. Wait a minute. We have to let that sentence breathe. I typed “Patriots head coach Bill Belichick” the first 32 times.

Mayo told WEEI’s Greg Hill Show in January that his team was going all-in back to “Dynasty” mode after he was named Belichick’s replacement.

“We’re bringing in talent, 1,000 percent,” Mayo said. “Have a lot of cap space, and cash. Burn some cash.”

Mayo put way too much mustard on that one.

The only cash the Patriots set aflame was previously scorched by the metaphorical flames of $250 million in Gillette Stadium upgrades.

“You know, I kind of misspoke when I said ‘burn some cash’ but I was excited when you see those numbers,” Mayo told former Herald scribe Karen Guregian of MassLive.com. “But when you reflect on those numbers … you don’t have to spend all of it in one year. This is going to be a process.”

Except when it comes to scoreboards and lighthouses.

Then spend like you’re in Congress.

Patriots GM-In-Everything-But-Name-Only Eliot Wolf had his own Chaim Bloom moment.

“In terms of physical skills, we need to weaponize the offense,” Wolf said.

“Weaponize the offense.”

Once free agency arrived, the “Wolf Of Route One” became the “Sheep Of Foxboro.”

Robert and Jonathan Kraft quietly passed their own unilateral disarmament treaty when it came to spending on top-level offensive talent in free agency.

Peace now.

Stop war.

Start Jacoby Brissett.

If Robert Oppenheimer was working for the 2024 Patriots instead of the 1945 Patriots, the scientists at Los Alamos would have been given four sticks of cartoon dynamite and an ACME anvil.

The only “Big One” dropped in Foxboro this offseason came in the form of “The Dynasty” on Apple+ TV. Robert Kraft turned the serialization of Jeff Benedict’s book into a seven-hour clinic on self-aggrandizement. And his former players were left holding the bag in what became a 10-episode hit piece on their GOAT of a coach.

Don’t kid yourselves. There is zero chance Kraft would have had the stones to blame the Super Bowl 52 loss on Belichick on camera, had he believed Belichick would be coaching his team this season.

It just goes to show you can’t believe everything you hear these days.

Especially from Foxboro and Fenway Park.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF & @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

If you needed any more proof that “The Dynasty” has been fully relegated to the dustbin of NFL history, that’s it.

RFK’s quixotic presidential campaign appears to be leaning toward Aaron Rodgers as its vice-presidential offering. Rodgers plays quarterback for the Jets in his spare time. At least for four snaps per season.

A visit to the JFK Library in Dorchester, or the internet, offers up images of the Kennedy clan playing family football at the Hyannis Port compound. The elder RFK and his three brothers all played football at Harvard. RFK Jr. appears hell-bent on bringing a ringer to the next Kennedy soiree. That’s if his family members can forgive him for running against his Uncle Ted’s old pal Joe.

Regardless of political ambitions, the Jets are planning on having Rodgers at QB this season. Even a partly healed Rodgers shoves the Patriots deeper into the cellar of the AFC East.

And there’s good news for Jets fans. Inauguration Day falls on the Monday before the AFC Championship Game. So any ascension of A-Rod to the vice presidency won’t interfere with the Jets playoff run.

Bill Belichick State Run Media has been in “Battle of the Bulge” counterattack mode since “The Dynasty ” first dropped on Apple TV+. That series has given the Kraft family the same sheen afforded the Kennedys by the Boston Globe, CBS or Hollywood.

Their latest proof of the Hoodie’s continued genius presents itself in the number of players the Patriots have managed to retain with the second-most salary cap space available in the NFL.

The Patriots have held onto all of the so-called “key players” from last year’s atrocious 4-13 season. Yet, none of “The Holdovers” in Foxboro are Oscar-worthy. The Patriots roster stood barren as the pre-blizzard bakery aisle at Market Basket. Even day-old Wonder bread tastes good when there’s no power and nothing to eat but Skippy peanut butter and Food Club strawberry jam.

Feel free to gas up the Duck Boats for retaining OT/G Mike Onwenu, LB Anfernee Jennings, DE Josh Uche, WRs Kendrick Bourne and Jalen Reagor, and TE Hunter Henry.

But before you nominate Belichick for “NFL Executive Of The Year,” ponder this: How many of these players would have re-signed if Belichick was still running things?

And history isn’t always fair. Dan Duquette got no love from the Red Sox 20 years ago even though he established the cornerstone of the 2004 World Champion curse-busters by acquiring the likes of Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe.

And on the practical side, Jennings is the first Patriots’ player drafted in the top three-rounds to get a multi-year contract since Duron Harmon seven years ago.

The Patriots and Onwenu agreed to a $57 million deal with $38 million guaranteed.

The funny money value of that contract represents the fifth largest such deal in Patriots history since they broke their deal with the state of Connecticut and broke ground on Gillette Stadium.

It trails only the $65 million compact signed by Stephon Gilmore in 2017, Tom Brady’s $72 million contract from 2010, the $103 million deal made with Drew Bledsoe in 2001, and the $250 million agreement the Patriots had with Suffolk construction to build their new lighthouse, scoreboard and stadium concourse.

That Robert and Jonathan Kraft spent more money on their stadium’s most-recent upgrade than they spent on their top three player contracts all-time combined offers a reminder of where the priorities lie at One Patriot Place. Before, during, and after Belichick.

Stadium additions, scoreboards and lighthouses are all appreciating assets that add to the long-term value of Gillette Stadium, and thus, the franchise.

To paraphrase John Henry, it’s expensive to have football players, too. Especially given their limited shelf life. Nothing depreciates quicker than a new Lexus on the streets of Cambridge except an NFL running back.

The Patriots’ lighthouse will outlast whoever they choose with the No. 3 pick in April’s draft. Never mind anyone on the roster right now.

In many ways, the Patriots are building a bridge not to the future, but merely to Fenway Park.

The Patriots brought back the tail end of the “Wolfpack” in Jacoby Brissett. An all-world nice guy, Brissett has been on four different rosters since leaving the Patriots after the 2016 season. More living proof that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

The same team that under-appreciated Tom Brady for 20 years continues to flat-out suck at the most important position in pro sports. Tom has yet to let it go. New England’s best hope at quarterback is a rookie-to-be-named later who will be passed over twice in the NFL draft.

The Patriots replaced one of the worst QBs in the NFL with one of the worst QBs in the NFL.

Brissett’s career passer rating is 85.3. That’s lower than Mac Jones’ number of 85.8.

Attrition by subtraction.

The best quarterback the Patriots had last season is now in Jacksonville. Jones led the team in passing yards, completions, completion percentage,  average yards per attempt, average yards per game, touchdowns (and interceptions) and passer rating.

Jones played in 11 games. Bailey Zappe played in 10.

The Patriots once dominated the universe of pro sports. This week, they were left chasing the tail of the Jaguars trying to sign WR Calvin Ridley, a 30-year-old WR suspended two years ago by the NFL for gambling.

Ridley landed a four-year deal with the Tennessee Titans worth $92 million, with $50 million guaranteed. Tennessee doesn’t have a state income tax or a decent/proven starting quarterback. But the Patriots whiffed again when it came to the biggest name available.

The Volunteer State does boast a dozen legal online sportsbooks, compared to the six active betting sites in the Bay State.

And the 2024 Patriots needed every edge they could get.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

Load up on caffeine ahead of time, if for no other reason than to be awake when the evening’s main event begins at 10 on TNT.

The Celtics visit the Denver Nuggets in a game that many – including oddsmakers – see as a preview of the 2024 NBA Finals.

The State of the Boston Celtics is terrific – on your digital screen.

Boston has the best numbers in the NBA. It holds a six-game lead in the loss column over Minnesota for Association-wide bragging rights. It leads the Bucks by 7.5 games for home court in the East.

The Celtics are No. 1 in overall average point differential, No 1 in defensive rating, No. 1 in defensive rebounds, and No. 3 in overall points scored.

The Celtics have not lost to an Eastern Conference team at home during the regular season for more than a calendar year.

The Celtics are the dominant betting favorite to win the Eastern Conference at -110 and Banner 18 at +230.

Celtics State Run Social Media called the team’s recent winning streak “the most dominant 11-game stretch in NBA history.” Boston won those 11 games by an average of 22.1 points. And the streak came on both sides of the All-Star Break.

Dizzying accomplishments all.

Those who just dropped in from Mars have no reason to believe this team should, if not will, finally win Boston’s second NBA championship since the Reagan Administration.

When Larry Bird finally met Jayson Tatum at the NBA All-Star Game, it was as if a metaphorical baton was finally being dished.

Here’s hoping Bird Flu will turn into a pandemic in the Celtics locker room by playoff time. Thus far, the 2023-24 Celtics appear to have been fully vaccinated against it.

More than any other NBA franchise, the Celtics embrace history.

But they also appear hell bent at times to repeat that recent history this season.

Tuesday night, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla spoke about a timeout called with 4.6 seconds to play that nobody saw.

He said his team needed to “go faster.”

He offered a lament about how the team created “a lot of good situational stuff” but still has “small things to work on execution.”

This was not a dissertation on the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat.

These were some of Mazzulla’s quotes after the historic collapse in Cleveland.

A chunk of progress this team made over its first 60 games in winning hearts and minds was erased in less than minutes.

The nasty leprechauns – those that dogged Boston in recent playoff runs – revisited the Celtics in what played out as bad as the all-female “Ghostbusters” sequel.

There was “Stone Cold Shooting.” “Lazy Defense.” And their BFF: “Lack of Focus.” Jayson “MVP In Waiting” Tatum led the slide. He played all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter and hit just one of nine shots. He may still be holding and dribbling on that last possession.

No one should extrapolate playoff doom from a single regular-season defeat.

Nor is it rational to rip these Celtics for not winning the Finals, since it’s still March.

But it’s still all about the Banners.

The most disheartening part of Tuesday’s capitulation came when Kristaps Porzingis called it a “good loss.”

Kristaps is new in town. But this team has suffered far too many “good” losses in recent years.

Boston has gotten more “wake-up” calls than Cornelius Rooster of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes fame. But they go soggy at crunch time.

Whatever lessons the Celtics could/should/would learn from that loss in Cleveland are not new.

“Play 48 minutes of defense.”

“Keep your foot on the throat/gas.”

“Finish fast.”

The eloquence of Kevin Garnett remains elusive, even with the additions of Jrue Holiday and Porzingis.

This team lacks “grit and balls.”

Boston blew a 22-point lead and was outscored 34-11 over the final 8:59 by Cleveland in losing 105-104 Tuesday. When Boston led 93-71 in the fourth quarter, the Cavs were +4000 to win at FanDuel.

But this game was not lost during the final Celtics possession, which included Mazzulla’s phantom timeout with 4.6 seconds to play.

The Celtics blew this game when they decided it was over early in the fourth quarter – or maybe – as Mazzulla said – on Cleveland’s final possession of the third.

Someone named Dean Wade outscored the Celtics 20-17 over the final 12 minutes. In much the same way Gabe Vincent terrorized the Celtics during the Eastern Conference Finals, Boston was beaten by another unheralded role player. This one best known for having someone else’s moniker.

With this D-Wade in Cleveland, LeBron might have another six rings.

The new-and-improved Celtics have yet to fully form under pressure. That’s understandable because they’ve won three games by at least 50 points, including on Sunday against the depleted and cowardly Warriors.

But things get too tight around the collar in close games.

They need a crutch in the clutch.

When the Celtics trail by five points or less, Jaylen Brown and Tatum are a combined 1-for-10 from the floor, while missing both 3-point attempts. The Celtics are 0-for-9 when taking shots in the last five seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime to tie the game or take the lead. Tatum is 0-for-5, including his clanger that ended Boston’s hopes on Tuesday.

Thanks to Boston Sports Info for those numbers.

Overall, seven of Boston’s 13 losses have come via one possession games at the end of regulation. Turning green late may not be a big deal in March.

But it’s a death sentence come May and June. The regular season ends a week and a month from today. In the interim, enjoy the Celtics at their best.

Because the Celtics at their worst are never more than one game away.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

Delta House would be ashamed.

Patriots Owner Robert “Hoover” Kraft: “D+”

Former Coach Bill “Otter” Belichick: “B-minus”

Meanwhile, “Treatment Of Families” pulled a Blutarsky.

“Zero-point-zero.”

An F-minus

Jonathan “D-Day” Kraft had no grade point average.

All courses incomplete.

These ratings came via the NFLPA’s annual team-by-team survey.

This is what the players think.

Overall, the Patriots are ranked 29th by the players association in 11 different categories.

Their team GPA is 1.71 on a 4.0 scale.

That’s a “D+.”

The Patriot Way is on double-secret probation.

“We’re a region that stresses family values,” Robert Kraft said 30 years ago on the day when he bought the Patriots.

The Patriots have become a franchise that literally cannot treat player families any worse.

“Family Values” have gone the way of “The Dynasty,”

When it comes to “The Dynasty,” Patriots fans are still wrangling with the various stages of grief.

The denial thing took about 5 years, but the bargaining phase shows no end date.

Talk of “The Dynasty” here is not limited to the current serialization of Jeff Benedict’s book currently airing in parts on Apple TV+.

We view “The Dynasty” as the entire three decades of Patriots decadence going back to the days when Robert Kraft made James Orthwein an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“The Dynasty” on Apple TV+ sits as a milestone between “Olympia,” “Why We Fight,” and the “NESN Red Sox Post Game Show” in terms of State Run Media propaganda.

While the reel-life “Dynasty” Patriots are streaming on your favorite big-screen of choice, the real-life Patriots seek their new post-Dynasty identity this week at the NFL combine in Indianapolis.

Eliot Wolf spoke to the world for the first time in his new role as Patriots GM-In-Everything-But-Name-Only Tuesday.

Wolf, 41, is the son of former Packers GM Ron Wolf. He followed dad’s footsteps and worked in Green Bay for 14 years.

And he is bringing the Packer Way to Foxboro.

“Cheese!”

Wolf wasn’t sheepish when it came to stating his priorities. He made it clear the days of “a hard-ass vibe” in New England have gone the way of straight A’s in Foxboro.

Wolf promised a new way to evaluate players, especially quarterbacks.

It appears he’s already given Mac the knife.

“You don’t want a guy that’s throwing his hands up after a bad play or you can see him physically pointing at somebody. Body language is important. Everybody’s looking to the quarterback,” Wolf said.

Declarative sentences.

Action verbs.

Cogent answers.

Welcome to 2024.

So much BS has gone the way of “B-minus B.”

The most important thing Wolf said was that he has the final say in deciding what to do with the No. 3 pick in April’s NFL draft. The finger of blame or success points in his direction.

This may be the first time since Kraft told Bill Parcells to draft Terry Glenn that we have definitive proof in terms of who makes the final call on draft day.

The Narrative says Kraft forced Belichick to draft Mac Jones in 2020. The truth is that assertion never surfaced after Jones’ strong rookie season.

In “The Dynasty,” Kraft is shown at the table when the team chooses Brady.

“Did Bob take Tom, too?”

Episodes 5 and 6 of “The Dynasty” drop late Thursday/early Friday depending on the time zone of your server.

But much is amiss.

Mike Martz and Michael Strahan are given more airtime than the 2003-2004 back-to-back Super Bowl winning seasons. Never mind Adam Vinatieri.

Vinatieri is the greatest clutch player in the history of Boston sports. In addition to his wizardry in the Snow Bowl, he provided the margin of victory in New England’s first three Super Bowl wins.

