This is what it’s like, everyone.

New England Patriot fans have had the luxury for some 24 years of watching various other NFL teams go through the same thing, some like the New York Jets many times over.

The team’s losing gets to a point where management/ownership has whispered that it’s had enough. The head coach, and sometimes the general manager as well, is dead man walking. Everyone knows it. You can feel it.

The head coach knows it. Worse, the media knows it. They can ask about it, but usually it gets diverted or a non-answer is given. Then that final Sunday comes and the all the reports have more valitidity to them, and after the game the word becomes somewhat official. The coach had probably been told much sooner, perhaps even a couple of weeks before. Yours truly can remember an amusing incident when then-Jets coach Todd Bowles, certain to be getting the ax, finished his press conference at Gillette Stadium only to find the hallway door to the visiting locker room locked.

Down the stadium runway, Bill Belichick and the Patriots were celebrating yet another win and getting ready the playoffs.

And now, the unthinkable is happening. It’s all happening to the Patriots, the first time really since the Pete Carroll days. But even that wasn’t evident until the final couple of weeks in 1999.

You could tell when the Patriots were smacked by the Saints at Gillette Stadium by an incredible 34-0 final, on the heels of a 38-3 loss to the Cowboys in Texas. It’s one thing to lose a string of close games, which the Patriots eventually have done, but to get blown out magnifies things.

It’s a shame. It didn’t really seem like the Patriots would be in a Super Bowl anytime soon, but the thought was they could win nine or 10 games each the next couple of years and Belichick could close in on that Don Shula all-time wins mark (15 away, we figured it might be 10 or 11 by now). Then he could go out on his own terms.

Of course the slide began after the Patriots won their last Super Bowl in February of 2019. The next season they looked again like a powerhouse, but the speculation about Brady was already starting with the void-year contract, and then the Antonio xxx fiasco. The Patriots lost in the Wild Card round, then Brady left and Belichick was basically to blame. Cam Newton. Matt Patricia-Joe Judge, the mistakes covered up briefly by a decent rookie year by Mac Jones with a free agent frenzy, and an 8-9 record. And now it’s bottoming out.

You hope that Belichick and Kraft have spoken about the future, or lack of one. But when reports come out that a decision has already been made, now the players have to answer questions related to it, and it’s just a mess for the final four weeks. The other part of knowing that the coach is done is when there is silence from the owner’s box. And we’re getting that from Kraft now. When those reports like the NBC Boston one come out and are not refuted, well, we know what the deal is.

“I’m getting ready for Kansas City,” Belichick said Wednesday when asked about the situation. “That’s what I’m doing.”

He repeated it when asked if he and Kraft have discussed the future.

And remember, this is just the beginning. The questions and the reports will continue to swirl until January 7, when Belichick likely coaches his final game with the Patriots. Does he retire this way? Or coach another couple of years at a place, like Los Angeles (Chargers) when he may be able to win right away and go out on a better note with Shula’s record broken?

Welcome to the NFL that most Patriot fans don’t really know. Yes, the beginning. Of, unfortunately, what certainly looks like the end.

Tom King may be reached on ‘X’ at @Telegraph_TomK, or via email at tking@nashuatelegraph.com

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