Robert Kraft opened Gillette Stadium in 2002.
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.