And when AI is doing its best to scrub any mentions of male NHL players from the internet, “The Dynasty” conveniently has yet to mention Kraft’s dalliance with the State of Connecticut.

The Narrative says the NFL would never let the Patriots leave the Boston Metro Area at the turn of the century. But in truth, the league could do nothing to stop a move to Hartford. (See: Browns, Cleveland). Rather the NFL worked behind the scenes to keep the team from leaving Massachusetts. A subtle but important difference.

The Nov. 19, 1998, front page “PATRIOTS EXTRA” of Hartford Courant was emblazoned with the headline “Touchdown!” Kraft was pictured with then Gov. John Rowland.

The Nutmeg State would open its wallet to give the franchise whatever it wanted to move to a stadium alongside the Connecticut River in Harford. The deal would have been the most lucrative, if not ludicrous, in NFL history.

Problems with the Hartford Steam Plant site doomed the project. The NFL got lucky.

Had the sides opted for a cleaner site across the river in East Hartford, Tom Brady may be Connecticut favorite’s son. The Hartford Heartthrob. The Middlebury Missile. The Torrington Tornado.

The “charade” lasted for months. The Patriots were moving to Connecticut … unless.

When the Connecticut deal was announced, Kraft spoke with the same emotion as he does in “The Dynasty” when discussing Super Bowl 36 and 9/11. Kraft and son Jonathan participated in a Hartford pep rally on the same day when his dad got a key to the city.

The deal would guarantee the Patriots a new stadium by 2002. Kraft terminated it on April 30, 1999, two days before an opt-out deadline.

The Patriots got their “unless” in the form of that $70 million in Bay State taxpayer money to cover infrastructure improvements around Gillette Stadium. That equals $129.5 million today. The Krafts also earned the everlasting gratitude of would-be NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who worked backchannels around Beacon Hill.

That chit came in handy when it came time to smash the “Spygate” tapes.

The Krafts may need a sequel to “The Dynasty” to clean up this current mess and raise that GPA.

“Hard Knocks” is just five months away.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com.

That moment was immortalized by the New York Daily News.

“Ford To City: Drop Dead”

By not talking and not doing, Henry has confirmed what is on everyone’s mind: the Red Sox have become the red-headed stepchild of the Fenway Sports Group portfolio.

“Henry To Sox: Drop Dead.”

Henry continues to walk away literally and metaphorically from addressing any concerns about the Major League Baseball team that operates under his company masthead.

Henry hasn’t taken live in-person questions from the press about the Red Sox since the Trump administration. He’s clearly given up on trying to make the Red Sox relevant again. Never mind great.

Henry’s appearance at the 2023 Winter Weekend/Peasant Uprising was a mini-Afghanistan. He spent this year’s Winter Weekend in the digital bunker. Or Miami. Or Saudi Arabia.

Monday at Fenway South, Henry again snubbed the press. Even the most dutiful Red Sox State Run Media apparatchiks were left hanging. Jersey Street runs two ways, loyalty to Henry does not.

When asked about being asked questions by reporters, the detached billionaire laughed, waved and walked away.

It’s time for Red Sox Nation to do the same.

That team has finished in last place in three of the past four seasons. Since winning the 2018 World Series, the Red Sox are 356-352 (.502) during the regular season. They made one playoff appearance, knocking out the Yankees and Rays before getting whipped by the Houston Trash Cans 4-2 in the 2021 ALCS.

Boston’s average finish during this current five-year span is 17.4 games out of first place.

There are more human shields around JetBlue Park than in any Middle Eastern conflict. Since going silent on the Red Sox around the time Mookie Betts was traded/salary dumped to Los Angeles, Henry has cowardly hidden behind Mrs. Henry, Tom Werner, Sam Kennedy, Chaim Bloom, Alex Cora and, now, Craig Breslow.

Post-walkaway snub, Henry and the Baroness Pizzuti-Henry were seen on her Instagram feed, yukking it up alongside Breslow and Werner during what was described as “the annual full team meeting.”

Their message to fans: “Let them eat gluten-free cake.”

The CEO of the Boston Globe reported the following from (Robert E.) Lee County in Florida.

“It is a joyful reunion, a fresh start, and inspiring alignment for the long season ahead. (Alex Cora) set the tone and energy, with a commitment of hard work and having each player’s back. I love seeing his leadership and connection to each player. Breslow remembered what he felt like sitting in those exact seats at the start of the Red Sox season when he was a player, and what resonated with him.”

The Nickelodeon Super Bowl Slime Cast offered a harsher assessment of Taylor Swift’s couture.

The Green Monster of denial and delusion is cracking. But it may not be enough.

Red Sox CEO/President Kennedy let the truth slip Monday when he said that Breslow-Bloom is subject to spending “parameters” set by ownership. Kennedy, who a few weeks ago referred to anyone who questioned the Red Sox commitment to spending and winning as a “liar,” admitted that “the focus on spending is fair and reasonable given where we finished the last couple of years.”

Things got better/worse Tuesday.

The face of the franchise, third baseman Raffy Devers, questioned its direction or lack thereof.

“Everybody knows what we need, you know what we need, and they know what we need. There’s just some things I can’t say out loud, but everybody that knows our organization and knows the game knows what we need,” Devers said via interpreter Carlos Villoria.

So the Red Sox have lost their best player and Opening Day is still five weeks away?

July is going to be a blast.

Even former players have gone rogue. Dustin Pedroia reportedly infiltrated a dinner with Cora and some team executives via FaceTime and offered his thoughts on which available free-agent pitchers the Red Sox should add to their roster.

“He was very clear about his feelings,” Kennedy told the Globe’s Peter Abraham.

This time around the sun, the Red Sox are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 2004 World Series champions. RIP Tim Wakefield.

One score after creating the most euphoric moment in the past 100 years of Boston sports, the Red Sox have allowed their baseball precipice to crumble into dust.

The 2024 Red Sox are ranked 17th in ESPN’s most-recent MLB power ranking. Their over/under win total is 79.5 games. That’s a one-win boost from last season. If you want to burn your digital dollars, the Red Sox are +5000 to win the World Series, +2200 to win the American League, +1300 to win the AL East, and +260 to make the playoffs.

The only drama concerning this club is whether or not Curt Schilling will be invited back to celebrate with his former teammates.

He’s likely to cause a furor in either case.

The 2004 Red Sox World Series victory elicited unbridled joy in New England not felt since the end of World War II. Bells rang from Waterville to Waterbury. Cemeteries were festooned with Red Sox swag.

Twenty years hence, the Red Sox are in grave danger of irrelevance.

Ownership went “full throttle” this offseason – when it came to staking a claim in the PGA Tour and partnering with Netflix to make a documentary/slasher film about this upcoming season.

FSG’s baseball team is as much an irritant as anything else. Think of the Red Sox as that shaky, identity-stealing ATM in the corner of a restaurant, spitting out $20s and $50s as needed to cover the cost of the celebration raging elsewhere.

Of course, I may be wrong in all of this.

DMs are open and my email is below if John Henry wants to prove otherwise.

Bill Speros (@realOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

Betr launched as a start-up in 2022 and is backed by social media star and fighter Jake Paul. Betr was seen as an outlier in the highly-competitive Massachusetts sports betting market because it focused on player-based props and other micro-betting wagers.

“I really appreciated your product and your innovations,” Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chair Cathy Judd-Stein said during the MGC’s meeting on Wednesday. Judd-Stein on Tuesday announced she would be retiring from her position, effective March 21.

Betr’s exit and the planned cessation of operations by WynnBET on Friday leaves just 6 active online operators in the state operating under two different licenses:

In Category 1, tethered to a casino, there are BetMGM (MGM Springfield); Caesars Sportsbook (Encore Boston Harbor); Fanatics (Plainridge Park Casino); and ESPN BET (Plainridge Park Casino).

In Category 3, untethered, there are DraftKings and FanDuel.  Bally Bet holds a Category 3 license that it plans to renew for 2024, but has yet to launch.

This leaves 8 unused online operator licenses available. Books can partner with either a casino operator, a parimutuel operator, or go it alone. License fees are $1 million per year.

Meanwhile, WynnBET remains on track to shut down its online operations in Massachusetts on Friday. It submitted detailed cessation plans last week. WynnBET said 75% of its futures wagers have been settled with either a straight cash payout or a fair-market value payout on the outstanding bet. It has contacted all of its patrons with such bets.

Encore Boston Harbor Sr. Vice President and General Counsel Jacqui Krum told the MGC earlier this month that the WynnBET retail sportsbook in Everett will be operated and managed by the casino. It will no longer receive any technological or marketing support from WynnBET.

That makes him the perfect manager for the 2024 Red Sox.

The Red Sox need to go “full throttle” back to the basics. Forget analytics.

The team needs to work on complex issues like:

“Hitting the cut-off man.”

“Covering first base.”

“Moving the runner from first to third.”

It should make for compelling drama.

The “Bad News Sox” will have their own show on Netflix in 2024.

The Super Bowl produced a record TV audience of 123.4 million. The “Bad News Sox” may crush that number when it comes to hate watching.

The Red Sox pitchers and catchers hold their first formal workout of the spring at Fenway South in Lee County, Fla. today.

Lee County is named for the same Robert E. Lee who led the Confederacy.

If only Boston could secede from the Red Sox.

Netflix’s most popular show is a science-fiction, supernatural, teen, horror-drama called “Stranger Things.”

The show is set in the 1980s.

That’s back when the Red Sox were the No. 1 team in town whenever Larry Bird wasn’t playing.

The Red Sox may need some “Stranger Things” supernatural juice if they hope to cover the over on 80.5 wins, avoid last place, or be relevant after Labor Day.

Cora met the media Tuesday.

On this day before Valentine’s Day, he spoke about the 2024 Red Sox with all the passion of a DMV clerk.

Cora was a bit more animated when discussing Cora.

The Red Sox manager confessed that last season wore on him more than most.

“It’s not easy, man. Dealing with the media, dealing with players, the front office, the pressure of winning is not easy. It should be fun, and sometimes it’s not,” he told the assembled scribes and cameras.

Cora spent the offseason working himself back into shape. A leaner-if-not-meaner Cora will be managing the team this year.

“This morning I got up, I ran four (miles). That’s where I’m at. All joking aside, I felt awful, physically, last year. I felt awful health-wise, energy-wise. It was bad. I cannot let a game dictate who I am as a person, or what I have to do. I feel really good,” he said.

Cora said he’s on the clock, whether it be just one more year or longer.

“I don’t see myself managing in 10 years,” Cora said, after citing the likes of Terry Francona and Tony LaRussa. “There’s more to life than baseball.”

In 2024, that includes the rebuild of the Patriots; potentially soul-crushing playoff flops by the Celtics and Bruins; and Superfan Episodes of “The Office.”

Cora and GM Craig Breslow on Tuesday passed on questions concerning the manager’s future with the team beyond 2024.

How will that affect plans for a “Bad New Sox” sequel?

Think of this show as “Hard Knocks” meets “No Knocks.”

The Red Sox were 10th in the AL in home runs last year. Their No. 3 home run hitter signed with the Blue Jays. Their No. 4 home run hitter is still a free agent. And their No. 5 home run hitter, Masa Yoshida, has been anointed as the new full-time DH.

Yoshida hit 15 bombs last season.

Those are 1975 Bernie Carbo numbers minus the World Series heroics.

The lack of power in this lineup mirrors the lack of passion throughout Red Sox Nation.

On this Valentine’s Day, it’s clear Cupid’s arrow missed the 2024 Red Sox by a mile.

This entire offseason was like kissing your sister.

The Red Sox and their fans watched as Fenway Sports Group spread its love far and wide, from Saudi Arabia to Ponte Vedra Beach.

Meanwhile, fans in New England were given the cold shoulder.

John W. Henry, Linda Pizzuti Henry, and Tom Werner have gone all in on trying to save … the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour is now golf’s version of the Red Sox + Tiger Woods once a month.

Henry’s newest subsidiary has fallen so far that bad weather and a bunch of no-names pushed the Waste Management Open into a playoff Sunday. The tournament ended during the second quarter of the Super Bowl.

To the surprise of no one, the TV numbers for that one were down 35% over last year.

Tiger will be playing this weekend at his own tournament in Los Angeles.

Hopefully, he’ll be using UberX to get to and from the course.

The 2024 “Bad News Sox” have no Tigers, lions, or bears.

But ownership continues to play the team’s fans for a flock of sheep.

We’ve been waiting to see if/when the Red Sox fan base would follow ownership’s lead and simply walk away from the franchise.

That Red Sox tickets can be had at Costco as part of a package deal that includes hats and hot dogs is an encouraging sign that you can only fool most of the people long enough.

Henry’s newspaper/website is doing its best to convince readers that everything is simply peachy in terms of the overall economy. The shrinking bank accounts and inflated credit card balances of the masses tell another story.

Visiting fans again will fill plenty of seats at the venerable ballyard on Jersey Street this spring and summer. When it comes to those electronic payments on MLB.com or at the Fenway concession stands, it doesn’t matter if the credit card owner has a Massachusetts or Missouri zip code.

The 2024 Red Sox are in an enviable position given that they cannot fall any further in the standings, if not the standing of the public.

Just like they were last year.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

Is it Brady, the Montreal Expos catcher and Tampa Bay Rays DH who hit 649 home runs, won three MVPs, and seven World Series rings playing alongside the likes of Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker, and Vlad Guerrero?

Or is it Patrick Mahomes, the Detroit Tigers righty who won 30 games in 2022, pocketed two World Series rings and a pair of Cy Young Awards in Detroit in his first six seasons, and led the Tigers to the World Series for the fourth time in five years?

Fanatics did a wonderful job in December taking us back through Brady’s baseball career that never was. Brady was drafted by the Expos in the 18th round of the 1995 MLB draft. The guy who chose Brady – former baseball executive Kevin Malone – told me back in 2015 that Brady had legitimate big-league baseball potential.

Mahomes was taken by the Detroit Tigers during the 37th round of the 2014 MLB draft.

Like Brady, he made baseball the road not taken.

Patrick Mahomes Sr. pitched for the Red Sox in 1996-97. The elder Mahomes appeared in 21 games for Boston out of the bullpen. Mahomes Sr. posted a Kaleb Ort-like 6.85 ERA and recorded 22 strikeouts in 22.1 innings for the Local Nine.

The younger Mahomes turned 1 just 12 days before his dad got a save in relief of Roger Clemens – and a few others – by pitching the 11th inning in a 4-3 win over the Yankees in New York.

One degree of separation between the Rocket from Texas and the rocket-throwing QB from Texas Tech. Patrick Mahomes was an MLB clubhouse kid. His dad played for six major-league teams, including the 2001 Texas Rangers alongside Alex Rodriguez.

Mahomes Sr. was arrested this past week and charged with DUI, his third such charge.

Mahomes addressed the issue Monday night in Las Vegas, by calling it a “family matter.” If there’s such a thing as an Uber Platinum Card, Mahomes Sr. needs to have one.

It’s been nearly impossible to have a sober discussion comparing Brady to Mahomes these days.

How soon we forget?

Poor Bill Belichick. Age discrimination personified. He can’t find work these days. The Hoodie’s boat is named “VIII Rings” but he couldn’t get a call back from the freaking Commanders.

Meanwhile, “Brady Derangement Syndrome” returned like the 39th COVID variant after Mahomes and Chiefs clipped the Ravens at Baltimore in the AFC Championship Game.

Mahomes has won 12 times in 14 tries as a betting underdog. He’s 12-1-1 in his career ATS when getting points. Mahomes’ team is a two-point underdog Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers.

You’ve been warned.

