The long hallways of a National Football League stadium are often the link between two totally different worlds.

At one end, you have a joyous, bubbly locker room, where there’s noise but also in the adjoining press conference area, the coaches and players are glad to answer questions. Yes, that’s the winning side.

Way down the other end of the hallway, things are very, very quiet. The locker room after a short time is just about completely empty. The head coach simpl y doesn’t want to answer any questions, not even about injuries. “The game just got over,” is the response.

Meanwhile, down the runway, the other head coach starts his post game with the injury update. Pretty simple stuff.

Welcome to Gillette Stadium on Sunday. Hey, the New England Patriots fought hard, but often in an any sport, especially at the pro level, it simply comes down to talent.

And points. So they lose 27-17 to Kansas City. No big surprise. This isn’t 2001-19 any more.

“We had some opportunities there to put some more points on the board, and we really didn’t,” center David Andrews said. “When you’re playing a good team like this, you’ve got to scor points and we didn’t do a good enough job of that today.”

It was a different type of day at Gillette. There was Taylor Swift Mania, especially with security. One media member parked his car, then decided to grab another spot closer to the exit in the fairly open media lot. From about 75 yards away, a stadium worker questioned if he had a media pass? Yikes (there’s no other way to get into the lot). There were other spots where credentials were heavily checked, and also the media had to wait to make its way into the tunnel area so Swift and her entourage, wherever they were (not in sight) could go. And of course there were the Taylor Swift questions, which Chiefs coach Andy Reid graciously answered.

“I’m a big fan,” he said after hesitating just briefly. “I’m glad she was here. I hope she enjoyed it. She’s got a great guy (Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce) she’s dating right now. I’m happy for both of them.”

Can you imagine the coach down the runway at the other end answering a Swift question after a game? Well, the Patriots did have Jon Bon Jovi ring the bell atop the Lighthouse.

Meanwhile, Reid and the rest of the NFL know this is most probably it for Belichick in New England. So when the Chiefs had a chance to score inside the 10 with just over two minutes left (a sequence set up by a fabulous punt by Tommy Townsend), he had Patrick Mahomes take a knee – something maybe a few high school coaches in New Hampshire might think about. That gave the Patriots the ball back.

Respect, you might say, for one Bill Belichick.

“Yup,” Reid said. “It was the right thing to do.”

And, earlier, when asked about the Patriots dynasty, saying that Belichick’s “done an unbelievable job, best in the business ever. That’s what you’re talking about, so yeah. I don’t question it. I know how great he is, and I’ve got to deal with him by playing against him, so nobody better, not that I’ve gone against. Nobody better.”

And even Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, when asked about how focused he was this week, saying “I think I’m always this focused when I’m playing against Coach Belichick because I know how many different schemes he’s going to put out there and how great of a coach he is.”

That’s certainly the feeling around the league. But Belichick wasn’t feeling so great on Sunday. After being aggressive on fourth down in the first half and being rewarded with a TD, he didn’t go for it on a couple of other chances in the second half, as he was seeing players drop like flies.

And in a losing season, things often go off the rails, while winners find a way to stay on course. Reid preached patience with his own obvious player problem, receiver Kadarius Toney, who has cost his team a game or two and nearly did that yesterday not making a catch that turned into an interception. “I’m not down on Toney, he does some good things,” Reid said. “He’s a young guy, so we’re not talking about somebody that has been in this league a long time.”

Then, down the tunnel, Belichick gave no explanation for the one problem he’s kept since trading for him earlier in the season, corner J.C.Jackson, who was not on the inactive list, but clearly not with the team during the game or after, and not even seen in pre-game warmups.

“He wasn’t available,” Belichick said. “Leave it at that.”

Two different worlds. And when they collide, the result is fairly predictable.

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

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