Now, if you want to call Mahomes “The GOAT of Betting Underdog QBs,” we’re all in.

The foolishness spewed by multiple mouths in NFL State Run media concerning Mahomes in relation to Brady and the Big Picture has brought us back in time to the days of “Tom vs. Peyton,” “Tom vs. Time,” and “Tom vs. Everything.”

The tell on those who put Mahomes at the top of any NFL QB pantheon is that they begin their dissertation with an assault on Brady.

Before adding: “What if … ”

There is no “if,” there’s just “what.”

Brady has seven Super Bowl rings, plus head-to-head wins over Mahomes in Super Bowl 55 and the 2018 AFC title game. Head-to-head is the ultimate tiebreaker.

Yes, football is a team sport.

Still, Mahomes needs eight rings before he’ll ever dethrone Brady as “The GOAT” of anything. Not to mention drunk tossing the Lombardi Trophy successfully from one moving boat to another.

Moving forward, Brady’s biggest ace over his NFL Heir Apparent is longevity.

Brady did not miss a start due to injury from age 32 until his second retirement at 45.

Brady won six Super Bowls with the Patriots in exactly 17 calendar years. Super Bowl 36 was played on Feb. 3, 2002. Super Bowl 53 followed on Feb. 3, 2019. Brady won his seventh ring, with Tampa Bay, two years and four days later.

While Mahomes has 17 years left to get six more rings to reach No. 8, he may not want to stick around that long. Mahomes is playing on a 10-year, $450 million deal that should keep him in Kansas City through the 2031 season.

By then, Mahomes will be 36. Which is the NFL’s new 45.

Saying Patrick Mahomes isn’t Tom Brady – yet – is hardly NFL slander.

“I’m not even close to halfway,” Mahomes said when asked about catching TB12 during Super Bowl opening night Monday.

Mahomes is the closest thing the NFL has to Brady.

Any current “Brady vs. Mahomes” comparison is a momentary snapshot. Just like the latest presidential poll.

At age 28, Brady had won three Super Bowls in five seasons.

Mahomes may hit that plateau by 10:15 p.m. Sunday.

The 28-year-old Mahomes is well ahead of the 28-year-old Brady in terms of regular-season career attempts, completions, completion percentage, yards per game, total yards, and TD passes.

Mahomes played in six AFC title games in his first six seasons. The 28-year-old Mahomes will be playing in his fourth Super Bowl, one more than the 28-year-old Brady.

Only two QBs have bested Mahomes in the postseason: Brady and Joe Burrow.

Not bad.

Mahomes has the love of Roger Goodell, Taylor Swift and a few billion Swifties at his back Sunday. Brady will forever be the NFL’s ultimate “anti-hero.”

Beyond the numbers, Mahomes shares Brady’s “clutchability.” That is the only thing more important than “pliability.”

For unapologetic Bradyphiles, who long ago chose Tom over Bill or Bob, watching Mahomes is like watching Brady reincarnated.

The world may run out of Kryptonite trying to destroy them both.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @Bill Speros on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

The traditional 18-wheeler will be replaced by the red pickup from “Sanford and Son.”

And a half-dozen golf carts.

Pitchers and catchers hold their first workout at Fenway South on Valentine’s Day.

The massacre begins March 28 in Seattle.

John W. Henry’s Strategic Sports Group and the PGA Tour Wednesday announced a deal in which SSG will pump up to $3 billion into a brand-new-for-profit entity called PGA Tour Enterprises.

It includes up to $1.5 billion in equity for PGA Tour players.

Good news for Tiger Woods.

But a triple-bogey for Red Sox fans.

The Local Nine has been relegated to the back nine of the Fenway Sports Group spreadsheet.

FORE! More like FIVE! when it comes to the Red Sox projected finish in the AL East.

It’s poetic that Henry & Co. bought into the PGA Tour since the Red Sox should be golf-course
eligible by Labor Day.

They chose the fairways of TPC Scottsdale over the outfield at Fenway.

Among those in on this deal: Tom Werner, Sam Kennedy, and Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck.

Belmont native and former FSG employee Jay Monahan remains as PGA Tour CEO/Errand Boy.

How billionaires choose to spend their money is clearly their choice. But if you own the Red Sox, slash payroll, turn Fenway Park into a home-away-from-home for Blue Jays fans, finish in last place three times in four years, and lose Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts for basically nothing, you are going to be called out whenever you choose to drop nine figures on golf clubs.

At least Wyc put his father’s money into the Green Team’s latest run at Banner 18. Jaylen Brown’s supermax contract extension is the richest in NBA history, worth $304 million. Jayson Tatum’s deal next summer will top it.

The Celtics haven’t been considered “cheap” since Paul Gaston took over from his dad. If you want to find Henry these days, your search is easy.

He’s either:

1. In his cryogenic chamber
2. On his wife’s Instagram feed
3. In a PGA Tour press release

“We greatly appreciate the opportunity to join PGA Tour players in this important next phase of the PGA Tour’s evolution. Our enthusiasm for this new venture stems from a very deep respect for this remarkable game and a firm belief in the expansive growth potential of the PGA Tour. We are proud to partner with this historic institution and are eager to work with the PGA Tour and its many members to grow and strengthen the game of golf globally,” Henry said in the official release.

That’s 80 words, according to my Arlington Public Schools education and Microsoft Word. It’s also 80 more words than Henry has said on the record about the Red Sox since last March.

Tuesday, we learned 2023 fan-favorite Justin Turner agreed to a one-year deal with the Blue Jays worth $14 million. The Red Sox reportedly offered $12 million. Turner was the only right-handed home run threat in the Red Sox 2023 lineup. Why spend $2 million when you can save $12 million?

“Full throttle” turns out to be the biggest lie this side of “showed interest.”

The 2024 “Total BS” starting rotation is shaping up as Lucas Giolito, Brayan Bello, Nick Pivetta, Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck. So say the baseball insiders. Chris Sale went down to Georgia. He’s looking for another ring to steal.

Five aces? Try a full house with threes and fours.

This Feckless Fivesome averaged 143.2 IP in 2023. Over a full season, that’s less than five innings per start, figuring 30 starts. Alex Cora will burn through his bullpen quicker than Gov. Healey spending the state’s sports betting revenue.

The Red Sox have become nothing more than a stripped-down ATM for their owners.

But don’t be fooled into thinking cutting payroll is a prelude to a sale.

“Carrying less payroll is irrelevant, because for a buyer, there is no value to be created from it.”

That bit of wisdom comes from a reader who “works in the investment business.” He is a real-life Bobby Axelrod, having managed real-life billions. Whatever salary the team does or doesn’t carry would simply be factored into its price. In the same way a new roof adds both value and cost to a home.

“In a sale you do not get credit for underinvesting in an asset. It is counterintuitive. They increase short term cash flow by not spending but decrease the value of the business at the same time. Look at the stock market, the growth companies that make no money are the ones with huge valuations. Investors know in the future these companies will be huge and profitable,” “Bobby” explained.

“Like if you bought Google 25 years ago. The PE multiple was huge, but the stock has gone up like 100x since then, and the company is hugely valuable. Meanwhile, a supermarket business might have way more cash flow, but it isn’t growing, so only gets 10 PE on that cash flow, and is not worth nearly as much. Cash flow that isn’t growing, or is slightly shrinking, is not valuable. That is what the Red Sox are now. The cash flow is valuable to the owners, who use it to buy other things. They could invest into the Red Sox and try to turn themselves back into Google. But then they would not have the cash flow to buy other things. Right now, they prefer the other things.” he said.

MassLive reported Monday the Red Sox have about $36-37 million to spend before reaching the Competitive Balance Tax threshold this season. They won’t. $36-37 million buys a lot of Titleists.

As Henry told us during the Winter Weekend/Peasant Uprising of 2023: “It’s expensive to have
baseball players.”

Pro golf tours, not so much.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

They should hire Joe Isuzu.

Joe was among the most notorious truth-stretchers in TV commercial history.

Joe once told viewers they could save $2 million by simply buying 2,000 Isuzu Troopers at $13,499 a piece (SUVs were much cheaper back then).

Each carried a $1,000 rebate.

Joe claimed the Isuzu Impulse Turbo could go 950 miles per hour.

Then he fired a gun to prove it.

Eventually catching the bullet in his teeth.

Thankfully, Alec Baldwin wasn’t doing commercials in those days.

Gov. Mike Dukakis infamously called George H.W. Bush the “Joe Isuzu of American politics,” during a 1988 presidential debate. Dukakis would finish second. Still better than the 2023 Red Sox.

The Duke is doing well at age 90. The Red Sox at age 123? Not so much.

Isuzu no longer sells cars in the United States. But it still makes them in Japan.

The Red Sox are in no danger of going out of business. But the team is on the verge of becoming as relevant as the Isuzu Pickup among the New England masses.

Joe fixes that.

With Joe on the call, each Red Sox pitcher throws with the accuracy of Pedro Martinez. Each batter swings with the might of Big Papi. There are no errors, just “really good tries.”

Wally Waves replace runs.

Each time “Sweet Caroline” plays, the Red Sox automatically win.

Every victory: “A historic triumph of good over evil.”

Losses. Not here. Just “moral victories for the Local Nine.”

Joe could have handled the whole “full throttle” debacle with ease.

“’Full Throttle?’ Sure. I never said it meant ‘Full Throttle’ in reverse.”

Easy.

Poor Tom Werner. When the subject of “full throttle” came up last week, Werner did his best Torii Hunter imitation. flipping ass over teakettle trying to explain himself. He would have been better off trying to tend bar with his old pal Bill Cosby.

Werner’s “full throttle” full meltdown was merely a prelude to the Red Sox Red Wedding Winter Weekend.

Instead of Tom Caron and Johnny “Boom Boom” Papelbon on stage at MGM Springfield, the Red Sox needed Old Joe and Baghdad Bob.

The Red Sox are on track to lower payroll by about $21 million this season, via FanGraphs. And they whiffed on every player of note in which they “showed interest.”

Of course, the Red Sox once “showed interest” in Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, and Kirby Puckett.

At last weekend’s Red Wedding, the misinformation about signing big-name players turned into a 5th-grade presentation about how Fenway Park is a great place for baseball

Joe couldn’t do any better if he lied.

“First, we recognize the frustration that fans have,” Werner said to the press. “We spend a lot of time trying to figure out ways to bring new fans into the park and have some tickets that are very affordable for students. We spend a lot of time talking about the experience of going to Fenway. We think our record is probably the most important thing, but there are other things that make going to Fenway a special place. And we’ve got to put a better product on the field, and we know that.”

The team’s record is “probably the most important thing.”

Little wonder John Henry doesn’t want to leave his cryogenic chamber. Or his wife’s Instagram feed.

For decades, “Fenway Experience” meant traumatic loss. Thankfully our offspring, and their offspring, were raised in an era of success. The legitimate disappointment felt by previous generations after each failed season has been replaced by a pandemic of apathy.

Interesting how Werner’s full retreat on “full throttle” and President/CEO Sam Kennedy’s public admission that this year’s payroll will be lower than it was last year only came about after the deadline for season ticket renewals had passed.

Meanwhile, Red Sox aired a commercial pushing tickets that featured a voice over of the late Chris Sale, after Sale had been traded to Atlanta. Falcons Head Coach Bill Belichick can throw the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day at Truist Park against the Diamondbacks on April 5. But they’d have to change the game time to 3:28 p.m.

Surprised one of those Bay State billboard attorneys has not yet rounded up a few season ticket holders for a class-action lawsuit claiming deceptive advertising practices.

Where is Attorney General Maura Healey when we need her?

Don’t feel bad. You didn’t leave the Red Sox, the Red Sox left you.

They’ve finished in last place three out of the past four years. Payroll is set to decline for the second straight season – despite inflation and a boost in the Competitive Balance Tax threshold. Ownership still calls the Mookie Betts “salary dump” a “trade.”

And they replaced Chaim Bloom with Bhaim Cloom.

Kennedy and new GM Craig Breslow were lustily booed in Springfield.

Kennedy was quick to turn on anyone not drinking the spiked Fenway Kool-Aid.

“When we have two sucky seasons like we’ve had, these are natural questions. We have to take them,” Kennedy told WEEI’s Chris Curtis during a Saturday interview from the scene of the crime. “But I can tell you, as a kid who grew up less than a mile from Fenway Park, if you think for one second that we aren’t passionate, committed, dedicated to the Boston Red Sox, you’re wrong, you’re a liar, and I’ll correct you on it, because it’s total BS.”

“Total BS.”

That was going to be the title of my autobiography.

Now, it has become the Red Sox official motto for 2024.

“Total BS.”

Joe Isuzu would have loved it.

Bill Speros (The OG BS) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com. He posts on X via @RealOBF and @BillSperos. 

But no one had odds on “We have interviewed Bill Belichick for our head coach opening” being posted on X by the Atlanta Falcons during an NFL playoff game in which Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers demolished the NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles 32-9.

TB who?

That capped a wild NFL Wild Card Weekend that saw the 71-year-old Belichick anointed as the next coach of the Dallas Cowboys on social media as America’s Team was getting whacked 48-32 at home by Green Bay on Sunday. Five of the six games were decided by 14 or more points.

For those keeping score, the Packers have now won more playoff games at Jerry World (3), than the Cowboys (2).

Today at noon, the Patriots introduce the 37-year-old Jerod Mayo as their 15th head coach. Mayo was a freshman at Kecoughtan High School in Hampton, Va., the last time the Patriots played a game not coached by Belichick.

Full insanity barely two weeks into 2024.

We’ll get a healthy swig of sobriety on Friday as Red Sox “Winter Weekend” returns to Springfield.

“Take a snow day for a snow job!”

Last year, the fan Q&A with John Henry and Chaim Bloom turned into a reenactment of the Salem Witch Trials. It now seems like the last time Henry took direct questions from the press or public was on Yaz Day.

This time, “Winter Weekend” returns without the Red Sox owner, or the team’s best player, in the Playbill.

D.J. Cinco Ocho will be spinning all the golden oldies. Among the Red Sox greats attending will be Hall of Famers Wade Boggs, Dennis Eckersley, Carlton Fisk, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, and the always-effervescent Jim Rice.

Human shields all. No pitchforks allowed.

Red Sox President Sam Kennedy will be taking bullets for his boss from the media, along with Tom Werner, sometime during the festivities.

In much the same way all the bucks now stop at the desk with Robert Kraft in Foxboro, Henry remains at the fulcrum of all that was once right but is now wrong with the Red Sox.

The best way to keep tabs on Henry these days is via his wife’s Instagram feed. We’re glad Mrs. Henry and son Xander managed to escape from Iceland safely before it blew up Sunday. Let’s hope they don’t let this Xander walk when he wants a boost in his allowance.

Fenway Park has morphed into the coolest neutral site east of the Rose Bowl. Visiting fans often outnumber the locals – at least in terms of decibels and passion. Welcome to America’s Most Beloved Ballpark, in which the Red Sox play 81 games each year.

“Full throttle,” meet “empty grandstand sections.”

Not that it matters. This scribe was among the first of the lemmings to leap off the cliff onto the rocks of Great Boars Head when spring training tickets went on sale last week.

“It’s not you, it’s me.”

There’s no reason for Fenway Sports Group to be upset about this. They’ve slashed payroll. Kept the team below the competitive balance tax. And still had 2.67 million paying customers in attendance last season.

That represents 92% of fan attendance posted in 2018. That season, Boston won a record 108 games in the regular season and the World Series with a payroll of $233,200,428.

Adjusted for inflation, that 2018 payroll number would have equaled $289,465,230 in 2023.

The Red Sox payroll in 2023 was $197,650,647, via Spotrac.

So in 2023, the team cut $91,814,583 in payroll (adjusted for inflation) vs. 2018 and finished in last place. Yet it only saw an 8% drop in fan attendance.

And while the NESN numbers fell off, the Red Sox and every other MLB team have a sports betting revenue stream that did not exist in 2018.

Somewhere, LeBron James is smiling.

I have yet to see definitive proof that Chaim Bloom and Craig Breslow are not the same person.

Someone purporting to be Breslow was quoted Tuesday in the Boston Globe discussing the failing of the offseason that wasn’t.

“It sounds like kind of empty words to say we’re engaged in every path and trying to pursue every opportunity, but it’s true that we are, and they don’t always work out,” Bloom/Breslow said. “It’s been a challenge. I think a lot of teams are seeing that. Starting pitching is highly, highly desirable.”

Bloom/Breslow claims ownership “absolutely are still supportive of assembling a World Series team as quickly as we possibly can.”

He did not offer any idea in which decade that would occur.

The truth was nestled in the 14th paragraph.

“It’s going to require a step forward from the young position players. It’s going to require the build-out of a talent pipeline of arms that we can acquire, we draft, and we can develop internally,” Bloom/Breslow said.

Translation: “What you see is what you get.”

DraftKings has the Red Sox 2024 win total set at 80.5. It opened at 76 in 2023 before moving up to 78.5 by Opening Day. This time, the number is likely headed in the opposite direction.

It’s only this “high” because teams like the Tampa Bay Rays have slipped further this offseason than the Red Sox. For those into Powerball, the Red Sox are +4000 to win the World Series, +1800 to win the American League, +1100 to win the AL East, and +250 to make the playoffs.

And cashing any of those bets would make 2024 the wackiest year on record.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com. 

It was only 4 years too late.

Moving with the efficiency of Emperor Palpatine, Kraft vanquished Belichick and 24 hours later installed a rookie coach who had been promised the job in writing a year ago.

The last Patriots game not coached by Belichick was a 20-3 win over the Ravens on Jan. 3, 2000. That was five presidents ago. Current Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo was 13.

The House of Kraft had a succession plan in place for The Hoodie after committing the catastrophic mistake in not having one for Tom Brady in 2020.

And for a mere $25 million, Kraft got to say the Patriots and Bill Belichick “mutually agreed to part ways.” That hug was on the house.

Throughout the 21st Century, the subject of “Who Runs The Patriots?” was the subject of non-stop deliberation.

Moving forward, the answer is crystal clear: “Robert Kenneth Kraft.”

Meet the new boss, same as the 82-year-old boss.

And Kraft isn’t just “buying the groceries.” He’s opened his own Market Basket at One Patriot Place.

Since the Patriots mutually parted ways with/fired Belichick, we’ve been flooded with reports offering insight into the “The Dynasty’s” collapse.

My favorite nugget was Kraft’s reaction after Tampa Tom won his seventh Super Bowl ring and forever ended the “Was It Brady or Belichick?” debate.

“Bill had told me he couldn’t play anymore and then he goes out and wins the f—ing Super Bowl,” Kraft said privately afterward, according to ESPN.

Millions of Patriots fans said the same thing, very publicly.

As we’ve written previously: both Kraft and Belichick share in The Original Sin that was losing Tom Brady.

Every Greek Orthodox priest on the planet working simultaneously cannot exorcise that demon.

Now, Kraft, through his preferred media outlets, won’t have Belichick to kick around anymore.

Belichick State Run Media wants you to believe, for example, that Bill made every single draft pick since being hired 24 years ago. Except for Mac Jones in 2021.

Kraft’s toadies want you to believe that it was Belichick who (metaphorically) drove Brady to the airport and never wanted to pay any skilled player market value.

Belichick is the greatest football coach of all time. Why would you dump someone who owns 8 Super Bowl rings and 333 NFL wins, and replace him with someone who’s never been a head coach?

The simple answer: “It was time.”

Belichick’s football brilliance and coaching mastery had grown long in the tooth.

Remember this gem about “lesser teams” from 2023:

“Rams are going through it, Tampa is going through it now. So, I’m not saying there’s anything right or wrong with it. It’s just a different way of doing things and there’s the results for doing that.”

The Rams and Bucs have won Super Bowls since the Patriots and reached the playoffs this season with winning records.

Kraft likened his relationship with Belichick to a marriage.

Every marriage begins with high expectations and a life-long commitment.

Every marriage ends in either death or divorce.

(Annulments don’t count because they mean the marriage never happened.)

Bill and Bob opted for an amicable divorce in public, letting their media acolytes of choice to sling the mud.

It sure beats death.

We think.

Belichick State Run Media counter-attacked during the weekend.

The mythology that Kraft pushed to draft Jones has metastasized into fact. The Athletic reported that Belichick wanted to take QB Davis Mills in Round 1 of the 2021 draft. Not Jones.

Mills was chosen by Houston with the 67th pick, in Round 3. This means the Patriots would have had to take Mills in Round 2, had Belichick purportedly gotten his way.

So who would the Patriots have taken with that No. 15 pick in 2021? Three years after the fact, no doubt it would have been the best player taken after Jones.

Meanwhile, Jones has a higher NFL career QB Rating than Mills. With Mills starting 15 games at QB in 2022, the Texans finished 3-13-1, fired their coach, and drafted QB C.J. Stroud with the No. 2 overall pick in 2023.

Funny how we never heard that Kraft twisted Belichick’s arm into taking Jones when Mac went to the Pro Bowl as a rookie.

“Let’s face it, with all due respect, the Don, rest in peace, was slipping.”

Belichick the GM passed on MVP-In-Waiting Lamar Jackson to take Sony Michel in 2018. He chose N’Keal Harry in Round 1 a year later, snubbing WRs A.J. Brown and Deebo Samuel.

Harry was last seen on the Vikings’ practice squad.

Belichick’s “genius” could no longer compensate for a roster bereft of playmakers on offense that had not won a postseason game since Super Bowl 53. If Kraft had a hidden hand in that, then he can share the blame. In the same way both combined to botch Brady’s situation five years ago.

That’s all in the past.

Belichick will be back for his Patriots Hall of Fame jacket. But not before he goes to (insert 31 NFL franchise names here) to win the 15 games he needs to pass Don Shula’s record.

“Whatever’s Best For The Team” and all that.

Bill Parcells was the coach of the Patriots when Kraft took ownership on Jan. 21, 1994.

From Tuna to Mayo in 30 years.

Parcells, Brady, and Belichick all exited in less-than-glorious fashion on Kraft’s watch.

But his team also won 6 Super Bowls.

Call it a push.

As we learned watching “The Crown,” Elizabeth Regina never stepped down from the throne because she promised her subjects a lifetime of service.

Robert Rex isn’t going anywhere, either.

We now know it was the players who made the Patriot Way succeed, not the other way around.

It’s now fully on Mr. Kraft to make sure that the Patriot Way can succeed again.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF & @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com.

But there is a “me.”

Just ask Bill Belichick. Or Robert Kraft.

The beloved, gruff shepherd of the Patriots rushed to remind everyone on Monday that “I’m under contract” less than 18 hours after finishing his worst season in New England.

This was the first in his 24 years coaching this team anyone could remember, at least via memory and a cursory internet search, that Belichick mentioned his contract status from any podium.

Those covering his “press conference” remotely may have been incapacitated from the electromagnetic pulse triggered by Belichick’s speed in covering his own backside on “Black Monday.”

Belichick also opened the door to further questions about his contract that have yet to be asked.

“Bill, when does your contract expire?”

“Are there terms within your contract that allow ownership to modify your positions/responsibilities?”

“Is the amount of your salary in any way tied to the team’s performance, either on the field, or in regard to the cash or salary cap?”

“Are the positions held by your sons tied in any way to your contract?”

“Do you have final say over the entire coaching staff? Or can Stephen and Brian be shown the door if the Kraft family goes full-Corleone in the next few weeks?”

“The Wolf Of Route 1” made it clear: “I am not (expletive) leaving.”

Then there is Kraft. He is (allegedly) still the boss. Kraft has followed the lead of John Henry and all but disappeared when it came to addressing the fans or media. Kraft had to go all the way to Germany to find a friendly audience during this past season.

Kraft and Belichick share in the Patriots Original Sin in Losing Tom Brady. Nothing can ever erase that stain. The Patriots Dynasty has since the way of the Byzantine Empire.

Neither Belichick nor Kraft has done “what is best for the team” since.

Belichick stacked the payroll with his pals and progeny, sabotaged the career of Mac Jones, and failed to make sure that there was a succession plan in place for Brady’s departure, thinking he could wing it at the most important position in sports.

Kraft has allowed it all to happen, has limited spending on players, and faded from view as his team sank into NFL irrelevance.

In the case of Belichick, at least, there are multiple options moving forward.

And Belichick, in his panic Monday, forgot the most important rule in any negotiation.

“Never make the first offer.”

Belichick’s “pay me or else” demand lost whatever mythical leverage it had on Monday night when Michigan won the College Football Playoff.

And again on Tuesday when the Tennessee Titans fired Mike Vrabel.

Even if Belichick found himself on the NFL coaching market, he’d be the second-most coveted candidate after Jim Harbaugh.

Vrabel and the Krafts genuinely admire each other. Check these quotes about Vrabel from none than Belichick after Vrabel was traded to the Chiefs: “Mike Vrabel epitomizes everything a coach could seek in a professional football player: toughness, intelligence, playmaking, leadership, versatility, and consistency at the highest level. Of all the players I have coached in my career, there is nobody I enjoyed working with more than Mike.”

Wowser. Those words were usually reserved for Lawrence Taylor and the Navy long-snapper.

Since Robert Kraft will be paying Belichick $25 million (or so) next year no matter what, that leaves out Harbaugh. Yes, $25 million is a lot of money. But the Krafts have already paid Belichick and his kids more than $100 million since his football team won a playoff game. The Patriots are worth an estimated $6 billion (in large part due to Belichick’s football mastery). The money owed to Belichick is 0.4% of that total.

Call it a Patriots Pension.

Vrabel is the best option to run it back with an eye toward the future in a post-Belichick universe. He’ll come cheap given the money owed to him by the Titans. He will satisfy the fanbase that cannot let go of the first two decades of the 21st century, while providing a clear break from the reign of William I.

And he’s an offensive genius. Vrabel has 12 career catches. All touchdowns.

Let the football nerds hire their GM of choice.

Josh McDaniels can run the offense.

Jerod Mayo can run the defense.

It’s simple because it’s simple.

All they need is Tom Brady at QB – and it’s 2014 all over again.

Or maybe Joe Flacco? The ever-elite Cleveland QB Flacco turns 39 next week and is the oldest player in the postseason. He would be an ideal starter to give cover for Mac Jones if the Patriots want to consider a return to the Mac.

The Patriots are expected to have close to $80 million in available cap space. Several veteran QBs will be available in free agency. And there’s always Jayden Daniels.

Or draft Marvin Harrison Jr., and a new offensive line. Sign Mike Evans, Derrick Henry and it will be like 2023 never happened.

Boy, that was easy. (We kid because we care.)

Belichick on Sunday became the Biggest Loser in NFL history. He tied the record of 165 coaching losses shared with Jeff Fisher and Dan Reeves.

There is a delicious Shakespearean irony written into the fact that in his quest to set the all-time NFL win record, Belichick has all but assured himself owning the all-time losing record outright.

There’s no shame in that. Cy Young holds the unbreakable MLB record for most wins and losses at 511-315. He got an award named in his honor.

Cy Belichick needs just 15 wins to pass Don Shula.

Like Young. who was traded by the Red Sox after the 1908 season, Belichick, too, will set those records elsewhere.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

Or was Red Bill with a cigar?

We won’t sidetrack our just-in-case tribute to Bill Belichick with the no-win argument debating whether or not Belichick or Red Auerbach is the greatest coach in Boston sports history.

Different times.

Different sports.

Different men.

Bill Belichick is unquestionably the greatest coach in the history of the Patriots.

Of course, that’s like winning the NFC South.

What is certain is that no head coach so successfully dominated the NFL for as long as Belichick.

Belichick built a 20+ year dynasty in New England upon the rock of Tom Brady in an age of free-agency and “parity.” And he made Brady possible.

A DNA check of Robert Kraft’s six Super Bowl rings show half are the spawn of Brady (38, 49, 51) and half of Belichick (36, 39, 53).

Each gave one away. For Brady it was Super Bowl 46, for Belichick it was Super Bowl 52.

Super Bowl 42 was a communal catastrophe.

Belichick’s record of achievement, his mastery of the game, his cheating – real and imagined, and command of the moment kept everyone guessing. Usually wrong.

He gave us “5D Chess vs. Candy Land.”

The son of a World War II veteran and long-time Navy assistant coach, Belichick was practically raised on the Annapolis campus of the U.S. Naval Academy.

Yet he became the most-successful, anti-NFL-establishment radical east of Al Davis.

It beautifully drove The Shield nuts. Multiple rules were changed because of strategic maneuverings executed by Belichick.

The Hoodie wrecked multiple franchises along the way, like the Jets, Colts and Chargers. And, like Brady, eventually the Patriots.

Belichick stole the soul of nearly every opposing coach, save for a few like Tom Coughlin, Doug Pederson and Mike McDaniel.

Just watch the clip of Rams coach Sean McVay fan-boying Belichick before Super Bowl 53. McVay stumbles over his words in meeting Belichick before The Big Game.

Belichick, meanwhile, later checks with lead referee John Parry about when and how long it will take for the oculus roof to close above Mercedes Benz Stadium. All in an effort to figure out in which direction the Patriots should kick off. If necessary.

That may be Belichick’s denouement of excellence since the Patriots have not won a postseason game since.

Belichick’s numbers as a head coach in New England are worthy of recitation.

6 Super Bowl rings

9 AFC Championships

17 AFC East hats & T-shirts

24 seasons

30 playoff victories

266 regular-season victories

Now here’s one you may not haven’t seen: 10% of his 120 regular-season losses with New England have come this season. An impressive number on both counts.

Speaking of losses, Belichick has as much incentive for these Patriots to win on Sunday as the future Patriots have for them to lose.

A Patriots loss to the Jets – their first in 16 tries against Gang Green – would clinch at-worst the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. A win could push New England all the way down to No. 5 on the draft board.

But a Patriots victory keeps Belichick from falling into a tie with Jeff Fisher and Dan Reeves for the most NFL regular-season losses ever at 165.

Two dozen years of allegedly doing “what’s best for the team” comes down one snowy Sunday in January against another team whose season ended weeks ago.

No. 3 Pick vs. Belichick Having The Most Losses Ever?

In true Hoodie form, we’d expect nothing less than BB game-planning this one like it was Super Bowl 36.

Don Shula’s magic number of 347 victories (including the postseason) remains out of Belichick’s reach until at least next season. Belichick has 333. Shula’s mark was undoubtedly a reason that Kraft kept Belichick around despite the Patriots’ playoff famine and 29-37 post-Brady record. Belichick owns 305 NFL regular-season head coaching victories, 266 with New England.

The reality offered by the Patriots on and off the field post-Brady was caused in large part by Belichick’s actions (or inaction). There has been little room for praise.

Belichick’s list of NFL achievements is so strong, so dynastic, so deep, so immense, however, that the failings of these recent years will be quickly cleansed by time. After all, he owns a boat called “VIII Rings.”

Not all the greats exit atop the leaderboard.

Shula’s final game as a head coach was a 15-point Wild Card playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Brady’s last pass in a Patriots’ uniform was pick-six returned by Logan Ryan.

The final entry on QB Joe Montana’s NFL game log is a 27-17 postseason setback as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Washington Wizards veteran Michael Jordan finished his career with 15 points in a 107-87 regular season defeat at Philly.

Bobby Orr took three shots on a pair of shot knees in a 1-0 loss to Vancouver before hanging it up for good – as a member of Chicago Blackhawks.

You get the point.

We thanked Brady in 28 different languages here when he retired from the NFL (for the first time).

Belichick has earned as much from the Patriots, his players, and fans.

His legacy, however, will mostly disappear when he does. His coaching tree resembles the one Charlie Brown brought home for Christmas (save for the Nick Saban ornament). Belichick has yet to re-sign any draft pick since 2013. His equal focus on defense and special teams at the expense of playmakers on offense has lost its place in an NFL that wants points, points and more points.

Belichick has never been one of a kind. From his own admission, he is his father’s son when it comes to football. He’s mirrored his NFL mentor Bill Parcells in so many ways

But he is undoubtedly the last of his kind.

And the best.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com. 

Little wonder why legal sports betting went from $0 to $4.313 billion in Massachusetts during 2023.

The state’s legal retail and online sportsbooks have generated $4,313,764,999.06 in handle through Nov. 30. Retail sports betting began in Massachusetts on Jan. 31. Mobile and online betting launched on March 10.

You may have seen a few (thousand) TV commercials about it.

The state’s retail and online sportsbooks have posted an adjusted gross revenue of $410,638,372.68 and paid $81,788,017.40 to the state in taxes.

As we noted last week, the (State) House always wins.

With $81.7 million in taxes collected after just 265 days of mobile betting, the state has crushed its high-end estimate of $70 million in sports betting revenue in Year 1.

How did this happen?

“I think that the industries are probably providing some good products that are capturing the attention of those who are interested in betting in a legal market,” Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chair Cathy Stein said in an interview the other day.

“It’s been a busy one. I’m really tickled,” said Stein when asked about Year 1. “We want a framework in the regulatory field that will always make all consumers feel that they can trust Massachusetts sports wagering.”

Massachusetts still has several so-called “untethered” mobile licenses available. Meanwhile, Suffolk Downs and Raynham Park have yet to open their retail books, nor partner with an online operator as state law allows. Bet365 opted out of the state over concerns due to overregulation.

Suffolk Downs and Boston-based DraftKings could announce a deal early next year to operate a retail sportsbook in Boston in the Causeway Street area. But no one on either side is talking. Raynham Park had a deal to open its new retail sportsbook with Caesars, but that collapsed last summer.

“There are probably assessments being made by the industry and operators,” Stein said in regard to the still-available licenses.

There have been more than 1.62 million online sports betting accounts created by bettors over 21 in Massachusetts this year, the MGC said.

At times, It seems they all belong to family members and friends. But that’s not the case.

This is an impressive or terrifying number given the state’s population of 7.01 million, with 5 million or so age-eligible to bet. One person can legally have as many as 8 different accounts (one with each online operator), or 24 if you add their dog, and significant-other.

The degenerate gambler buried deep inside me swells with pride at these numbers in my home state. And (shameless plug/full-disclosure alert) in my other life as a Senior Betting Analyst for bookies.com and GDC Group, it’s been good for business. My first bet was placed at age 11 in Arlington. My passions of sports, betting, and journalism were on a crash course for 43 years before they finally converged with that job in 2019.

With the expansion of legal gambling comes the expansion of the pre-existing conditions concerning problem, compulsive, and under-age gambling. Opponents of expanded gambling are correct when they say these issues are real whether the wager is legal or not.

Legal books in Massachusetts are not allowed to take wagers funded with credit cards. Geo-fencing technology monitors your location to within 3 feet. Age verification is required at sign-up time.

That does not guarantee a 1.000% save percentage.

And each regulation set up to protect consumers creates an opening for an illegal/offshore book, or a local bookmaker.

The art is striking the right balance to where the regulated market is vibrant enough to thrive without pushing — or keeping — too many gamblers underground.

“This stuff is complicated and sometimes our regs need to be tweaked. They need to be reviewed to make sure we’re not placing unreasonable demands on the operators, or that we might have actually created some unforeseen consequences,” Stein said.

Multiple books have been fined by the MGC for taking illegal wagers, mostly on colleges located within the state not playing in a tournament.

The most serious statutory violation occurred when DraftKings used money from credit card deposits made in other states to fund wagers in Massachusetts, the MGC said earlier this month. The MGC will hold an adjudicatory review hearing on that matter in the New Year.

DraftKings, which dominates Massachusetts with a 50% market share in handle, is facing a class-action lawsuit filed in Middlesex Superior Court claiming it engaged in deceptive marketing practices over a $1,000 bonus offer. DK has said it “respectfully disagrees with the claims.”

What about all those TV commercials?

“We have pressed the limits of our sports wagering law and the First Amendment on our advertising regulation,” Stein said.

Given gambling’s entrenched spot as the world’s second-oldest profession, everything old is new again.

Stein praised operators for being willing to work with the MGC to do more in curtailing access to those under 21. She called that a “priority for us.”

The MGC has “prioritized consumer protections and responsible gaming,” Stein said. “Setting up that regulated market was in the Commonwealth’s interest, that it would provide for those bettors tools that will protect them.”

Stein sees “responsible gaming” as a tool to help bettors make an “informed choice grounded in research.”

“We work in the responsible gaming field to make sure they don’t shift into that problem gambling, that they have tools available, restrictions on playing, restrictions on time, budget setting devices, so that they can make responsible, informed player choice decision-making that’s going to be healthy for them.”

In other words, fade the Patriots this week at Buffalo.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF & @BillSperos) is a Senior Betting Analyst for bookies.com when he’s not writing here. He can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com. 

A cold, wind-swept, snowy Christmas Eve has visited Denver.

The Patriots rest aboard Kraft Force One, aloft over the Plains pondering a lost season punctuated even deeper by another listless defeat, this one to Colorado’s equine-themed NFL franchise. After a typically turbulent ascent from Denver International Airport, the Patriots’ 767 won’t stop until it lands at T.F. Green Airport.

God willing.

2023 has been more arduous than any other year for Ebenezer Belichick and his Patriots. On Christmas Eve, joy has been replaced by relief. Only two more games to go before the end of a
season that has become an NFL nuclear winter.

The Patriots are obliged to perform on this most solemn and anticipatory day of the calendar. Even worse, they and their fans wait until every other NFL team finishes. Slotted, almost as punishment, to play at 8:15 p.m. Eastern time on Christmas Eve, or 6:15 p.m. in the Mountain Time Zone.

YouTube TV features a holiday quad-box with this NFL version of “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “A Christmas Story,” and “Die Hard.”

Those who have chosen football – either as players, coaches, media types, or team employees –
as their profession knew there would be days like this. Laboring on holidays while the rest of the Western world – save for first responders, military types, and other essential workers – are with those whom they cherished most.

All await our annual celebration of consumerism, the satisfaction of tempered avarice, a gratification in giving to loved ones, and the birth of Jesus Christ.

While Christians worldwide gather with their families, attend their preferred house of worship, or engage in the same traditions as their ancestors, the Patriots are offered as a Saturnalia sacrifice to the fans in Denver. And to a team trying to reach the playoffs despite the presence of Russell Wilson and Sean Payton.

Belichick finds some sanctuary aboard his boss’ jet. The warmth and comfort come at just the right time. All the monosyllabic answers, grunts, groans, smirk, and snark cannot silence the siren of sleep …

Jolted by a dream in which he was forced to draft a quarterback with the second overall pick, Belichick looks out his window. He sees a strange airborne phenomenon. Not Santa. Rather, an
ageless ghost-like figure appears. He bears a quarterstaff to aid in navigation. His oversized nightshirt has one word: “Pliability.” A Montreal Expos knit cap keeps him warm at 35,000 feet.

“What is this foolishness?” Belichick says to no one in particular since the plane is suddenly empty.

He quickly turns away, but the figure is suddenly seated to his right.

“Hey, coach. It’s me, Tom. The GOAT of Christmas Pass,” he says.

“I don’t need this,” Belichick grumbles.

“You have no choice, coach,” says the GOAT. “Let’s (expletive) gooooo!”

Christmas 1962. Little Billy Belichick comes downstairs on a chilly Maryland morning. His dad, Stephen, is already drafting scouting reports for next season while nursing a cup of coffee.

“Merry Christmas, son. Your present is under the tree.” Billy rushes to find a wrapped tin of
game film. “It’s the breakdown of Army’s new offense. Get to work, son,” Steven Belichick says.

“Yes sir!” Billy answers with a smile.

Niagara Falls.

“You know where this is headed?” the GOAT asks. “Yes, but I don’t want to go there,” Belichick
mumbles in reply.

Christmas 1986. The New York Giants have earned a first-round playoff bye with a 14-2 record. But there’s work to be done. The Giants are expected to play the Joe Montana and the 49ers in the divisional round of the playoffs. That means there is no such thing as a “bye” week.

Belichick’s old boss, Bill “Fezziwig” Parcells, tells Bill he can enjoy this holiday away from work with the family. Belichick has none of it. “It’s Montana,” he dutifully says. “No days off.”

Christmas 2004: Merry Christmas. From New Jersey. A game against the Jets awaits tomorrow.
Belichick is back at Giants Stadium. It’s his manger. The defending Super Bowl champion Patriots are coming off a loss and need this one to guarantee a first-round bye. Another working, restless Christmas results in a 23-7 victory, a first-round bye, and a Super Bowl XXXIX victory.

“All worth it, Tom,” the coach says, smugly.

Christmas 2018: The zenith. The final Christmas between the GOAT and coach in which they are
at peace with each other. Or at least on the same page. The Patriots are on route to a ninth Super Bowl and sixth ring in 18 seasons. New England clinches its 10th straight AFC East title two days earlier with a win over the Bills. That victory soothed New England’s collective soul after disastrous losses at Miami and Pittsburgh. Panic has abated. There is “on earth peace, good will toward men.”

“What is the point of all this?” Belichick asks, realizing so much had been lost since that
moment.

“I just work here. Be sure to rent from Hertz,” the GOAT says.

He warns Belichick that a couple of ghosts will be also visiting him on Christmas Eve.

Then, without even a Tweet from Adam Schefter, the GOAT is gone.

Belichick has no worry about any spirit who merely mirrors what is occurring in real time.

But a Ghost of Christmas future?

That is the one that all men truly fear.

Even this one.

Especially this year.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF & @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

What to give the woman who has everything, except a history of stable relationships?

Would-be hubby Travis Kelce can jump out of her cake.

Taylor has a hold over the NFL not seen since Park Avenue was ready to go to the Supreme Court against Tom Brady.

After all, have you ever seen Swift on TV after the Chiefs make a bad play, lose, or allow the opposing team to score? We only see her cheering. That’s gotta be in the contract somewhere.

Perhaps Roger Goodell gifts the Kansas City Swifties a reversal on the Kadarius Toney offside call. The Commissioner is omnipotent. There is nothing to stop him from overturning the outcome of Kansas City’s loss to Buffalo and giving the Chiefs the victory.

Let them eat cake, right Roger?

Hey, 2 billion Swifties can’t be wrong.

It’s more probable than not Swift returns to Foxy Foxborough Sunday as the K.C. Swifties visit as 9.5-point favorites to face the mathematically eliminated New England Patriots.

But there will be no sellout crowd seated hours before Swift struts into the stadium via the player/VIP entrance.

Dads won’t be singing along with their daughters in the rain outside Gillette Stadium.

No lines will form in the parking lot days in advance for swag.

This time, TIME’s Person of the Year will be relegated to lounge-act stats. “Taylor and Brittany” appearing live in the visiting owner’s box Sunday at 1 p.m.

Not even the potential appearance of Swift could save this game from being relegated out of its original Monday night slot.

Who wants the first game in Gillette Stadium history featuring fans in the stands and the Patriots eliminated from the playoffs to air prime time?

Best this one be hidden early on the final Sunday afternoon before Christmas Eve.

Among her many talents, Swift was able to pinpoint the future of the Patriots in 2023 with time-travel accuracy back in 2015 via the lyrics of “Bad Blood.” The song was co-written with Kendrick Lamar.

‘Cause baby, now we got bad blood

You know it used to be mad love

So take a look what you’ve done

‘Cause baby, now we got bad blood (hey!)

Now we got problems

And I don’t think we can solve ’em

You made a really deep cut

And baby, now we got bad blood (hey!)

“Bad Blood” is not about a breakup with one of her many callous boyfriends.

Rather this song’s meaning is far more insidious, and cuts much closer to One Patriot Place than any of her other multiple hits.

Swift told GQ that “Bad Blood” is about “loss of friendship” and a “deep cut” allegedly concerning her career being undermined by someone she trusted. At the time, many speculated Swift was alluding to her fallout with Katy Perry.

Those two have long since made up. In much the same way Brady returned to Foxy-boro to kick off this season by ringing the lighthouse bell.

These days, it appears the bell has tolled for Bill Belichick. It’s not unreasonable to believe the reporting of Tom E. Curran, who told the NBC Sports Boston audience on Monday that the Hoodie was deemed kaput by Robert Kraft following the team’s 10-6 loss to the Colts in Germany.

Das Boot won’t come until after the season.

Likewise, Swift has not been able save the Chiefs from themselves. The team is 3-2 with Swift in attendance. Both Swift and the Swifties are riding a two-game losing streak. For those who concern themselves with such matters, the Chiefs are 2-3 against the spread with Taylor in the house. And Kansas City has averaged just 15.5 points in her past four appearances.

Leave it to the Patriots to screw things up for everyone in Foxy-boro pulling off the upset this week. No doubt that will circulate even more “Bad Blood” throughout the body of Patriots Nation.

Did you have to do this?

I was thinking that you could be trusted

Did you have to ruin

What was shining? Now it’s all rusted

Did you have to hit me

Where I’m weak? Baby, I couldn’t breathe

And rub it in so deep

Salt in the wound like you’re laughing right at me

Oh, it’s so sad to think about the good times

You and I

‘Cause baby, now we got bad blood

You know it used to be mad love

So take a look what you’ve done

‘Cause baby, now we got bad blood (hey!)

Maybe Taylor will greet those hearty souls and Chiefs fans who show up on Sunday with a re-mixed version of the “Bad Blood” video featuring Kraft, Belichick, and a chorus of a few million Patriots fans who no longer trust in Bill.

The love that once filled Foxy-boro and returned for Swift’s three shows this past May has long since evaporated. Swift’s emotional connection with her fans matches the feels New England had for the Patriots during their Score of Success.

Winning six Super Bowls in 19 years will do that.

Now, Our Father’s Patriots are back.

Patriots fans who no longer worship at the altar of the Patriot Way are forced into loyalty tests, or quizzed about how many times they went to Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium to watch Tony Eason or Hugh Millen play like Mac Jones.

Somehow, this brand of inept, tepid, flaccid, mistake-filled football and putting the future of the team in the hands of Bailey Zappe doesn’t move the needle. Neither do the grunts and mumbles of the head coach, who stuffs his ranks with DNA and cronies. And acts like a petulant child whenever he doesn’t get his way.

Shocking.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, “We didn’t leave the Patriots. The Patriots left us.”

The Patriots are mercifully on the 2024 draft clock.

So shake it off.

If only Swift had a song about that?

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com.)

They are not going to run out of “rocks” or “bottoms” any time soon.

Sunday, the Chargers zapped Zappe & Company in a 6-0 soulless loss. By now you know these Patriots are the first team since the mighty 1938 Chicago Cardinals to allow 10 points or fewer in three straight games only to lose all three.

Rock bottom?

Yes. For now.

But the Patriots are in line for a string of upcoming “rock bottoms” that could leave them so deep they’ll emerge in China.

Thursday, the Patriots visit Pittsburgh. This roster is so devoid of talent that the Amazon Prime hype slide last week featured an image of Bill Belichick as the most notable Patriot.

Sadly, neither Samuel Adams, Sam Adams, John Adams, nor Julius Adams is still with us. This nationally televised game is set to feature Zappe and Mitch Trubisky as the starting quarterbacks.

The points total for Thursday’s game as of this writing was 30. The number popped at 32.5 on
Sunday, only to be bet down to its current status. A close of 30 points would be the lowest such
over/under in an NFL game since the Supreme Court cleared the way for nationwide sports
betting in 2018.

It would tie for the lowest points total since the number was put on the Steelers-Bears on Dec. 11, 2005. The Steelers won that game 21-9 for a push on the total in the snow and wind of Pittsburgh.
A numerical “rock bottom” for those who enjoy wagering responsibly.

Zappe was the 50th different starting QB used this season in the NFL. That QB carousel is one major reason betting the under has been so profitable across the NFL this season. Unders are hitting at 57.3% clip through Week 13.

The Patriots and Steelers are doing their part. They are a combined 5-19 on the under this season. New England is 9-3 when it comes to games ending below the protected point total.

A Patriots loss or tie Thursday night mathematically eliminates New England from the playoff picture. The Patriots were theoretically from Super Bowl consideration when they opted not to sign Tom Brady for two years ahead of the 2019 season.

Even with a win on Thursday, the Patriots could also officially find themselves on the clock for the 2024 if one of the following occurs on Sunday:

— Bengals beat Colts

— Texans beat Jets

— Raiders bear Vikings AND Bills beat/tie Chiefs

— Raiders tie and Bills win

Study up. This will be a quiz at the end of this column.

Another “rock bottom.” But only a temporary one.

The Patriots’ Monday night game originally set for Dec. 18 was flexed back to the previous day at 1 p.m. This is the first season the NFL allows Monday night games to be flexed. And the Patriots hold the honor of being the first-ever team to be flexed out of that spot.

Think for a moment of just how unwatchable ESPN/ABC and the powers that be on Park Avenue
have deemed the Patriots. The sweet scent of Patrick Mahomes and the defending Super Bowl
champion Chiefs can no longer offset the stench that the Patriots bring to any TV audience.

Not even the potential presence of Taylor Swift cheering on her beau Travis Kelce from a luxury
box in “Foxy Foxboro” could keep this game in prime time.

Given the more-probable-than-not playoff elimination of the Patriots this week, that contest against the Chiefs could be the first game in the history of Gillette Stadium with fan(s) in attendance featuring a Patriots team mathematically out of the postseason picture.

The Patriots were eliminated before their final two home games in 2020, but those games were
devoid of an in-person viewing audience due to COVID-19.

But wait, there’s more.

In Week 16, the Patriots visit the Broncos in the Mile High City on Dec. 24 That game kicks off at 8:15 p.m. EST.

A snowy Christmas Eve at the foot of the Rockies. The perfect setting for another dysfunctional holiday season. Uncle Bobby will no doubt be fully lubricated and infuriated by halftime, having once again taken the Patriots and the points.

We’ll no longer need to imagine if Brady was never born. The Pottersville Patriots come complete with all the Ghosts of Christmas past. Ebenezer Belichick joins the notable list of Christmas grinches including Harry and Marv, Fulton Greenway, Scut Farkus, Heat Miser and Hans Gruber.

Look for the Bill O’Brien Chorus to perform a 60-minute version of “Silent Night.”

“Rock bottom” enough for you?

Not here. On New Year’s Eve, the Patriots visit Orchard Park, N.Y., to ring out the old year against the suddenly woeful Buffalo Bills. New England beat Buffalo 29-25 in Week 7. A repeat performance may well cost this team a shot at drafting the latest “can’t miss QB.”

Or prevent Belichick from trading that No. 2 or No. 3 overall pick for six third-rounders and the
long snapper from the Coast Guard Academy.

The season mercifully closes at home against the Jets on Jan. 7. By this time, Richard Todd may be quarterbacking the Jets. It’s now clear that Aaron Rodgers won’t be, despite his continued comeback push. Maura Healey needs to issue an executive order that bans children and pets from viewing in person or on TV.

This matchup may well drive secondary-market ticket prices into the single digits – another new low for the Robert Kraft-owned version of this franchise.

Patriots tickets for $1?

Now that’s a “rock bottom” for the ages.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

Once revered like Paul Revere, the irascible Hoodie has morphed into a crotchety Bond villain.

Move over “Goldfinger.” Meet “Middle Finger.”

We can’t take full credit for that one. Belichick apologist Mike Florio posted on X during the Patriots game on Sunday that continued presence of Mac Jones could be Belichick delivering “a middle finger both to Jones and to ownership.”

The House of Belichick has fallen. Largely due to the terrible play of Jones. Now Belichick State Run Media is in full “CYA Legacy” mode.

We’re being asked to believe that Jones was the only grocery item Belichick did not purchase since Y2K. Thus, this fanciful narrative that Robert and Jonathan Kraft walked into the Patriots War Room on Draft Night in 2021 and told Belichick that either his brains, or Jones’ name, will be on the Patriots pick sheet.

This biggest of Big Lies underpins the historic nature of this Patriots season. A catastrophic breakdown on and off the field pushes this Patriots squad into the pantheon of past Patriots Futility.

These are your father’s Patriots.

Is this the worst Patriots team of all time? Not yet. They could well blow it all apart and go 3-3 down the stretch. More not than probable. But that would prevent Belichick from tying the NFL record of 165 regular-season losses. He has 161.

The 2023 Patriots have worked themselves into our Top 5 Worst Patriots teams of all time.

That is quite an achievement considering the competition.

Fasten your seatbelts and make sure tray-tables are in the upright position. It’s going to be a turbulent six weeks.

The countdown:

No. 5: 1992

Record: 2-14

Buzz: Tickets were cheap and plentiful. The Patriots were on their third owner in five seasons. Worst-Owner-Ever Victor Kiam had sold the team to James Orthwein in the offseason. A merciful improvement. But with the arrival of Orthwein came a nonstop stream of rumors about the team moving to St. Louis, given his ties to the Busch Family. The lovable Dick MacPherson embodied the ideal that nice guys finish 5th in the AFC East. Four different starting QBs were used: Hugh Millen; Scott Zolak; Tom Hodson; and Jeff Carlson. (Jeff Carlson?) Only Zolak would win under center. The offense did not score a rushing TD until week 11. MacPherson and his staff were fired after the season. Orthwein hired Bill Parcells, who would draft Drew Bledsoe No. 1 overall in 1993. The corner was turned.

No. 4: 1970

Record: 2-12

Buzz: The Boston Patriots began their first NFL season with a 27-14 win at Harvard Stadium over the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 20. Things rolled downhill – more or less – until “Varitek split the uprights” some 11,459 days later. The worst-record-in-the-new-NFL Patriots saw coach Clive Rush quit after a 1-6 start due to a heart condition. His replacement John Mazur also went 1-6. Billy Sullivan signed free-agent QB Joe Kapp in October after Kapp had led the Vikings to Super Bowl IV. Kapp lost 9 of 10 starts. Boston’s 149 points remain the fewest by any team in franchise history that played a full season. The New England Patriots debuted in Foxboro the following season. New England would take Jim Plunkett with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1971 draft.

No. 3: 2023

Record: 2-9

Buzz: The 2023 Patriots brought back the dysfunction that defined this franchise throughout its first four decades. Acrimony between ownership and coach. A revolving door at quarterback. (18 QB transactions and counting as of Monday). Crushing turnovers. Excruciating games. This comes following a Score of Success that made the Patriots the superlative organization in all North American sports. Mac Jones combines the worst characteristics of Tony Eason, Matt Cavanaugh, and Millen. Without Brady to bail him out each week, the “genius” of Bill Belichick has proven to be no more effective than the guise of Chuck Fairbanks. Belichick, like Fairbanks, appears poised for a similarly acrimonious exit. These Patriots are on track to reach multiple markers in offensive incompetence not seen since the arrival of Bledsoe 30 years ago.

No. 2: 1981

Record: 2-14

Buzz: Patriots antagonism at its worst. So many close losses. The Patriots edged out the Colts for the first pick in the 1982 NFL draft in the season finale. In a game dubbed – among other things – “The Toilet Bowl,” the Patriots lost 23-21 at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. The next day’s Boston Herald greeted readers with “We’re No. 28” and  photos of 28 individual index fingers across the page. (The NFL had just 28 teams at the time.) The Patriots chose Texas DE Kenneth Sims with that No. 1 overall pick in 1982. Unquestionably the worst first-round pick in team history, Sims ranks among the biggest NFL No. 1 busts of all time. The oft-injured Sims played just one full season and finished with 17 sacks in 74 career games. His career with the Patriots would end 16 days after he was arrested for cocaine possession in 1990.

No. 1: 1990

Record: 1-15

Buzz: Lisa Olson. Victor Kiam. Sexual harassment. “Patriot Missile” jokes. That would be enough for most franchises. Not this one. The 1990 Patriots are the only team in franchise history with just one victory. They lost their final 14 games and were outscored 446-181, the worst NFL point differential of the 1990s. 11.3 PPG remains the lowest in Patriots history over a 16-game season. The unflappable Rod Rust was constantly undercut by ownership and would be fired 4 days after the season ended. “Patriots Have Rust Problem” remains seared into our minds 33 years later. The venerable but broken Steve Grogan (1-3) recorded this team’s lone win in Week 2. QBs Marc Wilson and Hodson accounted for the other 12 defeats.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF & @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com.

Or is it the wing?

Unless you’re Lions coach Dan Campbell.

An unabashed ham, Campbell is an unapologetically a ham fan. He’ll force down fried turkey. But he’ll throw your dressing/stuffing to the dogs, along with that cranberry sauce.

Celtics star Jayson Tatum is also a ham guy.

“Candied yams, dressing, and ham” to be more specific.

Tatum’s teammate, Jaylen Brown, is a fan of “dressing” and “mac and cheese.”

I mean, who isn’t?

Bill Belichick is traditionalist when it comes to both football and Thanksgiving. The Hoodie is a big fan of both turkey and high school games on Turkey Day. Belichick was raised in Maryland, which shares a similar high school football-Thanksgiving Day lineage to that found in New England.

Of course, no state does high school and Thanksgiving Day football like the Commonwealth.

As it should be, since the first Thanksgiving occurred in Plymouth 402 years ago.

Thanksgiving Day football can be traced back to 1869, when an advertisement in the Evening Telegraph of Philadelphia touted a “a foot-ball match between twenty-two players of the Young America Cricket Club and the Germantown Cricket Club . . .  on Thanksgiving Day at 12 1/2 o’clock, on the grounds of the Germantown Club.”

The game was not televised.

In 1876, Yale beat Princeton on Thanksgiving 2-0 and covered the 1.5-point spread.

High school football on Thanksgiving arrived less than a decade later. Needham vs. Wellesley launched what is the oldest and longest-running public school Turkey Day football rivalry in 1882.

Franklin Roosevelt was born in the same year.

Multiple Thanksgiving Day football rivalries in Massachusetts have roots in the 19th Century. They include Boston English vs. Boston Latin (1887); Salem vs. Beverly (1891); Winchester vs. Woburn (1891); Durfee (Fall River) vs. New Bedford (1893); Brookline vs. Newton North (1894); Falmouth vs. Barnstable (1895); and Reading vs. Stoneham (1899).

Four of the rivalries noted above pre-date the Stanley Cup.

They all began before the American League.

Enjoy a slice of history in the morning before inhaling multiple slabs of apple and pumpkin pie.

Football, Thursday, and awkward conversations at the dinner table are current constants on Thanksgiving. The holiday annually falls on the third Thursday of November.

American Thanksgiving was created by Abe Lincoln in 1863 and was founded with underpinnings in faith and grace.

It’s since become another excuse to overeat, watch football, and load up with “pre-Black Friday” sale items from Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Target.

Dinner may include turkey, ham, or a vegan, quinoa roast.

One random missed nut, or hidden gram of gluten, could trigger a medical and/or emotional catastrophe.

For some, Friendsgiving has replaced the annual dirge with family.

For others, family may not include anyone with shared DNA.

We don’t judge.

(Save for the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics, whenever sports intersect with the real world, or whatever topic we choose to cover.)

Thankfully, the Zombie superstore Midnight stampede has been curtailed by technology and toned-down business hours.

And that’s what this day is all about, isn’t it.

Being grateful for what is, rather than pining for what isn’t.

For instance, take the Patriots.

Please.

There’s plenty to be thankful for this season. For one, it’s affirmed the appreciation some of us had for what we witnessed during the first 20 years of this century.

It’s never going to happen again in our lifetime.

Be grateful for Robert Kraft. We have not been shy about our thoughts about Kraft’s role in manifesting the team’s current situation. Thanksgiving offers us the opportunity to both appreciate the big picture and afford him the benefit of the doubt – perhaps for the final time – that he or his son, Jonathan, will do what’s necessary to create a winning culture and football team. Kraft spent millions on his stadium and its related amenities. Gillette is the Palace of Versailles compared to its predecessor that once stood next door.

Be grateful for Bill Belichick. His role in the dynastic run of the team has been obscured by the drudgery of the past four seasons. Just because he cannot win without Tom Brady doesn’t mean Belichick was not pivotal in Brady’s success in New England, especially during the first phase of the QB’s career. Belichick makes a good target for those frustrated with the team since he played a major role in constructing it.

Be grateful for Mac Jones. With each loss, hope grows for the seismic shift that is clearly needed to bring this franchise up-to-speed in the post-Brady Era. Mac sped up the process this season. He mercifully flopped before his option year. That’s doing the Patriots a solid. Jones was one of five QBs taken in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.

Only one, No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence, has won a playoff game. No. 2 pick Zack Wilson has been officially benched. Jones appears on his way. Trey Lance was traded. Justin Fields may finally have found traction in Chicago. He, too, could well be replaced depending on where the Bears land in this draft as they own Carolina’s potential No. 1 pick.

Be grateful if you bet against the Patriots each week this season and backed the under in each of their games. You’d be 15-5 if you did. Somehow, the Patriots are 3.5-point favorites against Big Blue. The total is 33.5 points at DraftKings. That’s the second-lowest total number available since sports betting was legalized in 2018. Caesars had a total of 32 points on the Saints-Browns last Christmas Eve.

Enjoy Thanksgiving with your food, fare, football, and family of choice.

And be grateful for it all.

After all, you could be a Jets fan.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

The Patriots’ season is kaput.

And the team is on the fritz.

Kraft traveled with the reputation of his NFL franchise across 12 time zones and 7,328 air miles this past weekend to Germany only to be humiliated on two continents thanks to NFL Network.

A showcase moment for the Patriots at their new home-away-from-home in Frankfurt ended with a starting QB on the bench, the coach on the clock, and the team stuck in the AFC basement.

Kraft has amassed unimaginable wealth.

He transformed the Patriots from a laughingstock to the model franchise in pro sports.

He has a large and loving family.

He has a beautiful wife who doubles as an ophthalmologist 33 years his junior.

He has earned eternal gratitude across New England reserved for the likes of Paul Revere, John Adams, Alan Shepard, Robert Frost, John F. Kennedy, Bobby Orr, Ted Williams and Lenny Clarke.

His record as an NFL owner is unrivaled during his 30 seasons with six Super Bowl trophies.

His stadium complex on Route 1 is among the most ostentatious in the NFL.

It includes two hotels, a commercial shopping and dining venue, a video board visible from Neptune, and a lighthouse that embarrasses all the other lighthouses in the Bay State by its length, virility and girth.

He’s even added free parking.

Kraft has seen it all.

What Kraft had not seen, or at least wanted to recall having seen, is his team starting 2-8.

Sunday, Kraft told the NFL Network the Patriots had never gone 2-7 on his watch.

In 2000, the Patriots went both 2-7 and 2-8.

They’re 2-8 again. New England remains the worst team in the AFC and ready to pounce on the Giants for the No. 2 overall draft pick when they play the New York Giants after the break on Thanksgiving Day Weekend.

Loser gets Bill Belichick.

Maybe.

Robert Kraft has earned the right to spend the rest of his days hanging with rock stars, Hollywood A-listers and pop icons. Not having to be concerned about anything NFL-wise except for when the TV residual check is auto-deposited. But he cannot get a pass as long as he chooses to remain in control of the team.

We’re at the definition of “insanity” if the Patriots decide to run it back again next season using the same personnel, same mindset, and a continued focus on defense and special teams over offense.

Belichick as head coach; a staff stocked with cronies, holdovers, returnees, and progeny; a sub-par starting quarterback; an overwhelmed offensive line; and receivers who couldn’t crack the Jets practice squad.

All on the cheap.

After Tom Brady it hasn’t worked. it isn’t working. It won’t work.

Has Kraft finally seen enough? Perhaps. The NFL Network cameras caught Kraft, dressed for an ascent of Mt. Everest, dejected and down after Mac Jones air-mailed a potential TD pass to Hunter Henry with 12:47 left in the fourth quarter Sunday.

The Patriots settled for a field goal.

This image – no doubt you’ve seen it – should replace Pat Patriot as the team’s logo de guerre until the Patriots win another playoff game.

Maybe Kraft was looking down on a monitor. Maybe Kraft realized he has nothing left to prove and wished he had just headed to the islands for the weekend.

Kraft made it clear there was much more at stake Sunday than just the Patriots’ grip on last place in the AFC East, or the team’s draft position.

In 2023, Patriots fans have to go to Germany to hear directly from their team’s owner. Kraft spoke to a group of fans Saturday. Kraft has grown more reclusive this season than ever before. At least in terms of dealing with the media and public located in North America.

Kraft told the fans in Germany that getting a victory was “critical” and “means so much to us.”

Guess the first 9 weeks of the season were just practice.

What better example of just how far the Patriots have fallen does one need to see? Their owner had to go to Germany in order to guarantee himself a receptive audience.

In that TV moment on Sunday, humanity demanded kindness for Kraft. In the same way we would help a wounded puppy on the side of the road.

Patriots fans wrestled with dueling emotions of empathy for their team’s cherished steward, and frustration/anger over just how terribly things have progressed since Kraft’s “other” son went to Tampa Bay three years ago.

Sympathy for “Mr. Kraft”?

It’s that bad.

Thanksgiving is a week from tomorrow. We’re not going to make any more blame pies. Nor should you gobble up any more turkey talk about what the Patriots will do in terms of Belichick or Mac Jones. That drama will be resolved with time.

The team finally cut ties to Jack Jones this week. Rosemary can’t win ‘em all. Instead of speculating on the drama inside the Kremlin on Route 1, you’re much better served betting the under, or fading the Patriots each week against the spread.

You’d be 15-5 if you did both. That equals a profit of $863.50 if you bet $100 a pop at -110.

One is left to ponder just how much lower this iteration of the Patriots can fall on the field, off the field, and in the eyes of the NFL.

How long will it take Bill O’Brien self-immolate the next time his QB fails to read the most elementary of schemes?

Can the Patriots out-suck the Giants, or even Carolina, for the No. 1 pick?

Does Taylor Swift return to “Foxy Foxboro” when the Chiefs come to town next month?

Will anyone show up for the Jets game on Jan. 7 besides Aaron Rodgers?

Maybe by then, the Patriots will remember to have a player back to field punts.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

Bill Belichick may get das boot once this season is over.

Or sooner.

Let’s catch up.

In January 2020, two months before Tom Brady headed south, we urged the Patriots to tank
and begin the post-Brady rebuild immediately.

They opted for Cam Newton and a three-plus-year run of sub-par play and mediocrity we
haven’t seen since we spent Thursday nights with “Friends.”

RIP Williamstown-born Matthew Perry.

In July, we told you with all the irony we could muster in print that Belichick’s future with the
Patriots was inextricably tied to the performance of Mac Jones on the field this season.

Ouch.

In August, we reminded you that the Patriots twin-monarchy Robert Kraft and Belichick were
being delusional when it came to spending cash on legitimate offensive players, like DeAndre
Hopkins.

In September, we warned you about the perils of a slow start.

Bill Belichick is 71.

Brady fought Father Time to a draw.

But the Old Man is coming for his former coach with red-eyed vengeance.

Toby Keith summed up 2023 Belichick thusly: “He’s not as good as he once was, but he’s good
once as he ever was.”

Looks like we were being too generous.

No more.

On Oct. 12, we again raised the issue of Robert Kraft culpability in all that has gone wrong
with his football team since it decided to move on from Brady.

We always make sure to note Kraft’s “unicorn” status as an NFL owner, having achieved so
much more success than any of his counterparts.

But it’s 2023, not 2003.

The Belichick-Kraft Post-Brady Dynasty has shown itself to be a House of Cards.

Of all the NFL franchises Brady left in ruins, none has fallen deeper than the Patriots.

The Patriots without Brady are Las Vegas without gambling, The Sphere and David Copperfield.

No winning. No allure. No magic.

In the same piece, we offered a preview of the talking points you’ve heard non-stop over the
two weeks.

Don’t fret the future of Belichick and Sons. The Hoodie will see unlimited checkbook offers from
the Bears, Giants and Commanders if he becomes available.

If Robert Kraft doesn’t want to be known as the guy who let go of Bill Parcells, Tom Brady, and
Bill Belichick, he can pass the baton to Jonathan.

After all, Don Corleone did not break the peace.

The following week, we warned anyone who would listen (or read) that things are going to get
very ugly with this team. A lot quicker than anyone could care to imagine.

It took the Kraft Family nearly 30 years of team ownership, but their Patriots have finally turned
the Red Sox triple play:

Unwatchable …

Unlikable …

Unable to win …

Their goodwill has gone hunting.

That brings us to last week.

We’ll re-state what we wrote since everyone else has done it in the interim.

It’s hard not to fault Belichick and Kraft for running the same playbook with a tight checkbook.

Combined, they are 153 years old – 153 years ago, college football was in its second season. We
didn’t have telephones, electric lights, or organized professional baseball.

Belichick is in his 49th season coaching in the NFL. Kraft bought the Patriots in 1994. That’s 78
years of collective experience coaching and owning in the NFL.

How dare you question them?

Now, suddenly, it’s “news” that Belichick may end up in Washington.

Or that he and the Patriots will be kaput with a loss in Germany.

Or that Mike Vrabel/Jerod Mayo/Bill O’Brien has all but gotten the job as Patriots head coach.

To paraphrase Sergeant Schultz: “We all know nothing. Nothing.”

Except that Belichick has become the Colonel Klink of the AFC East.

Patriots radio analyst Scott Zolak is as plugged in as anyone to the inner-workings of the Kremlin on Route 1. Tuesday on “Zo and Bertand” the rumbustious former Patriots QB put Belichick’s odds of being the Patriots coach in Week 1 of 2024 at “less than 50%.”

That’s straight from State Run Media Central.

We won’t predict the future. We’re having enough trouble with our weekly NFL picks. Now that
mobile sports betting is back in Florida, we’ll be trying to use our EBT card at Dunks by
Christmas.

But we are obligated to offer our informed speculation (or reporting) on what could happen
with New England’s NFL entry.

Our question now is this: “Can Bill Belichick keep his job?”

The current iteration of Belichick cannot, no matter how close he is to Don Shula’s record of
347 wins.

The last vestige of the Belichick Mystique – an impregnable defense – crumbled like a freshly-baked corn muffin against Sam Howell last Sunday. “Bend But Don’t Break” has found the junkyard, right next to your 2007 Ford Taurus with the blown transmission.

Right now, the Patriots have at least three too many Belichicks on the payroll.

The elder Belichick has nothing to offer but 49 years of experience, eight rings, and a bucket of
grunts, mumbles, and excuses.

A new-and-improved Belichick might have a chance to stay in the employ of the Kraft family.

But that would require the one thing Belichick abhors more than talented quarterbacks and All-Pro wide receivers: change.

Does Belichick want to change his approach to the importance of offense? His approach to evaluating talent?

His approach to dealing with the public (through the media)? His approach to resisting new ideas, if not assistants? His approach to his own strengths and weaknesses? His hold on all things Patriots?

Probably not.

The internet offers at least 13 ways to say “goodbye” in German.

Another loss on Sunday and any one of them should suffice.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

So did the NFL trade deadline.

Patriots fans got nothing but a bag of rocks.

The Great Pumpkin never materialized.

There was no all-in fire sale.

No deals. No nothing.

Same old, same old.

Rats! Bill held pat.

Robert remained MIA.

Or perhaps he stayed in MIA with his new wife, the esteemed Dr. Dana Blumberg. She is an actual doctor, having received a medical degree from St. Louis University.

Dr. Blumberg, 49, is a board-certified ophthalmologist and once taught ophthalmology at New York’s Columbia University. Presumably before it became a clearing house for Hamas sympathizers.

It might be time for Dr. Blumberg to give her husband a complete vision exam.

We’re not sure if Kraft can see that the Hoodie has no clothes.

Or that his team has done nothing but circle the rotary on Route 140 in Foxboro since Brady left in March 2020.

Or that losing is winning in 2023.

Or that Bill Belichick & Company’s time has passed.

We’ve covered some of this previously, but it must be noted again and again until the circumstances change just how far behind the Patriots have fallen in comparison to the competition.

The Dolphins might want to bronze Tua Tagovailoa. And not just because he’s one snap away from another season-curtailing injury.

You know by now Tua is 6-0 against Belichick.

More-so than any player not named Tom Brady, Tua has done more to keep Don Shula’s all-time wins record of 347 perennially out of reach for Belichick.

Brady giveth. And Brady curseth away.

It’s not just the six games.

Coach Mike McDaniel and Tua have demonstrated better than any other team that faces the Patriots on a regular basis just how much time has passed since Belichick Ball was a winnable proposition.

Belichick coached on a Giants team that won Super Bowl XXI with Phil Simms at QB. They won Super Bowl XXV with Jeff Hostetler taking snaps. Against Jim Kelly.

With that on the resume, it’s not hard to understand why Belichick continues to undervalue talented QBs.

Sunday at 9:30 a.m., you can watch a potential AFC championship preview from Germany as the Dolphins play the Chiefs in Germany. You will have an extra hour of sleep to prepare, as the clocks fall back one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday.

The Chiefs have won two Super Bowls since the Patriots won their last playoff game. This is where we remind you that Patrick Mahomes’ dad once played for the Red Sox. And Mahomes was taken with the 10th pick in the 2017 draft. The Patriots could win their next three games and still land the 10th pick in this QB-laden draft.

The Patriots wouldn’t give Brady two years guaranteed for $50 million after he won his sixth Super Bowl. The Chiefs gave Mahomes the biggest contract in NFL history. Andy Reid is no Gen Xer. He’s 65. But he hasn’t been afraid to adapt his game-plan to suit the NFL’s desire for action and push for skilled talent to replace skilled talent.

The Dolphins haven’t won a Super Bowl since Nixon was in the White House. They have the roster and talent now more than ever to succeed in the NFL.

The Dolphins could well snag home field in the AFC. Patriots fans know just how brutal games in January can be when you leave the snow and cold of New England for the bright sun, 88-degree temperatures and 91% humidity of Miami Gardens. Fans in Kansas City, Baltimore, Cincinnati, or Buffalo may learn that lesson soon.

We’re not sure if Kraft could see Stephen Ross (Stephen Freaking Ross!) celebrating in his owner’s box Sunday. We understand if Kraft couldn’t bear to watch. Ross was suspended by the NFL for 76 days last year after it was found his team tampered with Sean Payton and Brady.

If Kraft cannot visualize what’s happening, he may finally feel it in his wallet later this season when the stands in Foxboro are 40% empty – cutting in on concession sales – and next spring with the season ticket renewals fail to materialize.

It’s hard not to fault Belichick and Kraft for running the same playbook with a tight checkbook. Combined, they are 153 years old – 153 years ago, college football was in its second season. We didn’t have telephones, electric lights, or organized professional baseball.

Belichick is in his 49th season coaching in the NFL. Kraft bought the Patriots in 1994. That’s 78 years of collective experience coaching and owning in the NFL.

How dare you question them?

Patriots Twitter (X) tells us three of 191 NFL teams who started 2-6 made the playoffs, which means 188 have not.

The Patriots are 25-1 to make the playoffs, 120-1 to win the AFC East, 200-1 to win the AFC and, you might want to sit down for this one, 300-1 to win the Super Bowl. All those numbers come from DraftKings and have been translated from betting lingo to make it easier on the uninitiated.

The Patriots are 16th in a 16-team conference.

If they go any lower, they’ll be in the NFC.

The Patriots are no different than any great dynasty in its waning days.

Nothing works like it used to. The enemy is at the gates. (Or in the case of the Dolphins, swimming circles around you.)

The masses are restless. Past glories mask present misery.

The Kraft Family has replaced bread and circuses with free parking and a towering multi-million-dollar priapic lighthouse that can be interpreted in several ways.

Including as a giant middle-finger to the fan base.

Pretty soon, Kraft may see that same finger flashed a few thousand times in the stands at Gillette.

With or without an eye exam.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @Bill Speros on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com

This season, it’s “Banner 18 . . . Or Else.”

“Wait Until Next Year?”

Not this time.

The 2023-24 Celtics are the Tom Brady-in-his-prime Patriots.

The expectation shared by everyone within the reach of Mike Gorman’s voice is universal: Anything less than a title equates to failure, shame and humiliation.

Doc Rivers had “ubuntu.”

Atmospheric anticipation has carried Joe Mazzulla’s Celtics toward “seppuku.”

Metaphorically, anyway.

If the Celtics aren’t going to win 16 games this postseason, they might as well move the franchise to Las Vegas during the All-Star Break and spare us another stress-filled springtime.

The Celtics have done everything this offseason within their authority to build a team they believe will, er must, snag Banner 18.

Wyc Grousbeck gave Brad Stevens the Green Team’s American Express Black card. Stevens spent lavishly on Jaylen Brown’s max contract, an extension for Kristaps Porziņģis, and Jrue Holiday’s moving expenses.

Stevens went full “Extreme Makeover” on the roster. Among the departed: Malcolm Brogdon, Marcus Smart, Grant Williams and Robert Williams.

Celtics fans are going to miss Grant Williams’ toughness, the inside play of Robert Williams, and the wide-open 24-foot bricks launched by Smart.

But how is the view from 35,000 feet? Or from the inside emails and DMs from the NBA inner sanctum?

NBA insider Shams Charania, the chief scoops competitor to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, has also earned one-name status.

Shams bio on X nearly maxes the character count. “Senior lead NBA Insider for The Athletic and Stadium. FanDuel Partner and co-host of Run It Back on FanDuel TV.” He boasts 2.2 million followers on Elon Musk’s social platform. And another 629,000 on Instagram.

The Herald chatted with Charania for 15 minutes the other day. His perspective is unbiased, if not actually informed.

Does he believe the Celtics have done enough to win a championship?

“They’re right on that doorstep,” Charania said. “Getting Kristaps Porziņģis, obviously they went for more offense getting another big man, but losing Marcus Smart, that was a major dent to that team. What Marcus provided for them from an intangible’s perspective, leadership perspective, his presence was beyond stats. That was a very tough loss. It could be seen as a step back, but then you see the Damian Lillard trade happened, and they end up getting Jrue Holiday. That was something that they did not expect. Getting Jrue Holiday makes up for the Smart loss, at least a little bit, at least on the court. Now I think they’re right up there. They should go into the year with championship expectations, no question.”

Charania believes the perception around the league was that the Holiday acquisition was pivotal in closing the circle on the defensive end.

“Holiday, that’s a guy that’s been a multi-time defensive, all defensive team, the contender for Defensive Player of the Year (an award that Smart has won.) Holiday is up there for top defenders. He obviously brings some offense as well, so I don’t think it’s as big of a loss. But from the perspective of being and embodying Celtics leadership, that voice and that toughness that they have in the locker room, we’re only going to see how that plays out. Because if there’s one guy that can have those real conversations with Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, it is Smart,” he said.

Are the Jays feared and/or respected around the league? Underrated? Overrated?

“Everyone has their opinions, but I think they’re among the two elite wing players that we have in this league,” Charania said. “Optionality is so important to the league today and having star power at that position. But again, you’ve got to win in the playoffs. That’s what builds a championship legacy. That’s what those guys are lacking, is that. Every year is going to be, are they going to be able to break through and get that ring?”

Just 29, Shams has texted, called, emailed and posted his way into the internal machinations of the NBA in just a decade. He broke news of a potential deal for Porziņģis by the Celtics on June 21.

Charania is diligent about separating church and state in terms of gambling in lieu of his ties to FanDuel. His Tweets have moved betting markets. He says he does not bet. Given the multiple interruptions during our chat, it’s unlikely he has time to do so.

When asked for a 2024 NBA Finals winner, Charania deferred by saying, “I don’t make predictions.”

The Celtics and Bucks are +380 co-favorites to win the NBA title at FanDuel. (Shameless Plug Alert) Through tomorrow, current FanDuel customers who bet $5 to get three free months of NBA League Pass. New customers who bet $5 get the same deal, plus $200 in Bonus Bets. Visit FanDuel.com. Wager responsibly.

Shams makes a distinction between the deal that brought in Porziņģis and the one that resulted in Holiday becoming a Celtic.

“They had targeted Porzingis for sure for several weeks. That was on their board,” Charania said. “I don’t think trading Marcus Smart was on their board. After the Brogdon deal fell apart with the Clippers, they had to move Smart. I don’t think that that was totally in the cards, but then they had to go that route because they wanted to extend Porziņģis. There was a sense around the league that the Celtics would have some level of retooling because that was a disappointing end for that team,” he said.

Retooling is one way to put it.

“Even on Joe Mazzulla’s staff, getting Charles Lee, getting Sam Cassell, those are big time additions to what was a younger coaching staff,” Charania said. “Anytime you don’t live up to expectations, there’s going to be changes.”

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) is a senior betting analyst for Bookies.com when he’s not writing here. He can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com)

His Patriots have never played a home game at The Razor with fans in attendance after the team has been eliminated from the playoffs.

Never.

That run ends this season.

Of all the negative superlatives achieved by the current version of Belichick & Sons, this one is perhaps the most sobering.

It demonstrates the success this team (not to mention Tom Brady, whose streak continued in Tampa Bay) enjoyed in the 21st century. And it offers a blinding 500-megawatt beacon of reality about the current squad emanating from the new lighthouse.

It took the Kraft Family nearly 30 years of team ownership, but their Patriots have finally turned the Red Sox triple play:

Unwatchable.

(They are the only team in the NFL yet to score more than 20 points in a game.)

Unlikable.

(See DeVante “Fingertips” Parker and Mac “Nut Tap” Jones.)

Unable to win.

(The Patriots went 39 drives without a touchdown before Sunday, a run that consumed 197:42 of game time.)

Their goodwill has gone hunting.

In 2020, the final two home games of the season came after the Cam Newton-led Patriots were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.

Combined paid attendance: 0.

Thank you, COVID-19.

If Travis Kelce has his way, we’ll all be vaccinated against the 73rd variant soon. When it comes to embarrassing late-season crowds and empty rows sprinkled throughout Gillette Stadium, the Patriots won’t be bailed out by a pandemic this time.

Just the age-old plague of apathy.

The 2023-24 Patriots are going to be terrible for all to see on NFL RedZone, if not in person.

The Patriots may well exhaust their mathematical postseason probability before Week 15. On Monday, Dec. 18, New England is scheduled to play host to the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. It could be mercifully flexed to a harmless early Sunday afternoon time slot.

No one is coming to save Kraft’s concession/swag bottom line that week, not even the Swifties.

Taylor’s “cruel summer” had nothing on Foxboro in the middle of December with the Patriots buried in the AFC East standings.

Perhaps Gillette will become another Fenway South of sorts, filled with fans of the visiting team, chanting, cheering and celebrating as the local gridders drift aimlessly into competitive irrelevance.

Picture this. On a wickedly cold on Jan. 7 or 8, a wisp of snow blows throughout Eastern Massachusetts. The New York Jets roll into Gillette Stadium for a Week 18 AFC East clash. The Jets are somehow still alive in the wild card chase thanks to the wizardry of Zach Wilson.

Thousands of Jets fans, their ankle bracelets disabled for the weekend, flood Foxboro to zealously cheer on Gang Green. Maura Healey is going to wish she had invested in jail cells.

Can we get Joe Namath to ring the bell?

How about Fireman Ed?

He can have the 300s all to himself.

The Patriots super scoreboard, meanwhile, has been converted into a giant draft day clock.

That near-frozen figure standing by himself wearing a grey hoodie on the Patriots sideline?

The statue of Bill Belichick.

Erected to honor BB setting the record for the most losses by an NFL head coach the previous week.

Ticket prices have flat-lined. The get-in price for that Week 18 game (day and time TBA) is $66 plus fees on TicketMaster, or $71 with no fees on TickPick.

Prices haven’t flirted with those numbers since the Pats played at Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium.

The most unholy moment of the NFL calendar occurs on Christmas Eve at 8:15 p.m. Eastern in Denver. The Patriots visit the Broncos. The get-in price on TicketMaster is $40, plus fees. The teams are a combined 2-10 and will be in a full-throated struggle for the best available draft pick.

The game is set to air on NFL Network, so George Bailey can (spoiler alert) still save Bedford Falls on NBC.

Mr. Potter couldn’t stomach watching it. Never mind Hans Gruber.

We’ve been flooded with gossip about the future of Belichick and complicity between the coach/GM and Kraft in the team’s current woeful state. We first broached that topic here last week. Time always delivers its verdict.

The Patriots robbed New England of an NFL season months before the schedule played itself out. We await the official time of death.

Football fans from Stockbridge to Salisbury can thank the state legislature and former Gov. Baker for the Sports Wagering Act of 2022.

Since betting launched in the Bay State in early 2023, the overall handle at the eight mobile and three retail betting sites has surpassed the $3 billion mark. Sports betting has already generated more than $60 million in tax revenue for the Commonwealth in just 204 days of measured mobile betting and eight months plus one day of retail betting.

Too bad the Patriots can’t spend that money on a quarterback.

Without legal betting and fantasy football, NFL news here would be shifted to the obituary page.

Of course, it’s possible to win money backing the Patriots when they lose. And there’s no need to go wacky with four-leg, same-game parlays. If you backed the Patriots’ opponent against the spread and the under each week this season, you’d be 10-2 overall. Those who have faded the Patriots are 5-1, as are those riding the under.

Even legal betting doesn’t fill the aperture left by the elimination of three-plus hours of meaningful football each week until January.

Patriots fans across New England face an endless march of apple-picking, fall hikes and Sunday city strolls. Don’t forget your significant other’s family fall weekend in Maine.

Or the necessary household chores.

After all, those gutters aren’t going to clean themselves.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF & @BillSperos on X) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com. When he’s not writing for the Herald, he is a Senior Betting Analyst for bookies.com. Gamble responsibly.

Tom Brady. Bill Belichick. Robert Kraft.

Yet all six Lombardi Trophies were presented first to Kraft.

Success and catastrophe emanate from the top of any organization.

Kraft’s version of the Patriots became a model across pro sports.

Kraft has been a unicorn in terms of his ability to craft a never-before-seen in the NFL combination of football success, financial success, and stability.

Especially when it came to keeping Bill and Tom together for 18 years.

Nothing can smudge his record of success.

But this is 2023.

Jeff Howe of “The Athletic” reported Wednesday that Kraft has grown ever more frustrated with the current state of his NFL franchise and would have no hesitation when it comes to firing Belichick.

Kraft needs to first look in the mirror.

The boss’s share of the blame pie is always the largest.

No one gets a lifetime pass.

Not even Robert Kraft.

Kraft’s Original Sin was not that infamous visit to the Orchids Of Asia Day Spa the day of the 2018 AFC Championship Game.

It was – as we’ve consistently written in this space for more than 3 years – choosing Belichick over Brady when it was time for their divorce.

It did not stop there. Kraft continues to under-spend when it comes to both the cash cap and hard cap. Belichick has happily gone along.

“Insiders” tell us Kraft, not Belichick, wanted Mac Jones. Kraft brought in Bill O’Brien, who flopped quicker than “The Flash.”

As the Patriots visit Sin City this week, the Belichick-Kraft Post-Brady Dynasty has shown itself to be House of Cards.

Of all the NFL franchises Brady left in ruins, none has fallen deeper than the Patriots.

The Patriots without Brady are Las Vegas without gambling, The Sphere and David Copperfield.

No winning. No allure. No magic.

The Patriots are 26-29 in the regular season since Brady (and Gronk) joined the Buccaneers. Belichick overall is 81-94 in games he’s coached without Brady as his starting QB.

Today is Day 1,711 on the Patriots Postseason Victory Drought Calendar.

This remains the longest span without such a win since the gap from the AFC Championship Game at Miami’s Orange Bowl on Jan. 12, 1986, to a Divisional Round triumph over Pittsburgh on Jan. 5, 1997.

Amid the 18K radiance of Kraft’s new $250 million scoreboard, the Patriots Sunday booked their worst home shutout since 1969. The new lighthouse has become a tower of irony masking the franchise’s impotence.

Before Sunday, the Patriots had not lost back-to-back games by more than 30 points in 53 years. Those 1970 Boston Patriots played their home games at Harvard Stadium.

Belichick delivered a “(Bleep) Everybody” performance Sunday during and after the game.

He does “what’s best for the team.” Yet he’s pocketed $60+ million in salary since 2020. He produced a mediocre, unwatchable product on the field, all while padding the coaching staff with his sons and cronies.

His mumbling, one-line answers have long lost their charm. The public deserves more.

None other than Ty Law and Julian Edelman this week questioned Belichick’s ability to buy the groceries. No wonder so many have swamped the “blow it up and start over” bandwagon.

Brady reaffirmed his status as the GOAT of Passive Aggressive Speak Monday. He delivered another long-winded, cliched response to Jim Gray when asked about the Patriots’ plight. But snuck in this inner nugget:

“It was very different when I was in there because I could control a lot of the outcome.”

Translation: “I cleaned up all the mistakes.”

“Brady or Belichick?” was the all-embracing question across the Boston sports scene for two decades. It produced thousands of hours or airtime; millions of words across print, digital and social media; and Terabytes of video on your favorite screens.

More than two years after “Brady or Belichick?” was answered by a drunken QB tossing the Super Bowl trophy across the Tampa River, the last of the “Belichick” insurgents emerged from the football jungle to surrender this week.

Kraft failed to force the 2-year guaranteed offer Brady sought before the 2019 season. Both he and Belichick duped themselves into believing it was their Patriot Way, and not the greatest football player ever, that was essential in producing those 6 Super Bowl rings.

Or certainly the last three.

The Patriots Dynasty has joined the Ottoman Empire, Napoleonic France, and Soviet Union among history’s epic also-rans. Its emperors have no clothes.

Belichick recently mocked the Buccaneers and Rams for “going all in” to win their recent Super Bowls.

The first-place Buccaneers are 3-1. The no-longer-terrible NFC South is the only division in football with three winning teams. The Bucs and Rams boast deeper rosters than New England at each skill position (save for tight end). Both have better records than New England. And both carry better odds than the Patriots to reach the playoffs or win the Super Bowl.

It’s time for the Patriots to go “all-in,” but only after this season is done. There’s no need to tank. Just keep swimming.

Moving on from Belichick is the first step. Kraft must be willing to spend to the projected $243.3 million cap (via Spotrac) in 2024, including $80.1 million in newly available space.

Don’t fret the future of Belichick & Sons. The Hoodie will see unlimited checkbook offers from the Bears, Giants and Commanders if he becomes available. His rights are worth at least a first-round pick, especially a juicy one that can be leveraged to get a top-tier QB or wideout who can catch a football.

If Robert Kraft doesn’t want to be known as the guy who let go of Bill Parcells, Tom Brady, and Bill Belichick, he can pass the baton to Jonathan.

After all, Don Corleone did not break the peace.

That was Michael’s job.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BIllSperos on ‘X’) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com.

Barry Bruce Bill

Game 33-25-1 31-27-1 26-32-1

Jax v Buff (UK) -5.5 Jax Buff Jax

Hou @ Atl -2 Hou Atl Hou

Car @ Det -10 Det Det Det

TN @ Ind +2 TN Ind TN

NYG @ Mia -11 Mia Mia Mia

NO @ NE -1 NE NE NE

Balt @ Pitt +4 Pitt Pitt Balt

Phil @ LAR +4.5 LAR LAR LAR

Cin @ AZ +3 Cin AZ AZ

NYJ @ Den -1.5 Den NYJ NYJ

KC @ MN +4 MN MN MN

Dal @ SF -4 Dal Dal SF

GB @ LV +1 LV LV GB

Last week 8-7 10-5 8-7

Season 33-25-1 31-27-1 26-32-1

Bruce: All three of us had winning weeks last week. I like that. It’s a lot tougher having to pick all of them instead of being able to cherry-pick the ones you feel strongly about.

I’m taking the Jets at Denver; not sure why. Also don’t know why I’m taking the Pats, who have done nothing to reassure a shaky fanbase. How can they possibly be favored to beat anyone?.

Barry: Satchel Paige once said, “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” Or someone. My lead against Bruce and Bill is dwindling, making me more nervous than Mac Jones in a collapsing pocket.

Bill: It appears we might finally get a break from Taylor Swift this week. The Chiefs failure to cover on Sunday night in their 23-20 win was a windfall for your favorite sports book, as about 80% of the public handle was riding with the Swifties at -8. This is it for the Patriots, in terms of a potential loss. The Belichickian Empire has all the look and feel of the Soviet Union in 1991. (When Bill isn’t writing for the Herald, venting at Red Sox ownership, or picking here, he  covers  sports betting and such for bookies.com.)